Floating Candles

I don’t know about you, but I love floating candles. It makes me think of natural beauty. I don’t know why it would bring that image to my mind, but it does. The key to creating a floating candle is to make it a short shape with it being slightly wider on the top than the bottom. Just to be a little different I made my candles square.

Kathy Zengolewicz

Here is what you will need to get started:

• Paraffin Wax
• Wicks and wick tabs
• Muffin or a cupcake pan or novelty wax molds (I used square molds)
• Scissors
• Melting pot for wax (Instead you can use an old double boiler)
• A thermometer
• Candle coloring and candle scent (this is optional)

Take a little bit of vegetable oil on a clean napkin or paper towel and grease your muffin pan slightly. Prepare the wicks by inserting them in the wick tabs. Boil some water in a saucepan of the double boiler and put the melting container (top part of the double boiler). Place a few chunks of paraffin wax into the top pot and start melting. Make sure to keep your thermometer in the wax and turn it off when it reaches 180 degrees F.  Paraffin wax will ignite at 375 degrees F, so be careful and have a box of baking soda or a hand held fire extinguisher on hand.

Once the wax is melted and the heat is off you can add coloring and scent if you desire. You can use dye chips for candles or liquid dye that you add with an eye-dropper for the coloring process. If you are adding scents to your candles, please use shaved pieces from scent blocks and not essential oils. Most essential oils are not recommended to be use with the high heat used when making candles. So always use caution in this area.

Now, pour the wax into your muffin pans or molds and let cool. Oce the wax begins to set with a skin on the top, push the tab of the wick into the bottom of each mold using a wooden skewer.

Once the wax has set and hardened, pop out your candles and float them in water. For a more dramatic effect try coloring the water.