How to Make Candles with Poured Beeswax

How to Make Poured Candles - There are lots of different ways that you can make a candle. Here's how to make candles using poured beeswax that you dyed yourself!

There are lots of different ways that you can make a candle. Here’s how to make candles using poured beeswax that you dyed yourself!

How to Make Poured Candles - There are lots of different ways that you can make a candle. Here's how to make candles using poured beeswax that you dyed yourself!

Wondering what I did with all that beeswax that I dyed in my last post?

This is what!

Poured candles are a really fun craft to make, because they’re easy to do, and yet there are tons of possibilities for using different molds or different dyes, different waxes or different sizes. In these photos, I’m using a store-bought silicon mold, but I could just as easily be using a novelty muffin tin, or a toilet paper tube, or a mold that I make myself.

How to Make Candles with Poured Beeswax

Here’s what you’ll need to make poured candles:

wax. I’m using beeswax, but the way that you make a poured candle is the same if you’re using soy wax or any other wax–just don’t use paraffin, okay?

candle wicking. When you buy wicking, consider the diameter of the candle that you want to make, because wicking comes in different sizes for different diameters of candles. If you screw this up, however, don’t panic–your candle will still burn, just maybe too quickly, if the wicking is too large, or wax may pool up too much, if the wicking is too small. NBD for your first candle.

chopstick. You’ll use this to stir your melted wax to an even consistency, and to help you set your wick.

crock pot. Although I swear by my thrifted, crafts-only crock pot, you can totes melt beeswax or soy wax in your regular crock pot. It is 100% possible to wipe your crock pot completely clean of wax while it’s still hot; it’ll take some arm muscles and plenty of fresh dish towels, but totally possible, nevertheless.

mold. Again, there are plenty of great molds that you can buy, and plenty of great molds that you can DIY. I’m going to teach you how to make poured candles using a store-bought mold this time, but we can talk about DIY molds another time.

There are lots of different ways that you can make a candle. Here's how to make candles using poured beeswax that you dyed yourself!

1. Melt the wax. You can put your wax directly into the crock pot to melt, or, as I’m doing in the photo above, divide it into several batches by putting upcycled jars into the crock pot, then filling the crock pot halfway with water around them.

If you want to dye your wax, do it at this time.

2. Set the wick. There are actually several methods for setting a wick into the base of a candle, but I generally use this particular method, because it requires no glue and works for every type of mold.

Pour about a centimeter of melted wax into the bottom of the candle mold, then use your chopstick to help you poke the wick down so that the tip of the wick is touching the bottom of the mold, inside that layer of melted wax. Let the wax harden, and your wick will stay secure.

Now, notice that I haven’t asked you to cut the wick yet. Your wicking probably came on a spool, or at least in a long cut, and I don’t like to waste any of it. Leave the wick uncut for now, and I’ll show you what to do with it in a minute.

This part can be a little tricky, because if you don’t let that bottom layer harden completely, then it will remelt when you pour in the rest of your melted wax, and your wick will float to the top. If you let it harden so long that it grows cold, then you can sometimes see a bit of a line break between that section and the next. The great thing about candlemaking, however, is that if you don’t like the finished item, then you can simply remelt the wax, reclaim the wick, and try it again, Bro!

3. Pour the candle. Pour the rest of the melted wax into the mold until it’s just below the top. And now, about that wick…

There are lots of different ways that you can make a candle. Here's how to make candles using poured beeswax that you dyed yourself!

See how I’ve spooled up the excess wick, so that it’ll make a nice, straight line in the candle, and then I’ve used my chopstick along the diameter of the candle, between the wick and the spool, to hold the wick nice and vertical?

Yeah, do that.

4. Let the candle harden. Stop messing with your candle now. Just walk away for a while, watch Flash Gordon, read some Flash Gordon fanfiction, listen to the Flash Gordon soundtrack (you know it’s done by Queen, right? Totally baller), and come back and visit your new candle later, after it’s completely hardened and cold. It’ll look like this:

How to Make Poured Beeswax Candles - There are lots of different ways that you can make a candle. Here's how to make candles using poured beeswax that you dyed yourself!

Now you can trim your wick to the perfect length, and you haven’t wasted any! Also gently pull the sides of the mold away from your candle, then turn it upside down and thump the bottom of the mold–your candle will pop right on out, and you can start enjoying it.

You’re now a candle pouring expert, on account of pouring candles really isn’t hard at all, is it?

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