Candles in the Making

Candles can rekindle wonderful feelings for a person. Candles are used in a variety of ways:

they can provide light
they can be used to burn incense
they can be used to set a mood at the dinner table or birthdays
they can be used in ceremonies, whether religious or marriage
they can be used as gifts for any occasion

Just to mention a few. I am sure there are many more uses for candles in one's everyday life.

If you consider yourself a candle person and love being creative, then candle making will allow you to live out your creativity to the full. It will certainly be worth the effort when you see the joy you can bring when presenting a loved one with a homemade candle. Getting started is not difficult and there are products on the market that will put you in a position to get going in no time at all since these kits are normally very comprehensive and consist of everything needed to make your very first candle.

There are furthermore many books available on candle making that cover all aspects of candles and the manufacturing of candles.

A Short History of Candle Making

Let us journey through the candle making history as it has progresses from a purely functional item to provide lighting to the art form it has become in our time.

Candles are believed to have been first used by the Ancient Egyptians around 3,000 years BC. At that time, however, they bore little resemblance to the candles that we are familiar with. These early candles were more like flaming torches, made of reed and tallow - a substance similar to suet. The Romans also used tallow torches, but they are also given credit for developing the first wick candles. Primarily, these were found in temples and other places of worship, but richer households were also able to obtain them for domestic use.

At first candles were made from very basic raw materials. These materials included: wick, tallow, and a mixture of fat and suet. This suet was normally pig, cow or animal derivatives. This obviously led to the crude candles also smelling very crude and repugnant.

Beeswax on the other hand (although an animal derivative) gives off a wonderful clean, pleasant scent, unlike the pig or even cow suet. Beeswax candles burn steadily and do not give off unpleasant aromas. Unfortunately, they were very labor-intensive to produce, making them too expensive for any but the richest people to afford and was only enjoyed by the nobility and clergy of the time.

The word candle itself actually derives from the Latin 'Candere', meaning to flicker or glitter. And flicker they most certainly did! In 1825, a Frenchman called Cambacers produced a braided candle wick that finally solved the problem of erratic burning. With one thread tighter than the others, a braided canle wick gradually trims itself to the correct length as it burns. Prior to this, candles had a single wick which often burned unevenly, making it necessary for them to be snuffed regularly - sometimes as often as every 30 minutes.

Although this new form of candle wick meant that candles produced were now far more efficient, candle makers were still limited in the number of candles they could produce. Each candle had to be made by hand - a time consuming process. Yet, as with so many traditional crafts in the 19th century, candle making was transformed with the industrial revolution. In 1834, Joseph Morgan invented a machine that could produce molded candles at a rate of around 1,500 an hour. This mass production of candles meant that for the first time, they became a common household commodity.

In modern day candle making the tallow gave way to paraffin which is a byproduct of petroleum refining. Further developments led to stearic acid being added to the wax. Stearic acid enhances the melting point and leads to better rigidity and longevity for the candle. Up to today people still prefer the beeswax candles since the smell wonderfully pleasant and has long burning qualities. Beeswax is also more organic in nature and less synthetic. It sure complies with a green future if we are to look after our planet.

These days candle making has been developed into an art form which is limitless. The only limit would be your own creativity. All you need is a little inspiration to get started.

Inevitably, with the coming of electricity, the requirement for candles as a household necessity began to diminish. Although more remote regions may still rely on candles as their primary source of light, those in the developed world would generally view candles as attractive accessories, used mainly for ornamental or relaxation aids. Having said that, there can be few households, even in today's electricity-dependent societies without a few candles tucked away in case of power cuts! Besides one only has to look at the variety of candles available today - from sophisticated dining room tapers to multi-colored candles of all shapes and sizes and then appreciate the art of candle making.

Safety First

All of candle making is not just art and creativity. There are also aspects such as safety that warrants our attention. The art of candle making is akin to the culinary art. There is always the element of messiness and unforeseen accidents. When making candles, one should always try to minimize these eventualities. Basic common sense goes a long way in minimizing these eventualities. Following are some basic tips:

always wear old clothes
cover work surfaces with newspaper
move or cover rugs and carpets
keep a pile of old newspapers close by in case of spillage
always give yourself plenty of room to work in
keep your work space clean and tidy
have all the materials and equipment on and to hand for whatever project you are working on
keep all equipment clean
keep unused materials in containers away from dust and dirt

Safety Considerations When Working With Wax

Treat candle wax as you would cooking oil - Below 100° C (212° F) it is fairly safe.
Higher than this it is likely to catch fire as the wax is turning to vapor. Remember wax will not boil just continue to get hotter and hotter. Burns can happen easily and can be quite painful and could even have you scarred.
Make a habit of placing your thermometer in the saucepan at the beginning of the melting process. The benefits of this practice is two fold:
- This will not only ensure your reading is accurate,
- but will prevent you inadvertently overheating the wax.
Don't ever leave melting wax unattended
After use, do not pour excess molten wax down the sink it will set and block your pipes. Rather pour it into an old baking tray and cut into cubes before it hardens. This can be used to make chunk candles at a later date.

In Case Of Spillage

In the event of spilling candle wax on clothing and carpets:

Scrape off the excess wax.
Remove the rest of the wax by placing a paper towel over the stained area and pressing with a hot iron. This will transfer the wax to the towel.

In the event of spilling wax on metal or plastic objects:

Place in the freezer for an hour to make the wax brittle. It then becomes easy to simply crumble the hardened wax away.
OR
Dip the object into boiling water and allow the wax to melt and float to the surface.

In Case of the Worst Scenario