How To make Your Own Candles
Learning how to make your own candles is not difficult so long as you first learn the basics of the candle making craft. Candle making is an art that has been around for thousands of years. Where it was once a necessity for people in times past to have light at night, it is now a hobby that is enjoyed by many people. Although candle making is fun, it is also a versatile and useful hobby to have. Once you have learned how to make your own candles you will find that you not only enjoy making them for your own personal use, but to give them away as gifts to friends and family as well. In fact, as your candle making skills become honed, you may even find that you want to turn your new passion into a profitable small business and sell your candles in gift shops, boutiques and online!
Making your own candles is extremely rewarding and easy to do and with the proper guidance it doesn’t take much at all to get started. Unlike most new hobbies, you can learn how to make your own candles for very small start-up costs. Many of the tools and supplies you need can most likely be found at your local craft store, and with a little creative ingenuity you will find that the majority of the necessary tools are already available somewhere in your own home.
The First Step in Learning How to Make Your Own Candles
Step 1 in learning how to make your own candles is to spend a couple of bucks on a good book on the subject. Though there is plenty of information spread out all over the internet on candle making, much of it is incomplete, outdated, or just plain inaccurate. By investing just a couple of hours getting acquainted with the hobby through a well focused and up to date book on candle making you will save yourself an unbelievable amount of frustration, time, energy, and even money that would have otherwise been wasted on unnecessary supplies and equipment.
Once You Know How to Make Your Own Candles
Once you have read up on the ins and outs of how to make your own candles you will be ready to begin your first candle making project. At this point you will have the knowledge of what supplies you will need and a good idea of where to find them, and depending on the book, where to get the best deals.
The wax, wicks and candle molds that you will use can usually be found at local craft stores. And since candle making is becoming so popular, you may also find that even more supplies, like fragrance oils and the dyes you would use to color your wax, can be found there, too. Local craft stores are great for convenience, and the fact that you can actually talk to a human being, but they are typically the most expensive place to buy your supplies. For those supplies that you can’t find at your local craft shop, and to save some dough, you can turn to the internet.
As for some of the tools – you very likely already have them in your home. For example, the first step in candle making is to prepare the wax by melting it, and this is usually done in a double boiler, which many kitchens already have. If you don’t have a double boiler, that’s okay, too – you can easily make one. Since a double boiler is basically just one large pot filled with water and placed on the stove top with another smaller pot inside it, all you need are those two pots.
The rest of the process can be very simple, provided you follow the guidelines to avoid those common mistakes mentioned in the book.
You Are Now Ready To Make Your Own Candles
Now that you know how to make your own candles, following the basic process, “in a nutshell” will be easy as pie. Start by melting the wax, being careful not to burn it. You will want to refer back to your book to find the optimal temperatures for the type and density of the wax you have chosen to use. For example, gel wax requires a much higher temperature to melt than say, paraffin wax or beeswax. But you need to be careful not to over-heat gel wax as it could have catastrophic results. And unlike those waxes, soy wax can be melted in the microwave. Again, all of this is thoroughly covered in my eBook.
Remove the wax from the heat source once it has achieved its optimal melting temperature. If you are planning to use dyes or fragrance oils, this is the time to add them. When it comes to fragrance, the 2 most important things are, 1) Only use oil based fragrances with candle making, never use water based scents, and 2) Do not over do it. Too much fragrance oil will adversely affect the burning performance of your candle and could even be dangerous! When it comes to scenting your candles, a little really does go a long way. The trick here is to test, test, test, until you get the right proportions, and then document it so you have a valid recipe for the next batch.
Learning How To Make Your Own Candles Is Fun
Once you have learned how to make your own candles you will surely find that with all the different fragrances, colors, and decorations, waxes and molds, the only limit to the type of candle you make is your imagination. A large part of the fun is experimenting with different color combinations and scents, as well as sizes and shapes, to come up with beautiful candles that reflect your personal tastes and style, to use as decoration for your home and to give away as gifts for any occasion – and if you find that you really have a knack for this great hobby, then you can package those beautiful handmade candles up and create a tidy little candle business out of it, because candles are something that everyone loves and are always willing to buy for themselves and also to give as gifts!
