I love candles, but have quite terrible candle burning hygiene and so had a mix of beeswax candle leavings – a few tea lights, a small chunk I used as thread conditioner and some gorgeous ones from PollenArts on Etsy^^ – that I was hoping to reincarnate as a new candle.

Sure, I could have thrown the scraps away – but that felt like doing a disservice to the lovely, industrious wee bees.

After dithering for WAY too long, I decided I was just going to suck it up and use a jar for my first effort, and so pillaged my candle kit for the wick and other bits and pieces. I didn’t colour or scent – natural all the way!

I could have researched the process ahead of time but I like to live on the edge. With the edge comes learnings:

Learnings:
1. chop the wax into smaller bits
2. remove any residual wicks from the wax before melting
3. it gets very hot standing over that boiling water, stirring, stirring, stirring – endlessly stirring

But it was extremely satisfying and I’m very pleased with the outcome. And finally something out of my head and into the world.

I would definitely repeat and perhaps will even acquire a hideously expensive mould.

On with the (many, many) pix …

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Materials: gathered and ready to go!

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Highly technical equipment: salsa jar, wick stuck down with a wick sticker (which are a thing, who knew?) and held in place with a paddle-pop stick with a hole in it.

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All the bits ready to melt!

I am crazy about the shape of that jug (from the kit).

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Into the boiling water bath!

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What seems like hours pass.

This is where I realised I should really have chopped the wax into smaller bits.

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Finally! Melted

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All the bits of wick I fished out.

This is where I realised it would have been infinitely simpler to remove the wicks before melting.

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And we have a candle! And it’s a pretty decent-sized one.

Behold all that wax that would have been wasted. Thanks bees!

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Hardening, hardening

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Fully set – I really adore that caramel colour.

WE HAVE A CANDLE!

I’ll let it sit for a couple of weeks to fully harden before I start the burning.

And the circle continues.

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^^ Sadly PollenArts no longer ship to Australia. I bought these for Joan years and years ago and she recently told me I could burn them. They’d definitely seen better days from being in storage – burn your candles, kids!