How to make carved candles with your own hands

Making carved candles with your own hands at home

Carved candles are a unique and unique decor for all celebrations or the interior of the room. Moreover, handmade candles are a versatile or unusual gift for the holidays, for example, weddings, Easter, New Years. Everything can be bought now, but how to make carved candles? Home production requires you to have special equipment and supplies.

You will find in the article a master class that will help you understand the intricacies of manufacturing.

Equipment for carved candles

Making carved candles is a difficult, but unusual and exciting process.

At the same time, the preparation of equipment is extremely important, which will require great responsibility. To make high quality products, you need to make the right choice. High quality paraffin, machine and dyes will ensure that decorative candles will please the eye, and at the same time will not contain harmful components that are released during combustion.

Paraffin bath

The smelter (paraffin melter) is a vessel made of galvanized or stainless steel, which is divided into different compartments. In order for the capacitive paraffin to be liquid, an electric heating element must be placed under the melting bath, which must maintain a stable temperature level of + 80 .

.. + 90 degrees. Special firms offer equipment for making carved candles with different depths and compartments, for different colors of paraffin:

• Eight.
• Six.

• Four.

On request, the store can make a paraffin smelter for 10-12 colors. Also, the equipment can be of different depths, the height of the finished handmade product will depend on it. Typically, the depth of the containers is 0.2 and 0.

3 meters for medium and large candles. Equipment for carved products can be purchased on average from 13,500 to 30,000 rubles. But there are still compact options that can be installed directly on the stove. Smelters of this type take up little space, they can be easily carried, and at the same time they are cheaper - 8000-9000 rubles. To make carved candles at home, and not on a production scale, a compact option will do.

Naturally, with certain skills for paraffin melting, you can make it yourself.

This requires a welding machine, electric heating element, sheet steel. The problem with homemade options - constant monitoring of the temperature of the paraffin melting is required. More serious production will need special. equipment.

Molds for candles

Molds for carved paraffin products can be purchased in special stores. The finished products will come with a wick fixture and come in a variety of configurations.As a rule, MK for creating carved candles suggests using a blank that is cast in the shape of a 5-6 point star. You can also make a base of this shape:

• Rectangular.
• Ovate.

• Spherical.
• Pyramidal.
• Cylindrical.

Wedding candles can be made from a thin blank with a faceted or round shape. You can also make a mold for carved candles.

Various materials are used for manufacturing, for example, silicone, plastic or metal.

1. Plastic molds are inexpensive, but not the most durable. To make the workpiece easier to get out of the mold, they are equipped with special removable-type lids. It is difficult to obtain high-quality, uniform surfaces of candles in plastic molds due to the rapid cooling of the material - the surface will become hard and can begin to crumble when cut. If you are planning a serious production, the plastic option is rarely used.

2. Molds made of iron - have the same disadvantages as molds made of plastic. The steel will quickly cool and a hard glaze will form on the candle surface, and the paraffin will be difficult to stick off the wall surface. Further layers of colored paraffin are difficult to adhere to smooth glaze. Plastic and steel molds do not hold the wick tightly and paraffin wax may start to leak.
3. Silicone molds are currently the best option.

   The silicone mold can withstand more than 200 pouring cycles, and the products are extracted due to the flexibility of the material. Billets have almost no defects - roughness, voids and surface heterogeneity.

For a sample, you can make a mold yourself. A wooden, tin or plastic container is suitable here. You can also make the desired shape from plaster.

The main thing is that the material can withstand temperatures up to +105 degrees. The paraffin melter and mold are the main equipment with which you can make candles yourself.

You will also need specialized knives and cutting tools:

• Knives-loops - used for sharp special patterns.
• Main knife - has a straight blade and is suitable for creating many carved elements.
• Candle knives - there are different shapes and sections (much depends on the diameter of the candles).

Let's consider what exactly to make candles from.

Details

Materials for making

You need to make handmade candles with the following materials:

1. Base - use paraffin, stearin and wax for the candle blank. Specialized additives are also required that do not allow burning candles to smoke and ensure perfect uniform combustion. As a rule, a master class on creating carved candles with his own hand involves the use of a paraffin mixture and stearin at a ratio of 9 to 1 (paraffin and stearin). Beeswax is also used, but it is more difficult to produce, although it is attractive for its naturalness and harmlessness.

