Ole Fashioned Miniature Candles

Confession time: I love candles.  My house is full of them.  While I've seen many beautiful miniature candles made from clay, my clay supply has runneth dry (literally because I failed to properly seal the container I was keeping it in).  So I had to get creative, which meant trying to make mini candles using actual wax and candle-making techniques.  The ole fashioned way.

First I found a thick drinking straw and cut about a 1/2" portion.  For the wick, I needed a somewhat thicker thread to hold it's shape upright, so I used beading thread that I cut the length of the piece of straw.  Then I wrapped the thread around a toothpick to hold it up while the candle dried.

This is when things got a little sticky, or, better yet, waxy.  There needed to be a base to the straw to both hold it upright and to stop the wax from flowing out when poured.  Clay would have probably been helpful for this purpose as well, but instead I poured a little wax from a candle (flame off) on the board and waited for it to dry and cool enough to be handled safely.  Before wax fully dries, it's maleable enough to form into the bottoms of straws.  I pressed the straw onto the dot of melted wax and waited for it to dry a little more.  

Pouring time.  The tweezers were to add extra stability when pouring the wax.  

This is the part when I'm obligated to say that working with hot wax and flames should always be done at your own risk and with this project, you risk burning yourself. 

I poured the wax from the life size candle (flame off) into the straw.  Some wax did end up spilling out from the life size candle, which explains the waxy mess next tot the straw.

After about 30 minutes of dry time (I wanted to be extra sure they were fully dried), I cut the thread from the toothpick and gently peeled the straw from the candle.  Then I cut the base to flatten the bottom and trimmed the "wick."  The result are very realistic candles that look like they have been lit a few times.  A bonus is that they smell and feel like real candles since they're actually made from real candles.  I can't wait to try this with other wax colors and straw sizes.