• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • paul wheaton
  • Tereza Okava
  • Andrés Bernal
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • M Ljin
  • Matt McSpadden
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Another entry into the Permies Poll pool comes to us from the more crafty side of the spectrum. Have you or do you currently make candles?



Comment below your thoughts. Bonus points for pictures of your creations!



Do you have interest in making candles? What kind have you made? Decorative or functional?
COMMENTS:
 
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 5949
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
2728
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have not made candles before, but I do have interest in casting some decorative beeswax ones.
 
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 15444
Location: SW Missouri
11148
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Yes. I make useful ones, no scent, as I can't tolerate it. I pour them multi-wicked into glass jars with tops so they stay dry, for emergency light and heat.

I have also made the cardboard spiral wax things that we made in girl scouts for cooking

Random picture off the net


I pour them in tuna sized cans, and change the amount of cardboard to make them burn hotter or cooler, and last shorter or longer. They fit in a sterno stove nicely.
 
Posts: 9617
Location: Ozarks zone 7 alluvial, clay/loam with few rocks 50" yearly rain
2847
4
  • Likes 12
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
We made a lot of dipped candles for light to use along with our kerosine lamps years ago.
Using what we had, we braided cotton string and melted down every old candle we could get our hands on.  

We learned a lot about size of wick to candle size and had many many smokey ones until we got it right.  

We had metal oil tins set in a kettle of water on the wood stove and could adjust the melt pretty easily.  No pictures at all...we just did stuff and didn't keep records.

...there was no 'google' to ask back in the seventies....foxfire was helpful as was the Whole Earth Catalog...and the old folks down the road  

 
master gardener
Posts: 4646
Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods
2392
7
forest garden trees chicken food preservation cooking fiber arts woodworking homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I first made dipped candles at a Lake of the Ozarks amusement park called Fort of the Osage that's been closed for something like 40 years. :)

As a young parent, pouring melted wax candles in tin cans and declivities in the sandbox from old garage sale candles and crayons was always a hit with the kids -- one of whom has gone on to buy actual candle-making equipment from craft stores and second-hand shops and does it semi-regularly as a hobby.
 
Rusticator
Posts: 9189
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4961
7
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Yup! Mom went through a candle making phase, when I was a kid, and taught me - the weirder the candles, the better she liked them, so we did sand candles, ice candles, molded and canister candles, in the full spectrum of colors.

As an adult, I've rolled beeswax candles; emergency ones in used tuna or soup cans or lidded glass jars - often with a pack of matches tucked inside; fun little ones that looked like ice cream sundaes, in the restaurant sundae type cups, & cupcakes. I even tried my hand at a ridiculously simplified layered one, peeled into loops and curly-ques while still warm from the dipping(major fail, lol). I've used soy, beeswax & parrafin, and blended them a few ways, including with tallow or vegetable shortening.

I've even done the ones like Pearl pictured, with the rolled up cardboard - complete with the tallow/beeswax blend. That works great as a 'sterno' replacement, for cooking/chafing pots, btw.
 
master steward
Posts: 13696
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
8046
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I went through the decorative candle stage along with my sisters. Problem is that we never did figure out that wick/candle ratio was a thing, and there weren't any convenient Wisdom Carriers in suburbia such as Judith had access to. Now my household is just far too dependent on the convenience of battery headlamps to mess with candles, and I do get concerned about air quality. Too many other pressing issues to work on to mess with candles. If the Cascadian Subduction lets go, candles will be the least of our worries! Some sort of low tech, easy to assemble on whatever land isn't covered in downed trees shelter, is higher on my list. Something along the lines of the Medieval Market hoop tent?
 
gardener
Posts: 514
Location: Wabash, Indiana, Zone 6a
250
hugelkultur monies forest garden foraging trees books food preservation bike bee writing rocket stoves
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The family and I made some "pour into a jar" scented candles before. No more than melting blocks of wax, adding the scent and color, stirring, and pouring. We did get some soy wax one time and it was nice to work with. I liked it better than regular candle wax, which is a petrochemical.

j
 
master pollinator
Posts: 1159
Location: Milwaukie Oregon, USA zone 8b
132
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I haven't and its not on my to-do list of things to try, but we enjoy buying them from local artisans and burning them at home periodically.  I'm surprised my MIL doesn't make her own.
 
master steward
Posts: 7602
Location: southern Illinois, USA
2801
goat cat dog chicken composting toilet food preservation pig solar wood heat homestead composting
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I made a 7 wick one for cooking in an emergency.  I was a helper involved on cleaning out an attic and stumbled on maybe 50 pounds of wax that was given to me. I used an old plastic coffee can as a mold.
 
steward & manure connoisseur
Posts: 4492
Location: South of Capricorn
2467
dog rabbit urban cooking writing homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
as a kid (maybe a scout?) we made dipped candles. as an adult i now suspected the adults just needed the kids occupied for a long time.
i've since made candles from beeswax and recovered wax.
 
Timothy Norton
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 5949
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
2728
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I realize that I might have everything I would need besides an appropriate wick to make beeswax candles.

Maybe a rainy day project!
 
steward and tree herder
Posts: 10683
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
5075
5
transportation dog forest garden foraging trees books food preservation woodworking wood heat rocket stoves ungarbage
  • Likes 8
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Oh, I haven't made candles since I was a child! Such fun though. Like Carla we made all sorts of candles. I can't remember ice candles though. I think I liked the sand ones the best!  I have a collection of candles in case of powercuts, they do make you appreciate electric light more though!

We also have a large citronella candle to clear the room of midges which we use occasionally when the dogs brig them in.
 
For your bravery above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby award you this tiny ad:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic