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Learning How to Make Candles

at 10/13/2009 03:01:00 PM
When I was a kid, my mom and us girls would make candles during Christmas breaks. We'd melt the wax, add scent and color, pour into tomato paste cans, anxiously wait to unmold and trim wicks. I loved doing this project, and can't understand why I haven't gotten back to it.

I bought a kit to re-learn how last Winter. I did take it out of the box, but never did anything with it. A few months ago, I bought more supplies, including a big block of wax, some scents and colors. With our moving upheaval, I never got around to it.

This Winter, as we search for our permanent mini-farm/homestead, I WILL make candles. I'll start out with that big ole block of wax, but when we get settled on our mini-farm and get things going, I'll be harvesting bayberries and beeswax for wax, fiber from our angora bunny or from cotton plants for wicks, and natural scents and colors.

Any tips for making functional (not necessarily decorative) candles from home-grown and home-harvested products would be very much appreciated!
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3 comments:

Sully Creek said...

That sounds cool.

October 13, 2009 7:50 PM
MelVil said...

cattails and cottonwood trees might have fine enough fibers to make wicks, i don't think milk weed would work.

could U give us instructions on how to harvest wax from bayberries?

October 27, 2009 8:04 AM
ThrtnWmsFam said...

MelVil: I hadn't thought about the cattails. Thanks. As to the info about harvesting wax from bayberries... I'll post a link as a posting. Keep us updated! Vikki

October 28, 2009 1:13 PM

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