Candle Rehab

Bag of somewhat melted candles

 When I found this bag of candles at a garage sale marked to half price I knew they were supposed to come home with me. We have been having quite a heat wave this summer and those poor candles used to be nice dinner candles. They were really sort of a mess when I found them. I just knew they were going to need some "rehab".

Preparing candles to melt

 The first step in the process was to decide what I was going to do with a bag of melt-y candles. I decided I would do what my mother always did with the small little bit of candles that were left in the candle holders at church that could no longer be used in the church. She taught us to never let something go to waste that could be re purposed for more productivity. I started this rehab by cutting the candles  into pieces that would melt easily. The wick needs to be removed at some point so now is a good time. If you are careful you can reuse it for another candle.

Melting  process

 I keep things quite low tech. I put the string bean can into a sauce pan with water in the bottom so I have basically made a double boiler. Then I put the pieces of red candle in to melt.

First pour

 When the red wax is melted I pour it into the prepared jar. I have saved one of the wicks and attached it to the center bottom of the jar with a piece of tape. Mom taught me to wrap the extra wick around a pencil or some other tool to keep the wick upright and in the center of the jar.

Getting top layer ready

 The second layer was just plain white wax so nothing special about getting that ready. It is important to let the first layer get cool enough so that the colors don't mix. Then I got the blue candles ready to melt. Because dinner candles have a white core I needed to add a bit of a blue crayon to boost the color value.

Finished product

When the white layer had cooled sufficiently I added the blue layer. Each time that you pour wax it is important to let it cool some so that you don't have a big dip in the center of your candle. That happens if you pour your wax too hot and it creates a giant crater in the center as it cools. I was really pleased with this little project and how it turned out. It was a nice festive touch and a good way to reuse something that might have been thrown in the trash otherwise.