Homemade Candles

[Benjamin]

For many years, decades maybe, I've wanted to make my own candles for some reason. A few years ago I bought a few 1lb. blocks of beeswax which I did nothing with. A few weeks ago, I finally just made the decision to do something about it, learning about wicks and sourcing them, making forms, and sourcing more beeswax. Now I have 19 beeswax pillar candles: 8- 3" wide ~6.5" tall, 7- 1-7/8" wide ~6-7" tall, and 4- 1-7/8" wide ~9" tall. The three in the photo that have been used were my test candles. They each have different wicks in them; the 1-7/8" pillar has a #2 square braid wick, and the 3" pillar on the right has a #4 wick and the one on the right has a #6 wick. They all work very well but if I want the 3" pillars to burn 'properly', I have to burn them for a few hours at a time so the pool of molten wax extends to the edge.

I made the 3" forms out of 3" irrigation pvc pipe and the 1-7/8" form out of 2" central vacuum pipe. It was kinda funny that I wanted to make 3" and 2" pillars but only after I cut the pipe up the vacuum pipe is measured 2" outside-to-outside diameter. So now, they're quite prone to tipping because they're so tall. Go and try to find a candle holder for a 1-7/8" candle. Good luck to ya. So I had to make some. The test candle in the centre is in one of the finished holders but you can't see it. It's just a 2" piece from a 4x4 cedar post that I drilled a hole in with a 1-7/8" forstner bit, sanded, stained and clear coated.

All-in-all, It was fun! It's a lot more complex then I thought it would be and they didn't turn out like professional candles. I have trouble with the 'second pour'. Fyi: when beeswax cools, it contracts leaving a massive crack down the middle and also pulls away from the sides. It's the sides that are a real headache for me. You can see this on some of the candles especially the tall one in the back row on the left. The 'darker' wax is the second pour that ends up just being a thin layer 'wrapped around' the main candle. It makes pushing the candle out of the form difficult (hint: put the whole thing in the freezer. Once it the wax freezes and contracts a little more, it usually slides right out.), and it usually doesn't come out clean, breaking off where it didn't meld with the main candle.

I'd make 'em again. I saved a lot of money doing it myself. And the glow is hard to beat.

 

[Maya]

Well done, they are beautiful and they smell amazing.
Have them in plan myself as my neighbour is beekeeper so I can easily buy bee vax.
As much diy projects as better

 

[Maat]

Some things that are said about beeswax :

If we go back in time, the use of beeswax was advocated in all the rituals of religions, of great civilizations such as the Egyptians, in the "mystery schools" and so on. Why was beeswax used in these rituals? There must be a reason. Beeswax, a cosmic radio?

In the '70s, engineer Marcel Violet invented a water dynamizer based on the beeswax condenser principle and the work of radiesthesist Stanilas Bignan. Marcel Violet declared that beeswax is a condenser of cosmic waves. In fact, when subjected to a sufficiently high potential difference, beeswax produces steep-front micropulses (a micropulse corresponds to a very brief, very intense period of emission), rich in harmonics. Is beeswax a cosmic radio? Is there a correlation between Marcel Violet's scientific work and the great traditions? Yes, there certainly is. The virtues of beeswax have been known to the great spiritual traditions since the beginning of time, principally to ancient Egypt. Ancient Egypt had integrated beekeeping and bee products into all levels of its functioning, from the clergy to daily life. Beeswax was used for mummies, parchments and boats, and in execration rites (these are texts with a magical purpose) to annihilate enemies, beeswax was used as a fluidic condenser.

And what's a fluidic condenser? A fluidic condenser is used to "condense" "fluid", and by "fluid" we mean vibratory energy, vital energy, etc. It wasn't until the early 1960s that ancestral knowledge of beeswax as a vibratory medium or energy condenser was corroborated. Measurements taken during Marcel Violet's experiments proved that beeswax enters into resonance with cosmic rays and transmutes this low-frequency radiation to energize water. We now know that these cosmic rays carry vibratory energy, and communicate these vibrations to everything that exists: minerals, plants, animals....

FWIW, of course.