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torsdag 26 mars 2015

Tutorial: Make your own candles and a Giveaway

For you dear readers who has kept on reading my blog inspite of boring and delayed posts I will have a giveaway this post, to thank you all. 
First I would like to share a tutorial with you of how to make candles. 
I guess that you have already noticed that I'm interested in non-polluting issues? I don't like to waste things that can be reused at least once before throwing away  leaving it in the recycling bin.

Make your own block candles. 
What you need:
cotton yarn (for chrocheting, any colour will do)
empty beer cans or pringle tubes etc
adhesive putty
a stick, twig, pen (of that sort)
rests of candles, parraffine or stearine
a saucepan and an empty can
(one of my burning beer can candles)

The yarn is for the wick. You can choose to twine it double or you can braid it. I chosed to braid it this time because the double twined is a bit too thin (dependes on the thickness of the yarn of course). It takes time but it's worth a little patience. You can also buy premade candlewick but then you pay for something you propably already have. 

Pinch a hole in the center of the bottom of the beer can and tuck the wick through the hole, maybe you need to use a chrocheting hook to pull the wick through (I did). Tie a knot at the bottom and secure the hole and knot with lots of putty. 

Hold the wick straight and pull a stick through the braid or tie the braid around it. You need to keep the wick in the centre.

Melt your remnants from old candles but remove the coaled wick first. For a beer candle you need approx. 400 g of material. Heat water in the saucepan on the stove and put a can with stearine in the water to melt.
When everything is melted pour it in your mold (beer can) but leave a little.
As you can see on the photo above, I have used socks to isolate the can. This was an useless experiment. I wanted to prevent pipe forming during cooling but it didn't work.
After a couple of hours, a pipe is forming in the middle. It is neccessary to melt more stearine and to fill it up. If you don't, the wick won't longer be centered and instead, you have a hole in the middle. 
It's important that you work on a sturdy surface like a kitchen bench the putty can leak hot stearine.

Leave the candle to cool over night and peel off the can. Don't throw aluminum in your ordinary waste bin. Metal and especially aluminum is very energy saving to recycle. 
This is how one of my candles turned out (below). It is made of remnants from halloween candles.
Next tutorial is a glass jar candle and also the one I will share to one of my readers...
Use an old holder from a tea candle and press the hole open with a metal pin (or something). Pull the wick through and press the hole tight again with a plier. Glue the holder to the center of the bottom of a glass jar with hot glue.

 Here's another tip I can give you: old tea light holders are made in aluminum but the wick holder is made of steel. If you put those in the recycling bin you need to separate the wick holder from the aluminum, otherwise the aluminum will follow the steel holder with the magnetic separator and end up as fumes in the air (not very good, right ?). 

Ok, well. Center the wick in the same fashion as the beer candle and do the same procedure. 

If you have some oilscents you like, you can add a few drops to the molten stearine before pouring it in you mold. 
The giveaway
Voilá. Here it is my own recycled jar candle, offered for you as a give away. I embellished the jar with some prints and scraps. 
The oil scent is all natural oils, citrus and ylang-ylang for example.
To join the giveaway you only have to leave a comment and tell me that your'e in. Leave your e-mail adress or tell me how to contact you in other ways.
Take care precious ones!!

The giveaway will be open 2,5 weeks from now, and it is worldwide of course :-)


31 kommentarer:

  1. Så du menar att det funkar att använda garn som veke? Jag trodde en köpt dito var nödvändig för att få bättre funktion.... Har ofta funderat på att göra egna ljus men har aldrig kommit mig för att göra det. :)

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Javisst funkar det bra. Är det någon som har sagt nåt annat så är det ett försäljningstrick. Den måste vara av bommull eller lin eller nåt som suger vätska, inte nylon.

      Radera
  2. Oh wow! I am in! If you are willing to ship all the way to Canada! You can always contact me via my blog, there is a contact form on that page :) That is such a cool idea to make candles!

    SvaraRadera
  3. Oh my gosh this is such a cool idea! I love recycling. I used to work in a craft supply shop and they carried beeswax, I always wondered how to make my own candles! You did a great job with decorating that candle, it looks adorable. :) I will enter your giveaway!

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Your welcome :-). Great post you wrote about body-shaming.

      Radera
  4. I'm in! What a beautiful candle! I've tried before (quite a while ago) and mine never turn out nice. I'll admit it was the description under Awakening that had me. I am looking forward to hits of flowers in the air... and even complaining about the bloodsuckers :p

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. I can't assure you that the mosqitoes will flee from the scent but citrus oil says to bee a good repeller.

      Radera
  5. Wow how gorgeous are your candles! What a lovely and generous giveaway too. I would love to enter! My email address is broomsticksandlace@gmail.com

    SvaraRadera
  6. Ooh, jag som snart har en halvfull Ica kasse med ljus-rester! :D Purrrfekt!
    Har aldrig tänkt mycket på vad jag ska gjuta ljusen i utan att det ska bli ränder (konservburkar), så tack för tipsen! Och det där med att man inte behöver köpa vekar, awesome!

    I'm in! :D sandra_palmqvist86@hotmail.com

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Toppen :-) Jag har sett ljus i treorör också men de är ju så korta! Jag äter inte pringles särskilt ofta men om jag gör det ska jag spara ett rör och göra ett mega-ljus.

      Radera
  7. Vad tjusigt det blev!
    Självklart vill jag vara med i din fina utlottning : )

    SvaraRadera
  8. now i know what to do with all the leftover scented candle wax that i keep as in a box (and have an excuse for drinking a can of beer - or maybe cut one of the raven beer bottles, cut the head off and use that) thank you, now inspiration is in the air!

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Thanks! Tell me if you're joining the giveaway

      Radera
    2. hmmm i think id prefer to watch so no, not entering but definitely stalking :-)

      Radera
  9. Jättefint burkljus du har gjort. Jag är gärna med i giveawayen!
    annemarigabrielsen@gmail.com

    SvaraRadera
  10. This is such a great idea, I love the idea of reusing things! I always wanted to make candles as a kid but was not allowed because I was too clumsy... I still am though! :P

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. If you melt it in a water bath it wouldn't be too risky.

      Radera
  11. Oh my! I won't join the giveaway because candles are too heavy to post all the way to Australia, but they are absolutely beautiful!!!

    SvaraRadera
    Svar
    1. Hey, no problem! It's a world wide giveaway.

      Radera
  12. What a cool idea for recycling!

    SvaraRadera
  13. I just LOVE candles!! What a gorgeous idea! 💟

    SvaraRadera
  14. Beautiful! I'm totally in. :) if you are willing to ship to Canada. 💖

    SvaraRadera
  15. Wow vad snygga ljus! Önskar dig en Glad Påsk och sköna lediga dagar!
    Kram,
    Regina

    SvaraRadera
  16. Så fin giveaway! Jag älskar ljus och gör också mina egna när jag kan. Men mannens allergier och astma gör att det blir sällan nuförtiden (eftersom hela huset är som ett parfymeri efter att jag haft en dag vid spisen med överblivna doftljus...) Jag har dock aldrig provat att göra egna block ljus (det heter förresten 'pillar candle' på engelska), bara i burkar och liknande. Tomma ölburkar är en jättebra idé!

    SvaraRadera
  17. Hey, I have tagged you in a post on my blog, check it out :)
    http://nebelviolet.blogspot.de/2015/04/liebster-award-11-facts-about-me.html

    SvaraRadera