Colonial Candle Making

Do you ever wonder how people in the colonial era made their candles? You know that during those times, candles were merely a necessity to provide the light for people’s night time activities. Do you also know that most of the colonial candle making practices served as the foundation for candle making crafts today? These procedures are still present and have made many people successful in candle making as a hobby or as a business.

Candles can create a soothing, relaxing and enjoying experience in your home. With the variety of colors that are available coupled with the aroma that fills your room and the warmth that it can provide during winter nights, candles can be the best ornaments that you can get for cozier home ambience. These are the benefits that you are now enjoying with your candles around. However, during colonial times, their major use was to simply provide light for direction outdoors, and for illumination to allow women to do some household chores like mending or sewing clothes or preparing food.

Colonial Candle Making and Animal Fat

Colonial candle making involved the use of animal fat to come up with a substance called tallow. Tallow was melted, similar to a wax, and dipped to form the taper candles that people at that time used at night. The colonial candles made from this substance smelled bad because the ingredients came from animal fat. They also dripped excessively, provided low level of light and normally did not last long. Despite these flaws and disadvantages, having colonial candles is better than having no light at all.

For a steady supply of candles, the colonial candle making process involved collecting large batches of tallow. When the weather is warm for storing the tallow, women at that time gathered and made candles for their homes to last during the winter months.

Another option used in colonial candle making crafts was the use of beeswax. These were more expensive compared to tallow but they smell extremely better and do last longer. This was what the more affluent people used at that time.

Some used bayberry wax as another option but this was even more expensive than beeswax. It required many pounds of bayberries just to make one candle. The process was also tedious and very time consuming. The trade off was that you will have hard and good smelling candles that do not drip as much as tallow candles. These were the options during the time of colonial candle making.

Today, you can make use of bayberries and witness how they can cleanly burn. The use of these candles is an impact that colonial candle making has created in modern candle making crafts. Also, unlike the intended purpose of candles in the early times, they are now used for decoration and ornaments that can add to the beauty and ambience of your home.

Unlike Colonial Candle Making Crafts

You can now choose from the different kinds of wax to create beautiful candles. You can use paraffin, beeswax, soy wax and many others. You can even create gel and oil candles today. Further, creating colorful and scented candles is another innovation that colonial candle making did not have at that time. Moreover, the use of artistic designs in molds has prompted the creation of attractive and uniquely-shaped candles.

Colonial candle making did not have high requirements. The main purpose was to illuminate homes. Today, candle making crafts have become so challenging and has now become a source of fulfillment and income for many. The process is easy that you can do candle making at home, succeed and prosper. You just need to have the commitment and passion to produce quality candles that you can be proud of.