Homemade Candles Made Simple

By Jennifer Stepanik

Imagine being able to make your very own candles? Ideal as gifts, for home use and even as a business opportunity. This comprehensively illustrated candle making book runs you through each stage of the candle making process in an easy step by step fashion.
Homemade Candles Made Simple breaks up each candle making technique into beginner, intermediate and advanced making candle options. A section on Candle-making activities for children is also included.
Here are just a handful of the candles that you'll be learning to make: tea-light candles, candle melts/tarts, votive candles, floating candles, container candles, gel candles, hand dipped, pillar candles, sand candles, chunk candles, ice candles, hurricane shells, hand rolled beeswax candles, rustic candles,recycled candles and much much more

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jennifer Stepanik
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311398444

Jennifer Stepanik

Jennifer Stepanik has been in what she calls the Glamour industry, for more than 20 years. Jennifer has trained as an aesthetician, hair and makeup artist, as well as personal image consultant and colour consultant. She ran her own beauty salon; worked in multiple aspects of hair makeup and styling- from photo shoots, corporate events, and getting talent ready for TV shows to special events and bridal work.Her appreciation for aesthetics was enhanced by her art practice. This practice has given her not only a deep understanding of the principles of art, but also an avenue for authentic self expression.This, combined with a heart based meditation practice has helped Jennifer to move her love of all things beauty and style related, out of her head and into her heart. Providing a more profound and transformative relationship with an industry that is often seen as superficial.Jennifers most recent book is titled When Glamour Meets Gratitude: Your Style Companion to a Healthy Self-ImageYou can find out more about her at www.beautywithinproject.com.au or her youtube channel @GlamourNationbyJen

Book preview

History of Candle Making

Candles have been used for thousands of years to light up the night, with each country independently devising its own version of a wick staying alight by burning fuel. While candles were the sole source of artificial light until the early 1900s, they have also held a prominent position in religious services of most faiths and are now widely used in home decoration. Among other things, they symbolise holiday festivities, romance and birthday celebrations. The simple wick-and-wax combo has proved a perennial hit.

As with most items, the Romans are generally credited with developing the candle as we know it today, with a wick made from papyrus, hemp, flax or cotton dipped repeatedly in tallow (animal fat from cows or sheep). Ancient Egyptians fashioned their candles from reed cores covered with melted animal fat. The Chinese used rice paper for the wick and a wax made from insects and seeds, wrapped in paper to burn. The fruit of the cinnamon tree was boiled and turned into a wax in India, while the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest simply lit dried fish, the eulachon or candlefish, on a fork.

The most common candles historically were made from tallow, which was cheap and readily available, but gave off smoke while it burnt as well as a stomach-churning stench. By the 13th century, candle making had become a guild craft in England and France, and the candle makers (chandlers) either went from house to house making candles from the kitchen fats saved for that purpose, or made and sold their own candles from small outlets. Tallow was popularly used to light both indoor and outdoor lamps, with street lighting introduced by 1415.

A major improvement came in the Middle Ages, when Europe discovered beeswax candles. They were expensive and used primarily by churches and wealthy individuals, but burnt cleanly, without a smoky flame, and emitted a pleasant sweet smell rather than the putrid tallow.

Early settlers in colonial America created a nicely fragranced wax by boiling the berries from the bayberry shrub. Although the candles burnt well, the process was time-consuming and the yield was poor in comparison to the effort required. Whale fat (originally used in candles by the Chinese in 221 BC) was then produced in mass quantity as whaling took off in the 18th century. The resulting spermaceti wax didn’t smell very nice, but was hard enough to keep its shape in the hot summer months.

With the industrial revolution in the early 19th century, candle making machines were invented and significantly increased production and availability. Then, in 1825, the chemists Chevreul and Lussac patented a candle made from crude Stearic, one of the fatty acids in tallow.

The next developments in the history of candle making came with a new and improved wick, achieved by braiding the cotton instead of just twisting it, and the discovery of paraffin as a by-product of both distilling coal and refining petroleum. Paraffin wax, which gave a bright, clean, odour-free flame, was combined with Stearic to create a superior and cheaper candle.

During the New Romantic era of the 1980s, candles became popular household items as decorations and mood-makers. Suddenly they were available in a variety of colours, shapes, sizes, smells and styles. Candle making had become such big business again, that the following decade new types of wax were being developed to improve the burn.

Today the market offers candle lovers an endless array of candles in all shapes and styles, produced from a wide variety of waxes: paraffin, vegetable wax, beeswax and the newest trend of gel wax.

Benefits of making your own candles

With such a variety of candles available, you might wonder why people bother making their own, but there are many compelling reasons why you should try your hand at homemade candles.

• Basic candles are fun and easy to make, but you can also stretch your skill by mastering advanced techniques such as ice candles, chunk candles, rustic candles and even a hurricane shell.

• You can unleash your creativity as you produce all manner of crazy candles, from rolls of money or a chain of bullets, to sandcastles and body parts.

• Candlelight creates a wonderful mood, both romantic and calming at the same time, as well as providing a welcome relief from the technology glare we subject our eyes to most of the time.

• Candles come in all colours and designs and can be tailored to decorate your home in your individual style.

• You can personalise a candle to make a unique and thoughtful handmade gift.

• You can easily make candles in bulk and find it becomes a profitable hobby, bringing in a second income.

What’s in a candle

The modern candle uses wax as a fuel to burn the wick, creating a small flame for light. Once the wick has been lit, the heat from the flame melts the surrounding wax which is in turn absorbed into the wick thus fuelling the flame. While the colour and smell are nice additives, it is important therefore to make sure that the two main ingredients are right for your desired result.

Wax

As candles became increasingly popular as decorative items, for the first time in more than a century new waxes have been developed. Now you have a wide choice of fuel from the original paraffin and beeswax, to insect and vegetable-based products as well as gel innovations. As each type of wax has different melting points, properties and appearance, you should choose the right one to suit the individual project and the effect that you want achieve.

Beeswax

Other than tallow, Beeswax is one of the oldest candle-making waxes. Produced by bees as a by-product of making honey, the wax is excreted into combs to incubate their larvae.

• Organically infused with honey, beeswax is available in