This sounds like a horror flick. Never fear, it was my project this afternoon—with some help from Dan. Our family hasn’t had Christmas yet, so I’m giving away one of the gifts.
I’ve been on somewhat of an organizational spree since I retired. (There would be some that would say I have a long ways to go and I agree.) Anyway, I cleaned out a candle storage cabinet earlier this fall and put all old unsightly, no longer odorous candles in a box thinking there had to be some project for them.
It came to me when we were cleaning up pine cones—melt the old candles and dip pinecones for fireplace fire starters. Here is the result:
First thing, I went to the internet and found instructions. Mainly, melt the candles in a tin coffee size can in boiling water. Wax is volatile and the double boiler is the safest way to handle it. Then start dipping. We quickly decided they needed two coats, which involved me grabbing a rather old candle from the living room for additional wax. The instructions said you can add chemicals so they will look pretty when they burn but something about mixing chemicals with fire didn’t sound good to me when there are little kids around.
It helped that we did the project on the enclosed porch. It was about 45 degrees and that helped the wax to cool quickly so the project went fairly fast.
I tried one and they do work pretty good. Basically, they are a sort of candle with the pine cone being the wick. Once they start burning, they continue right along for longer than I thought they might.
I’ll have to watch for old candles at garage sales for next year. My sister-in-law, Ruth used to make beautiful candles. She doesn’t do much anymore because of the price of wax. Sounds like used candles are the way to go.