Making Beeswax Candles

Seasons Greetings, my friends!  I have read recently about those who are trying to keep the holidays more "green" and less commercial, and I like that idea.  I decided to give gifts to my family and friends that I made myself using natural things.  So, I went to Ruhl Bee Supply (you can click on the link and order supplies if you'd like) - a company where I've purchased beeswax sheets for years to make candles.  I bought 10 sheets of red and 30 of natural color.  These sheets are used in beehives for the bees to deposit their honey on.  I got some wicking too.  You need to get the right size of wick for slim candles.  If you get too thick of wick it will burn too fast.  I used #4 square braid wick.  Here is my Appalachian basket full of candles and greens that Dayle cut for me from our Holly and Cedar trees.

The first thing you do is cut the long sheets in half using an Xacto knife, I use a T-square to keep the angles correct.  Then you cut the wick leaving 1/2 inch longer so it sticks out over the top.

(Editor's note: I had this whole post done and ready to upload when the electricity went out for over 3 hours.. I lost all the text from here down in the outage and am starting over.  ARGH!)  OK.. so you bend up the end and lay your wick down and fold it over the wick and then start to roll.  Make sure you are rolling from the cut end and not the side as it rolls better when the cells are off-set than in a long line.  

The wax is just sticky enough that it sticks together.. keep rolling nice and tightly but not too hard.  Lay all your fingers across the candle as you roll so it rolls straight and doesn't go off crooked.

Roll until the end.. 

Where the flap ends, with your warm fingers, gently press it into the candle so it stays rolled, but don't over do it and mis-shape the round candle.

If you want to give them as gifts, you can take a bit of leftover gift wrap and make a wrap and tape it shut and tie it with raffia, yarn or ribbon.  You can stick anything behind the tie for decoration, I put holly and cedar.  My dear hubby went out to cut some for me.

My gifts ready to wrap in tissue for the party.

I enjoyed placing them in my Appalachian basket with the leftover cedar and holly.

Love love!

I rolled some red candles for the holiday table.. you can get any color of wax you want!  But my favorite is the natural honey colored wax.

Here they are in my holders on the table.  I hope you enjoyed my candle-making tutorial!

Kristi came home with a big white orchid the other day, isn't it pretty?  I hope it does as well as my little tiny orchid, which has sent out it's 3rd re-bloom since I got it!

Kristi borrowed my camera to get a few shots of the center of the orchid.  Amazing.

So exotic!

I want to introduce you to a new family member, Periwinkle.  :-)

My daughter that lives far far away in Ohio packaged up a gift for me and before it was sent my littlest granddaughter Paige said she wanted to decorate the box.  Isn't this adorable?  That's her on the left, a little doll, and me on the right with a bun on my head with curly hair sticking out.  LOL!  

Lastly, Kristi got a snapshot of Simba, our adopted feral cat, while he was sitting in the sunshine we had over the weekend.  He's furring out really well, thank goodness.

Well.. as the internet finally came back on I can post this.. nice and late.  Argh.  I had to re-type most of it too.. I think it was more clever earlier.  LOL!  I hope you're taking time to enjoy the season.  Today was a bust as we had to stay home from a last minute shopping trip due to the power outage and running the generator.. but we will be back at it tomorrow.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)