Making Christmas Candles and Candle Making Tips

Making Christmas Candles and Candle Making Tips
By Kaye Dennan

Candle making produces a product that is so popular and desired by so many people. Many people love to have them as decorative item, while others like to have them burning all the time. Perfumed candles are the most popular candles for home as they provide a long lasting aroma.

This is not an expensive hobby to set up and the wax to make the candles is not really very costly either. If you use good quality fragrances you will find them a little more expensive initially, but as they are concentrated you do not use very much and they do have have a much better throw off perfume. If you are making candles to sell then I would definitely recommend you use the better quality fragrance because you will be looking for repeat business.

Prepare your molds well so that you candles do not look messy.

Do this step before you start melting your wax. Make sure the molds are clean with wicks in place, and ready for warming before you pour. Warm molds will prevent you from having 'pour marks' down the side of your molds.

Glass molds MUST be heated before being poured into. Put them into a cold oven and bring the temperature up to 150 degrees. At this temperature you should not have any problems with breaking glass. For safety sake, anyway, it is suggested that you use slightly thicker glass. Stay away from the very thin fragile glass because you don't want them to break when they are burning.

Second pour of wax.

To prevent a drop in the top of your finished candles you will need to top up your candles (a second pour), when your wax in the mold is cool to touch. Heat the second pour of wax (making sure to give it a couple of minutes good stirring) to approximately 10 degrees hotter than your first pour, then top up your candles. If you do this, and your candles were left to get cool enough, the top should remain nice and flat after the second pour. But, if you do a second pour when the original wax is still too warm, the completed candle will have a nipple effect at the top.

It is important that when using colored wax that the second pour is done with some of the original wax or the color may not match.

Wicks

It is possible to buy pre-tabbed and pre-waxed wicks, but it is up to you what you buy. Wicks are a very important part of candle making because of the burn factor. You will need to research this, especially if you are making more novelty candles. You will get plenty of help from a good supplier.

Flat Candle Base

If the base of your candle is not flat simply place it on a hot pan surface and melt it down so that it is flat.

Christmas Candles

For Christmas candles you can of course use red and green wax and you can also use decorations to dress up any candles that you make. If you buy long taper candles you can roll white candles in red or green and use them for the table. There are various ways to add gold or silver to your candles as well. When making your own candles you can layer Christmas decorations on the outside of the candle. Just make sure that when you are using any decorations that they will not cause a fire hazard.

Kaye Dennan has spent many years as a craft teacher and has written an ebook on candle making which is absolutely loaded with 'must do' tips. The ebook takes you from your very first thought right through to a finished product. There are also some beginner projects to help you start. Candle Making - Start with Confidence can be purchased at http://ebooksnowonline.com/hobbies/candle-making-start-with-confidence/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kaye_Dennan

Making and Earning From Your Own Quality Scented Soy Candles

Making and Earning From Your Own Quality Scented Soy Candles

Many people enjoy candle making as a hobby and many of those people will convert their hobby into a successful money making opportunity. If you do a search on google you will find many soy candles for sale which come from such small businesses.

Soy candles are popular as they offer a cleaner burn than traditional candles and as they are produced from a sustainable resource they are environmentally friendly and don’t fill your house with black soot like traditional candles. Another boon is that much of the equipment that you require to make the soy candles can be found in the home already so it is possible to start by just buying the raw materials. With experience different moulds may be used with various scents and this will mean that additional equipment and materials are required but these are relatively inexpensive.

Thankfully learning to make your own quality scented soy candles is easy and you can make nice looking candles relatively easily. You can different oils and colours to your wax and use your own moulds to come up with your own style of candle. If you are making jar candles then you can dress up the jar after the candle is made to make it more attractive or if you have decided to start selling your soy candles then you can include your logo and help your future marketing and sales.

Just think of the pleasure that you can give to your friends and family by giving them your home made candles as presents or by burning them on special occasions. That personal touch that you can add to your soy candles can really mean a lot. You can even mix and match your oils so as to come up with a bespoke pot pourri of scent for each gift.

Once you have mastered soy jar candles then you can progress to making other types of soy candle such as pillar or even small cake like floating candles which you can use to help create a nice serene atmosphere in your room.

By way of summary therefore many people who start to make soy candles for their own use will go own to start their own successful home based business which has low start costs and if you want to make your hobby pay then you should consider selling your own soy candles.