Making beeswax candles

A few weeks ago, I bought a beeswax candle making kit at Hobbycraft. It just looked like a fun way to spend an afternoon and I love kits, along with taster or introductory courses, they're the best way to learn a new skill without having to commit to buying a load of new tools and materials. After a few busy weeks, I finally got to play with my kit this weekend.

The kit is by House of Crafts and comes in a handy little box which includes 5 sheets of textured yellow beeswax, a length of cotton wick and a booklet with instructions to make the different candles pictured on the front of the box.



All you need to get started is a few tools most crafters already possess: a sharp knife (stanley knife or scalpel), a pair of scissors, a ruler and a cutting mat. It is also quite important that the beeswax is at room temperature so it is malleable.

The instructions are a bit bland as they don't include any pictures bar a couple of schematics and flower petal patterns. I think as the kit is intended for beginners, it would have been nice to have a few more pics. In my opinion, nothing beats a good visual when trying to teach someone a new craft! Because of this lack of images, the instructions in some places refer you to the picture on the front of the box. All well and good, but the picture of the rose candle is badly cropped on the side of the box... not very helpful!

I started with a tall spiral candle and at first, found it hard to roll the wax tightly around the wick. Being a firm believer in "practice makes perfect" I decided to make a second one straight away and that was enough to get it right. In a couple of hours I'd made 5 candles, all looking pretty decent.

I really like the water lily and rose floating candles. I still have about 1,5 sheets of wax left so I might make a few more of them!

If I was planning to have a Christmas market stall, I'd seriously consider making a load of beeswax candles to sell. They're fun and relaxing to make and they look really nice, I'm pretty confident they'd sell well. An added bonus of making those candles is the gorgeous smell of the beeswax, yummy!