Candle making, a question.

recently got into candle making with my grandson. We found all the scents in the house, wax crayons for colouring and lots of objects to be the moulds and have created some rather distinctive candles.
For the wick we ran some string through the wax and then let it dangle until it dried and this has worked!
Moulds - is surprising what worked - from egg cups to tupperware with some old tins along the way.

We went through a candle making phase in the 70's and I'm sure I remember using small tins as moulds to augment the bought ones. If you use string for a wick it might be an idea to soak it in molten wax first so that it really absorbs it. You could always add a few drops of scented oil to the melted wax. I don't know if you're into pamper sessions in the bath with lots of scented candles? I've always found them very over rated - I can't read by candle light and if I have the electric light on the candles are a waste!

That might work, Maniac but the website I foundhad different thicknesses of wick for different fatnesses of candle. Maybe a thinner wick in an ordinary candle would burn up faster than would suit a wider candle?

It could look quite good, a white core with coloured candle round it.

Would it work to place an ordinary white household candle in the middle of your molten wax ? you would need to devise some way of holding it vertical until the wax sets or just stand and hold it !!!!
This takes me back 40 years.We had a candle making phase when my children were at junior school age.

Phoenix I have looked in the cellar but have found no wicks. Plenty of other fascinating stuff, left over from previous hobbies, but no wicks.

I googled candle-making supplies and found lots of them. This lot sell sample lengths of wick as well as whole rolls of it, for prices like 60p.

The thickness you would need for a baked-bean-tin size candle would probably be an LK16.

An old shoelace?

I'll have a look in the cellar. Many years ago I puddled about making candles, and there may be some wick left over, unless it has been used for tying up tomatoes or emergency pyjama cord.

Thanks for the responses, sorry for the delay in getting back.

Elegran I don't have a kindle, but than you for the link anyway.

I don't intend to actually take up candle making, but having this great solid puddle (oxymoron alert) of scented wax, and taking a perverse pleasure in recycling leftovers, I thought that there must be something I could do with it!

I think I will definitely use a can or similar, not worth buying a mould for 1 candle, and buying soft string on line might mean buying a fair amount, when I will probably only need about a foot or less. I will have to have a think about the string/wick thing, but any suggestions will be welcomed!

phoenix If you have a Kindle, by some co-incidence or other I have just come across this book on the eqreader daily email. No idea whether it is good, but it will have the basics of candle-making - and it is free.

If the candle does not come out easily, hold the mould under a hot tap briefly

Melt, not mely. This laptop keyboard has a set of number keys at the righthand side. They spoil my aim.

You can buy candle moulds without breaking the bank, but there are probably things around the house that you can use.

One idea is a straight-sided metal container (small baked bean tin?) without too jagged an edge. That is for the sake of your fingers. Get some soft string for a wick (again you can buy the right stuff online) Make a hole in the base, thread the string through and fasten down the end underneath with sticky tape. Lay a pencil or something similar over the top and tie the top of the string to that so that the string is upright. If you don't fix the string it floats up or slides down into the wax. Stand your mould on a tinfoil food tray, or similar, to catch drips.

Melt the old wax in a pan you don't value, over a pan of hot water. Take it off the heat when it has melted and watch out for the wax catching fire. fish out the old wicks, or strain the wax through old nylon tights to get it clean, and pour in almost all of it. As it cools, it will shrink down around the wick, then you can melt what is left and pour that in.

If you want it coloured more brightly, mely a wax crayon in with the wax. you can make striped candles by adding layers of different colours. You can buy wax perfumes for candle-making too. lots of ideas online.