Floating Candles and Preserving Extra Wax

After I finished making the beeswax lanterns I just blogged about, I still had a decent amount of wax left over. I didn't want to waste it, so I decided to make a few floating candles from Childhood Magic and In the Shade of the Old Oak Tree. I also made some little decorations using candy molds to preserve the rest. Ella really enjoyed helping with this!

First I took some homemade playclay and pressed it into thin pieces on an old cookie sheet. I then just barely pushed some metal cookie cutters into the playclay. This is to seal the bottom of the cookie cutters so your wax doesn't spill everywhere! I also decided to try putting in the wicks at this point, which worked great. I just barely pressed them into the playclay.

Next, I slowly poured the melted wax from my pyrex measuring cup into the cookie cutter molds. The cup is very, very hot, so be sure to use oven mitts! (See my previous post for tips on melting beeswax).

Ella really enjoyed chewing on the wicks during this process! I gave her a plate with some playclay and a couple of cookie cutters to make her own molds. She loved it!

I have some vintage candy molds passed down to me from my grandmother that I used to preserve the little bit of extra. I made little flowers (above) and...

CARE BEARS! Remember those? Notice the little discolored blob at the bottom of the bowl? That's where the first balloon from the lantern project burst and the water went into the cup of wax. I tried to avoid pouring it until the very last couple of molds, which worked just fine. Just be aware that whatever molds you pour the water into will not turn out properly; you'll just end up with some random chips of wax (which was fine with me because I was doing this to just preserve the wax until I remelt it and use it for another project).

It takes a bit for the wax to harden completely, and I was too nervous to move them into the freezer before they had set up. After they were fairly solid, though, I transferred them to the freezer and they hardened FAST! Removing them from the molds was super easy, too; just push them out and peel off the playclay! I only had difficulty removing one of the floral pieces, and that was resolved by running it under a little bit of warm water. It popped right out!

Here is a sampling of the candles and random pieces. The wicks in the circles are off center because I actually used a biscuit cutter (which has a handle that displaces the wick) and didn't think to cut the wick and place it properly before pouring the wax. Oh, well!

I put a candle and some of the flower pieces on the nature table along with the new beeswax lantern. I love it!

~Amanda