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Making a votive candle continued
By admin | November 6, 2007
Part 2 of making a votive candle
Step 3 Adding candle dye
We have chosen a liquid candle dye because it is easy to use. Beware, this dye is highly concentrated and will stain clothing and countertops. WEAR GLOVES!
We add our dye directly to our wax. For this candle we use 4 drops of yellow. This will make a great color. We will mix the dye with a wooden skewer until it is distributed evenly.
Step 4. Adding candle scent
Most waxes will only hold one ounce of scent per pound of wax. Do not try and add more scent than this. The excess scent will seep through the bottom or sides of the candle and could burn your skin.
We will use the one-ounce per pound formula for our candle. If we have two ounces of wax, we will use .1 ounces of scent.
Using an accurate scale we pour the desired amount of scent into a small plastic cup. We measure the temp of our wax and make sure it is still at the desired pouring temp. We then add our scent directly to the melted wax.
Dispose of the plastic cup that you used to measure the scent. If you leave it on your workspace, the small amount of scent that is left in the bottom of the cup will eat through the plastic and could stain your workspace or burn your skin.
Beware most candle scent is very concentrated and can burn or irritate your skin. Avoid direct contact with your skin and your eyes.
We would recommend wearing gloves. ANY cinnamon based scent seems to be extremely easy to irritate the skin so be careful.
We stir the scent into our wax with the wooden skewer making sure it is distributed evenly.
Step 5. Pouring the candle
Simply place the wick pin inside the votive mold.
The purpose of the wick pin is to create a hole in the votive for threading the wick.
This has to be the easiest step. It is as simple as pouring our wax mixture into our mold. We want to make sure that the mold is filled all the way to the top.
We should have some wax left for our repour. There are votive waxes available that don’t require a repour. See our wax section for more information.
Step 6. Repour
Now that our candle has cooled and our wax has shrunk, we need to fill the void that appeared.
Reheat our wax to 190 degrees . When the wax has reached our desired temperature we pour it into the mold and fill the void. Now we wait again. By doing our repour at a hotter temperature it allows the wax to properly adhere. Make sure to fill the mold completely to the top.
Step 7. Demolding the candle
Ahhhh… All that hard work is about to pay off. It’s time to reveal our masterpiece.
Once the candle has cooled completely we need to get it out of the mold. Cooling time can vary drastically by candle size and climate so you will have to experiment.
Important Tip! Take the candle mold and put it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. Again this can vary by the candle size and climate and you will need to experiment. If you leave it in the freezer to long it will form cracks all along the outside of the candle. This mistake can actually produce very interesting candle designs that are truly one of a kind. Sometimes mistakes make great new products!
So you might wonder just why we put the mold in the freezer. By introducing our wax to extreme cold temperatures we cause it to shrink just enough to allow for easy release from the mold. Now you can gently pull it out by the wick pin. If it doesn’t want to come out, you might need more time in the freezer.
Image of a candle that has been in the freezer too long and started to form cracks.
Continued!
Topics: Making Votives |