It's that time of year again. Time to replenish our dwindling beeswax candle supply. This is such an easy project to do with children, including toddlers. My own Little is 3.5 and loves helping roll beeswax candles.
You will need:
Beeswax Sheets 8"x16.75"
Wicking
Scissors
We get all our supplies locally at the wonderful Ruhl Bee Supply
You can do a search online for a local beekeeping supply store, or find sheets on Amazon.
Beeswax sheets come in a myriad of colors. This year we picked up an entire rainbow of colors to brighten the upcoming cold, wet days. Handle sheets of beeswax carefully. If they get too cold they may crack. If they get too warm they are prone to tearing.
We prefer slender beeswax tapers in our home. In order to get the right thickness we take the beeswax sheet and carefully fold it in half, back and forth a few times so that we can gently tear it down the middle. Hopefully you can see from the photo below what I mean.
After your sheet is "cut" in half, take your wicking and lay it across your sheet of beeswax. We keep a little sticking out of the bottom of the candle, and about 1/2 - 3/4 inches out the top while rolling. Make sure to lay the wick on the torn side of the beeswax. This is were you will start rolling, and you want the frayed, torn edges on the inside of your candle:
Press the very edges of the torn side of the beeswax sheet around the wicking gently, but firmly. You don't want it sliding out. This is, in my opinion the most difficult part of the project. An adult may want to do this part for younger children.
Now begin slowly rolling your candle. Keep gentle, firm pressure on your wax the entire time. You don't want to crush the beautiful honeycomb pattern on the beeswax sheets, but you want to make sure the candle doesn't come undone. This is my son's favorite part, aside from helping me cut the wick.
When your candle is completely rolled, gently press the end edge into the candle to keep it in place.
The result is magical. It's such an easy, no mess project for children and parents - much easier than dipping beeswax candles. The sweet smell of honey is lovely to have in your home all winter long, and the end product is beautiful.
We'll be burning these gorgeous,colorful candles all winter.
Yours in love and light,
Simple Mama.
lovely!
ReplyDeletebeeswax candles, to me, are one of those things that proves that simple can be oh, so beautiful!
Those candles look great and super easy to make
ReplyDeleteWhat ply wicking did you use for these? 15, 24 or 30? did you use the flat braid wick?
ReplyDeleteAshleyewagoner - I used 15 ply flat braid wick. :)
ReplyDeleteNow I want to try!
ReplyDeleteHi Simple Mama! thank you for bring that to my attention. I got your comment and I fixed my entry to read the following:
ReplyDelete"How would you like to create taper candles with out the mess? Here is a rolled beeswax taper candle tutorial that I found on the blog by The Bonnie Bath Company. This project was created by Simple Mama and was originally posted on her blog Homemade Serenity back on October 10, 2010. What is great about rolling your own beeswax candles is that making these types of candles are very easy to make and you can make many candles in one sitting plus the beeswax sheets come in a wide range of colors. In this picture these are regular candle stick size but you can make a variety of sizes from a votive to a large pillar. It it all up to you!"
Then I put a caption under the photo I put photo by Simple Mama.
Hi Soap Crafter - Thank you so much for crediting my photo and work. Cheers,
ReplyDeleteSimple Mama. :)
These are great, and this sounds like a great project for doing with your kids.
ReplyDeleteI taught my 3 year old nephew to roll a taper candle with beeswax sheet and he loved his work!
ReplyDelete