2. The wick of a candle is woven from special threads, the structure and thickness of the wick will greatly depend on the dimensions of the carved candles. For wax candles, it is better to use thick wicks that are loosely woven. For paraffin wax, thinner, denser threads are taken. Choosing the perfect wick is often accompanied by a process of error and trial. Very thick items begin to smoke heavily and quickly melt the candle, while thin items go out all the time.

3. Dyes - It is difficult to imagine making beautiful carved candles without dyes. But not all dyes can be used to dye paraffin. The use of decorative candles involves the use of special fat-soluble dyes that do not emit harmful substances, do not interfere with the normal combustion process and retain their colors even after drying.
4. Fragrances - fragrances and ethers are used to make the candle smelling. Essential oils are products with a natural origin, but not a very pronounced aroma, as well as a small assortment.

   The synthetic fragrances made are more stable and varied.

5. Varnish - a special composition for candles not only helps to emphasize the brightness of colors, to give a beautiful shine to the finished product, but also protects the candles from external influences.

Consider the manufacturing algorithm.

MK for creating carved candles

After all the tools and materials are prepared, you can start making carved candles. MK for creating at home includes the following stages:

• Production of a blank from paraffin.

• Prepare material container.
• Layered staining.
• Cutting and decorating candles.
• Product cooling and varnishing.

The master class is not difficult, but the carver should definitely have artistic taste and imagination.

Novice craftsmen or those who want to try their hand at creating carved candles do not have to create a base with their own hands. You can choose a special store that will sell ready-made samples of blanks with different sizes and shapes. When choosing a ready-made base, you do not need to make or buy wicks and molds yourself. A paraffin blank can be purchased from 100 to 200 rubles (it all depends on the shape and weight). Complete instructions:

1. The wick should be put into the mold, it should be perfectly tensioned and centered.

   Most craftsmen advise to lubricate the mold so that the paraffin can easily lag behind the walls. For example, dishwashing liquid. After that, the workpiece must be wiped with a damp cloth. It is better not to use vegetable oils, because the fat layer is not easily washed off.

2. Pour paraffin, melted and heated to +80 degrees, in one step so that there are no seams.

   When creating thick candles, when hardening, paraffin must be pierced with a knitting needle so that there are no bubbles and voids. The workpiece must cool slowly so that the product does not crack.

3. Carefully remove the workpiece from the mold, and to make it easier to get the candle after hardening, you need to put it in the freezer (in the cold, paraffin is perfectly compressed).
4. In special containers, heat the paraffin wax with the required dye. While holding the wick, lower the workpiece into a container with colored paraffin.

   To fix the colored layer, place the candle in a bucket of cool water and lower the blank into another container that has a contrasting color. To obtain an unusual effect, a minimum of 15-20 layers is required. You can come up with the number and sequence of colors with your own hands or take any MK you like, freely posted on the Internet, to help.

5. Before making a decorative cut, the candle must be carefully cut from the bottom, and a round hole is made around the wick on top.
6. The most creative and interesting moment will be creating a carved pattern.

   Here you can follow the master class or use your imagination for artistic carving. The most important thing in manufacturing is accuracy and speed (the fact is that paraffin solidifies in 15 minutes). Use a special knife on a candle to cut through thin strips, and while the paraffin is not cold, you can make pigtails, curls, waves, bows, spirals and more from it. To make it more convenient to decorate the candle, you can hang it by the wick.

Naturally, a masterpiece will hardly come out the first time, certain skills and abilities are required - at what angle to make cuts and how to form certain patterns.

You will need to look at more than one MK and make more than a dozen candles before you get a truly beautiful product that can be presented or put into production. Naturally, the process is very exciting - it is an opportunity to combine unusual hobbies and get good rewards. Such candles are especially popular for holidays, weddings or as original gifts. There is another positive point - personal production and the store are easy to equip even at home.

Price

The cost of carved candles is made up of the number of materials spent, the difficulties of work and relevance.

For example, at the end of December, candles for the New Year are the most popular goods. Good craftsmen have everything scheduled for several months in advance, which allows you to dictate your conditions and take extra payment for urgency. On average, you can buy decorative candles at the following prices:

• Narrow - from 160 rubles (but it all depends on the height).
• Small (up to 15 cm high) - from 250 rubles.
• Medium (height up to 20 cm) - from 550 rubles.

• Large (from 20 cm and above) - from 1600 rubles.

Making carved candles with your own hands at home from paraffin or simple wax requires a lot of perseverance, desire and practice. But such work will always be rewarded with a festive mood, as well as satisfaction from the work performed.