Crafty Thursday and a Zero Waste Candle

Today, was a definitely a day for learning new craft skills.  It started with a Soap Making workshop as part of Adult Learner's week, where I made some small soaps and some pretty gift bags for them.   It was good fun.  (More in another post).

When I got home, I took delivery in the post of some candle wicks that I'd ordered from eBay at the beginning of the week.  They weren't too expensive £2 for 25.  I'd been meaning to buy some for a while, to make teacup candles or something similar.  Here's a picture of the ones I received with the wick stand.

Needless to say, I wanted to try them out straight away.  I decided to experiment by using some old used birthday cake candles I had in the baking drawer.  I never re-use them, as it seems wrong to put old candles on a new cake, so I thought I'd make use of them by trying to make a candle from them in a small glass yoghurt jar bought in France last year.

I separated out the candles according to colour, pulled the wax off the wick and then melted them in batches in a bowl over a pan of boiling water.

It worked pretty well.  Once melted and taken off the heat I added lavender essential oil for fragrance and then poured the wax into the jar, having first of all put the wick in and keeping it in place using a kebab stick.  The candle gradually built up as I melted each colour of wax and poured it on.  It's not perfectly neat and precise, but I was quite pleased with the finished result.  I thought the striped effect was quite pretty.

A great zero waste project and it should give off a nice aroma too, when I use it in the winter.
I now can't wait  to make some more or possibly a teacup candle, if I can find a nice cup and saucer.  I'll post again when I get around to it.