Floating Candles

14 December 2020  |  by Dinah Pryor

Today we officially launched Seaford Environmental Alliance. It wasn’t the launch we envisaged because of Covid restrictions but we managed a stall in town and gave away our homemade gifts.

Candles floating in a bowl of water are a beautiful and safe way of bringing light into your home. They don’t need to be expensive and you can make them at home using old candle ends.

However, when you melt wax, always be aware of the dangers of it catching fire at high temperatures. Never leave the melting wax unattended and stand the container in a saucepan. Children must be accompanied by an adult. For further safety guidance please check on line.  http://www.craftexpert.co.uk/candlemakingsafety.html

You will need:

Old candle ends
Baking trays (muffin trays make larger candles)
Stearin
Wick
Candle dye
Container for the wax (eg bowl or old coffee pot}
Saucepan
Newspaper and paper towels.

What you do:

• Weigh your candle ends and add enough stearin to allow you to easily release the finished candles (100gm stearin to 900 gm candle ends).
• Put these into a container with a small block of dye (optional) and stand in a saucepan of water.  Heat until the wax has melted and test the colour by dripping a small amount of wax onto a piece of paper. Add more dye if required.
• Dip a length of wick into the melted wax and allow to dry before cutting into 4 cm lengths.
• Pour the wax into the baking tray and leave until a film has formed over the candles. Poke a piece of wick into the centre of each and leave to harden. You can always reuse the old wicks that are left at the bottom of the container for your next lot of candles.
• To smooth the surface, pour enough melted wax to cover the top of the candle. Leave for a couple of hours and then shake the candles out of the trays.

 

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