Dungeon Of Diversity

CANDLES, HOLDERS, & MOLDS

I love candles! What Witch doesn't? This page won't tell you how to make candles, there are a lot of pages on the net for that, and you will find links to the ones I consider the best, at the bottom of the page.
So what will you find here? How to make your own molds and holders and a few how to's to some diferrent types of candles that you don't find everywhere else.
I hope you enjoy them! Brightest Blessings CloudDancer Mogle aka: Lady Vatrovia

CANDLES A few ways to make some different candles

WATER CANDLE SCULPTURES

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Bowl or bucket (something to hold water)

Small tops, small littles bowls,
Any decorative item to be the base of your water candle

Melted wax

PROCEDURE:

1) Fill your choosen container with cold water.
2) Melt wax as usual, make sure you take all the usual precautions
3) Pour melted wax into your choosen "candle base"
4) Holding the very bottom of your candle base, with the melted wax in it, pull it to the bottom of your container of water. As you do this, the melted wax will swirl around the water, hardening as it hits, making unusual, beautiful designs.
The deeper your container of water, the higher your candle sculpture.

Experiment by adding two or more colors of melted wax to the candle base, or try dropping the base into the water gently instead of pulling it down with your hands.
Try using different types of things for the base of your candle with different depths, to hold more, or less melted wax.
Have fun!!

NOTE: Water candles sre not really for burning, but more for looking at and decorating with.

SNOW CANDLES

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Snow

Bucket, large bowl, something to hold the snow

Melted wax

Wicking

PROCEDURE:

1) Pack snow really, REALLY, well in your bucket or bowl
2) Form the desired shape you want your candle to be in the snow.
3) Melt wax as usual, make sure you use all precautions
4) Pour melted wax into the design you have made in the snow

NOTE: Shapes and designs do better for these candles because as you pour the wax and it hardens, as it hits the cold snow, the hot wax will eat (melt) a bit of the snow before it hardens. You may add wicks to these and use them. I put the wicks in before pouring, held down with the little silver wick holders.

SAND CANDLES

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

Bucket or bowl. Something to hold sand

Clean sand NOT dirt. Sand bought at the toy store for a childs sand box works great.
If you live near the Ocean, use beach sand

Melted wax

water, amount depends on how much sand you have.

PROCEDURE:

1) Pack sand really well in your bucket or bowl. It must be packed really tight!
2) Pour small amounts of water on the sand a little at a time letting it soak in well before adding more. You want the sand moist NOT wet. The way sand is at the beach on the upper shore line, not right where the water meets the sand
3) Carve out the shape or design you want in the moist sand, and place your wick
4) Melt wax as usual, take all precautions!
5) Pour your melted wax into your design
6) Let harden and then dig your candle out and dust off any loose sand.
NOTE: You can let your imagination run wild with Sand Candles. You can use a pencil to poke into the bottom of your design to make legs for your candle to stand on. Poke the tip of a pencil all around the body of your design for a prickily effect to your candle, use your imagination.

HOLDERS

There are unlimited possibilities when it come to candle holders. One can use goblets, wine glasses, bowls, bottle tops, flower pots, just about anything that is classified as a container can contain a candle if the top opening is large enough.

Another idea, the minitures that you can buy at the craft stores, you know the ones, thier to use with the little doll houses and different things that you make. Below, I will give instructions to how I made my circle candles (element candles), That are placed at the appropriate directions.
I will have pictures up as soon as I get them back!

DIRECTIONAL CIRCLE CANDLES Candle Holder With Drip Catcher

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

4 commercial candles in containers (ie: Glade Candle Scents, Renuzit candles) or 4 bowls or anything else you would like to use. This will actualy be a candle drip catcher. (I used an off brand of commercial candle scents cause I found them on sale, $1.00 a piece and I later used thier scented wax to make another large candle for my living room).

4 wooden stars, from the craft store

4 minitures of your choice (they will be your candle holder)

Goop

Paints; red, blue, green, yellow

PROCEDURE:

1) If you are using a commercial candle container: Sit the candles in a large pot of very hot water. Let sit for about 1/2 an hour, then remove the wax and put back to make yourself nother candle at a later date. Wash and dry well
2) paint the stars, and your choice of minitures. Paint One star red, one blue, one green, one yellow. Do the same with your minitures. Let dry over night
3) Put a dollop (about a nickle size) of Goop, in the middle of each star
4) Place your candle drip catcher in the middle of the star on the Goop.
5) Place a small dollop of Goop on the bottom of each miniture (about a dime size), and matching each of the colors, (red on red,ect...) place inside the drip catcher, in the very middle. Let dry oveer night.
NOTE: You now have your directional circle candles to place on the floor without worry of wax melting and getting on the carpet or wood!

AT HOME MOLDS & CHEAP IDEAS

I use a lot of small candles and as I like to make my gold & silver ones myself (thier too hard to find and when I do thier too large and more then I want to spend)I had to come up with suitable molds. I had checkes out every craft shop in Louisville and even some mail order ones and could not fine the size I wanted. Below you will find a list of things I came up with that work well!

1) Go to a hardware store. Ask to look at the PVC pipe. Pick out the length and width you want and have them cut it to your specifications. Also have them cut one side length-wise, all the way down, This way it will "open". Before pouring your candle, be sure to spary the inside of the PVC pipe with a spray cooking oil so the candle will come loose easily also you MUST duct-tape around the PVC well and really well on the bottom. This works well and most places will do it for around $2.00, that beats the heck out of $12 to $20 for a commercial mold!

2) Those little medicine cup measureing cups again! They work great as molds as do different sizes of the paper bathroom cups.They peel off great! For these options though, let your wax cool down, it still has to be pourable & liquid, but not so hot as to melt the little cups

3) You know those pre-made cookies that come out each holiday that has a little disign in the center (ie; snowman, x-mass tree, pumpkin, flag) thier GREAT as candle molds! Thier already oiled inside and everything!

4) Pour cooled but still liqiud wax into ornaments (Yule Tree) of different shapes and sizes, don't forget your wick, and when harded, TAP the ornament ans peel the glass away.

5) Try pouring your candles into those glasses that look like mason jars with a handle on them, make a candle out of em! You can carry them with the handle!

WORTH MENTIONING

To make drip catchers for other candles, especially small candles in small holders, like the miniture candle sticks in the picture above, use those little medicine cups that come with "nite-time" cold medication to measure the amount, try the 3 oz waxed paper bathroom cups, just cut a hole a smidgin too small and place over the candle to the base so it will fit snuggly and catch the drips.