The Butcher, the Baker, and now the Candlestick Maker

Ever since Illuminations candles died, there's been a serious dearth of great smelling candles with high quality wax unless you want to get crazy and get top dollar candles from Archipelago or Nest.

Hi. I'm a votive in a striped jar and I literally cost the same as a cashmere sweater. Enjoy.

I love candles. LOVE THEM. I love them so much that I popped for a fancy Archipelago  jar candle from a spa trip (justifying myself by folding it into the cost of the trip and hating myself for it afterwards). I love them so much that when I saw an artisan soy candle maker at a Maker's Faire last month I literally saw nothing else from that moment and just spent an hour with my nose in the jars smelling wax. The one that seduced me the most was the Blood Orange, just such a sunny, deliciously Tuscan fragrance that I bought it on the spot despite the fact that it was wax, in a plain and tiny mason jar, for $25. Gah. I regret everything.

If there's one thing Farming in Heels has taught me, though, it's that there is almost always an old school and sustainable way to get luxury and glam on your own terms. So I set out to make my own candles. As with all things I wanted what I made to not only be less expensive but to be as good or better than anything I could buy; so my goal was to make a high quality candle that smelled great, burned evenly, and looked appealing.

My favorite farming book, "Little House in the Suburbs" had a great step by step on using beeswax from your own backyard hives, but since I'm not there yet, I bought my supplies from a local craft store:

-1 lb block of beeswax (for candlemaking)

-wicks (available by the spool for more customizable lengths; since this was my first try I bought pre-cut and weighted pillar/jar candle wicks)

These little metal clips keep the wicks straight; you can also find wax adhesive to further affix your wicks to the bottom of the jar and get a perfectly stick straight wick all the way through.

-fragrance oil (you can use essential oils, but they don't hold up well under the high heat of melting wax; oils made specifically for candle making will have the strongest fragrance)

This half ounce will fragrance two pounds of wax.

And I had on hand:

-Mason jar(s)

-Pencils at least the length of the diameter of the mason jar 

-Stock pot

-Coffee can (or other can--tomato?--large enough for the wax to fit)

I started with a few inches of water in the stock pot and then once it was boiling, lowered the temperature to a low simmer. My block of beeswax was too large for the coffee can I used so I spent a little time struggling with trimming off the edges to make it fit. I tried heating up the knife, but that didn't make it slide through the wax any easier; next time I'll definitely use a wider can or smaller wax block! Once I got the wax into the can (along with all the trimmings) and put the can into the hot water, it took about thirty minutes to melt down completely. 

Beeswax, can, water, pot.

Meanwhile I prepared my wicks and jars. I happened to have some extra large (1.5 pint) mason jars on hand that had proved too big and unwieldy for my taste, so I set them up with a wick suspended over the top by means of winding the wick around a pencil set over the mouth of the jar. I made sure the clips at the end of the wick were centered in the jar. The wick was itself coated in beeswax so it was quite stiff and easy to manipulate into a nice straight line; but I was definitely glad to have the pencil (you could also use a dowel) to hold it in place. You could also use a wax adhesive or a few drops of wax to affix the clip to the bottom of the jar.

These pillar/jar candle wicks fit perfectly in my oversized mason jars. 

Once my beeswax was melted, I added my orange (let's pretend it's blood orange and fancy) fragrance and swirled it around inside the coffee can until it was mixed; then poured it directly into the mason jar. The wick held steady; and the 1 lb of beeswax filled one 1.5 pint mason jar to about an inch from the mouth, with plenty of wick left over to trim to fit. 

Kinda looks like an orange julius, my favorite! 

The beeswax lightened a lot in color, turning from a bright yellow into this creamy, sunny shade. And that basic "orange" scent straight from the crafting aisle? Ended up smelling EXACTLY like the artisan hand-crafted Tuscan Blood Orange candle I loved so much. I'm going to remind myself that supporting local business is a good thing and try not to hate myself for buying that. It's not totally working.

Problem with the massive 1.5 pint mason jars though? once I started burning my delicious (I'm going to mentally call it Tuscan Blood) Orange candle, the wick only picked up about a 3" diameter circle, burned through the center, to about half way down the mason jar, where the wax from above began dripping down and drowned the flame. I went online for answers and found out that pillar sized candles need a pillar diameter wick; the ones at the craft store only came in one diameter so I rightly guessed they were NOT meant for beeswax pillars. When I melted down what was left of the wax and poured it into a half pint jar, the wick consumed all the wax with very little residue and burned to the bottom of the jar perfectly.

So the final accounting for 4,  8 oz. scented beeswax candle?

8 oz/.5 pint mason jar ($9 for 12 at Target): $0.75

1 lb. beeswax (Artminds Candlemaking Natural Beeswax from Michaels, $17.99 with a 40% off coupon): $9

Wicks (Artminds, large wicks with clips, 9" from Michaels, $3.99 for 6): $0.66

Fragrance oil (Artminds orange fragrance oil, .from Michaels, $3.99 for .5 oz): $1.98

_____

Total Supplies: $12.39 or a little more than $3 per 8 oz. candle (less since the jars can be reused)
Generic "artisan" mason jar candles: $12 per 8 oz. candle
Archipelago sox wax jar candles: $24 per 5.5 oz. candle

Once I saw how easy it was to make my own candles with jars I had on hand, I invested in a big spool of wicking, for less waste and custom fit (and trimming down the cost of my candles even more). The wicking just needs to be cut to fit and then dipped in wax and dried to make a nice straight center before you pour your wax. Using recycled jars and bulk wicking reduces the cost to closer to $2 per 8 oz. candle, and they smell just as good as store bought.

Secondary benefit to knowing how to make my own candles: I have a ton of pillars that have burned down to the end of their wick without burning all of their wax. I tried this same experiment with some cranberry-orange pillar ends I had kept just for their scent, since so much of the wax was left over. Into the coffee can it went; I fished out the wick and poured it into a new jar with a new wick. Voila--brand new candle for the cost of a wick.

Luxury on the cheap, less waste, and a little do-it-yourself pride--that's Farming in Heels for me.