Making Hand Dipped Taper Candles with Children

Between the cold, wet winter days that have us cooped up in the house and the long week off from school for President's Week , I found myself  searching for a quick, easy and affordable project to keep us occupied for an afternoon. We decided to try making hand dipped parrafin candles, something I haven't done since I was a child. A quick trip to the local chain craft supply store and we were set. We bought a 1 1/2 pound block of paraffin wax, 8 feet of medium wick, and then for fun, a small package of solid candle scent  (a scented wax as opposed to an essential oil) and a solid wax coloring agent.  We chose paraffin mainly due to the cost, which was $7, though the store also carried beeswax , which would have been lovely, however, it cost almost $20 for the same amount. We then hit the local thrift store to purchase a used crockpot for melting the wax safely and were able to get one for $5.00. The total cost for the whole project was about $25.00 including the purchase of the crockpot and has given enough wax to make more candles than we'll dip any time soon! 

To get started, you will need:

Candle wax (1 1/12 - 2 lbs.) - paraffin or beeswax

Wick (8 or more feet) - medium 

Scent 

Coloring Agent 

Hanger

Paper towels

Crockpot

Candy or Candle thermometer

Cutting board

Knife

To Make the Candles:

1.) First find a safe place on your counter to place the crockpot. Make sure it is not under a cabinet (in case of fire - remember, wax is flammable), and in a place where the cord will not get pulled, thus pulling the pot of hot wax off the counter. Plug it in and turn it on to begin warming.

2.) Place the block of wax on a non-slip cutting board and chop it (carefully!) into smaller chunks. Place the chunks into the crockpot. Place a candy thermometer in the melting wax. Please check the manufacturers instructions about the appropriate temperature for  your wax. Ours had a melting point of 143 degrees. We let the temperature rise to 150 degrees then turned it off. Please be aware that if the wax gets too hot ( about 300 degrees) it can catch fire. The wax melted very quickly. 

3.) When the wax is melted, add your color and scent as per the manufacturers instructions.

4.) Cut a long length of wick and fold it in half (so that you can dip two candles at the same time). 

5.) Place a hanger on a cabinet pull that will hold your cooling candles then put some paper towels under it to catch drips of hot wax.

6.) Dip the wick into the wax covering about 3/4 of the wick. We found that when the temperature was higher at 150 degrees, you had to dip the wick quickly and let it really cool before dipping it again. However, as the wax cools, reaching the melting point and falling just below it, you will get much more wax sticking to your wick. We did turn the heat back on when the temperature reached 135 degrees, let it reach 150 degrees again, then turned it off and let it cool. 

7.) Let the candles cool between dips by hanging  them on the hanger. Cut a second length of wick and begin dipping that one so that you can rotate between the pairs. Dip your candles until you are satisfied with the size. Ours got a little lumpy on the ends. You could probably roll the lumpy ends into a nice uniform shape while the wax is hot.

This was a fun project for both the adults and the children and gave us immediate satisfaction. We dipped four pair of candles in about 15 minutes and had some ready to burn that night for dinner; a point of pride for our son. 

Our green honeysuckle scented hand-dipped candles cooling on a hanger

The finished product!