This book has a ton of very clever and crafty ideas about making candles with all sorts of embellishments and decorations. From cute things to please kids- small animal figures, molded star shapes, bright stacks of color, things on holiday themes, etc.- to very elegant and pretty candles decorated with leaves, lace, fake or real flowers, glass beads, you name it. Nicely paired with ideas for wrapping as gifts to match a theme, pairing scents with color or intent and style, and so on. There’s quite a few I’m interested in trying to make myself. But once again I felt a tad dubious about the safety of many ideas presented in this book. The gel candles (I didn’t know they exist!) look very cool, but personally I don’t think I would want to burn something that has flower petals or toy animal figurines or beaded jewelry suspended in the wax. Adhering paper, fabric and dried plant parts on the outside of candles also makes me uneasy (I’m quite risk averse). But I do like many of the ideas that feature cut-out wax shapes pressed to the outside or inset into molded candles (I also didn’t know before that colored and patterned wax sheets are a thing!) and I’m game to try some blending experiments. There’s also ideas that use paint, or raffia or glass tile bits, and so on. Also many more creative ideas about what you can pour wax into to make a candle- from cookie cutters and empty drink cartons to hollowed out eggshells, orange skins and coconut shells. I don’t think I would make a candle in a soup can (complete with label a la Andy Warhol) or wine glass (seems to thin and prone to breaking from the heat) or a cleaned-out bell pepper (that’s probably going to rot fast, ugh) but a lot of the projects are very inventive, making me look around to see what else I could use. A thick container lid as a mold for simple tea lights, for example. There’s also more than one hint on how to get a finished candle out of a mold, or clean remnants out of a prior-used candle jar, and for different ways to affix the wick, and other useful tips. Those are scattered through the book on the individual project pages, though. So while I didn’t read completely through every instruction page, I did skim the whole thing and read all the “helpful hint” boxes to gather that info for myself.
I don’t dare put this book in my daughter’s hands right now- she’s bound to want to try making most of the things in here, half of which I think are maybe unsafe. And I need a bit more experience myself, first! There’s candles that look like flowers or candy (with caution that if you gift them, should tell the recipient they’re not edible!) and one that even looks convincingly like a molded jello dessert or pudding. From silly and cute to striking and beautiful, there’s so many ideas in different styles in here, it’s quite inspiring!
Borrowed from the public library.
One Response
Ok- so funny- my daughter came in the room as I was thumbing through this book photographing pages of candles I might try and make someday. She made a comment about me using her book. I said “no, I borrowed this from the library!” Turns out she has her own copy (probably from a library discard sale). In fact I think I remember now browsing through it briefly and thinking most of the projects looked too tricky or required materials we don’t have. Now that I’ve read through it, feel a bit differently about making some attempts!