Candle making

Many people like to burn candles occasionally for pleasure, but if like me you keep a spiritual practice it may form a very important part of your day or night. That single light is the focus of intent and meaning, but what fuels it from beneath is of interest to the environmentally minded. Paraffin and Soya wax both have problematic origins, and neither burn away without trace or with much satisfaction. Beeswax is prohibitively expensive, and this is probably for the best in terms from an ethical point of view. High demand rarely results in good standards of ethics. Then there is the issue of tea lights. I sometimes use an essential oil burner which requires tea lights, which come in those little aluminium foil cases. 

Between me and some friends we get through rather a lot of candles and tea lights. Our solutions so far have ranged from reusing old tealight cases to melt down charity shop bought candles, to melting beeswax into single serving condiments jars.

Finding candles in charity shops or having friends donate forever unlit Christmas gift candles is a good way of getting a supply of wax without contributing to the market demand for more of the same. I will also be at some point dabbling in oil burners and lamps with various oils to see how easy these are as replacements.

There are some benefits to using beeswax candles that make them worth the price. They burn away completely, have a lovely natural colour and scent and burn for a very long time. Nothing artificial to pollute the environment, and nothing left at the end.

The candles in the picture were melted down from broken beeswax dinner candles and took just a few minutes to pour and set. The jars can be used over and over and will just about fit into an essential oil burner.