Hi! Glad you stopped by! Come on in so I can show you our newest adventure . .
Today we are learning to make our own candles from what we have available for free at home. You may well ask, "what is the purpose of this?" Well, let me tell you . . Every time you turn on your lights at home (unless you are off-grid) you are padding the pocket of your local electric company with your hard earned money!! To me that is just plain crazy!!!
So, I watched some really good YouTube videos on making candles from cooking grease (you can find videos on just about anything on YouTube!!). And now we are finally ready to try this out.
Step 1: Choose a jar (I'm reusing one that had a candle previously)
Step 2: Make a wick~~ use 1/4" wide strips of cotton cloth. The video said to twist and wrap the strands, but I chose to simply braid the three strands. [Remember this is my initial attempt at making my own wicks, so trial and error are my means of future knowledge and I will blog my results.]
Step 3: Anchor the wick in the jar. I chose to use a pushpin as we have pushpins on hand and no bulletin board. I simply pushed the pushpin down into the wax left by the previous candle. [If I was using a jar without wax I might use a nut or bolt to weigh down the end of the wick . . ]
Step 4: Pour hot grease into the jar. This part was so cool and so rewarding. Probably because it is the culmination of this project. Yet, I only have approximately half a candle!! The little pushpin isn't even completely covered.
Still in all, as I gaze at this beginning to a more self-sufficient lifestyle for our household I'm feeling quite accomplished. That, in and of itself, holds more promise than I can begin to explain!!
Today we are learning to make our own candles from what we have available for free at home. You may well ask, "what is the purpose of this?" Well, let me tell you . . Every time you turn on your lights at home (unless you are off-grid) you are padding the pocket of your local electric company with your hard earned money!! To me that is just plain crazy!!!
So, I watched some really good YouTube videos on making candles from cooking grease (you can find videos on just about anything on YouTube!!). And now we are finally ready to try this out.
Step 1: Choose a jar (I'm reusing one that had a candle previously)
Step 2: Make a wick~~ use 1/4" wide strips of cotton cloth. The video said to twist and wrap the strands, but I chose to simply braid the three strands. [Remember this is my initial attempt at making my own wicks, so trial and error are my means of future knowledge and I will blog my results.]
Step 3: Anchor the wick in the jar. I chose to use a pushpin as we have pushpins on hand and no bulletin board. I simply pushed the pushpin down into the wax left by the previous candle. [If I was using a jar without wax I might use a nut or bolt to weigh down the end of the wick . . ]
Step 4: Pour hot grease into the jar. This part was so cool and so rewarding. Probably because it is the culmination of this project. Yet, I only have approximately half a candle!! The little pushpin isn't even completely covered.
Still in all, as I gaze at this beginning to a more self-sufficient lifestyle for our household I'm feeling quite accomplished. That, in and of itself, holds more promise than I can begin to explain!!
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