Marble Dipping Your Pillar Candles
Candle Making Tutorial

This is a great project, and so amazingly easy! It only takes about a minute to make one of these candles, once you’re started, but it looks like you spent hours on each candle!

You can use almost any candle, as long as you have a container big enough to dip it into. You can use , , , , , like shaped candles, or for Halloween, …!

Try it with our

What You Will Need - Supplies

· to Dip

·

· or old Sauce Pan to create a double boiler

· with pour spout

· , chopsticks, toothpicks, or something else to stir the with

· Pliers

· or

Also a good idea to have around:

· Paper towels

·

· Aluminum Foil

· Newspaper, butcher paper, or scrap paper to cover work surfaces

· Fire Extinguisher (just in case)

How to Set Up Your Work Area

1. Put down newspaper or butcher paper on tables and countertops to catch spills and for easy cleanup.
2. Have paper towels and on hand for cleaning stovetops.
3. Wrap stove burner bowls in tin foil to catch drips of wax, and for easy cleanup afterwards.

Choosing your Melting Pot

This project requires you to completely submerge your in the water, to get full coverage of the marbled look on your . When choosing a , choose one deep enough to allow you to completely submerge your . Also remember that your submerged will displace the water, raising the level. So choose a deep enough to allow you to completely submerge your without water spilling over the edge.

Fill Melting Pot with Water

For this project, you will use your double boiler, but instead of filling the with wax, you will be filling it with water.

Fill the bottom part of your double boiler (the or the deep sauce pan) with about two inches of cool water, and place on the burner set to high temperature.

Fill the melting pot with water and place it in the steamer pot. Do not fill it to the top, because when you dip your candle, it will displace some of the water, bringing the water level up.

When the water in the steamer pot begins to boil, set the burner to medium or low. The water in the will heat up, but do not let it boil.

Drop Wax Chip Shavings in Water and Stir

While your water is heating up, drop some shavings into the . You can get shavings off of the with a or a pair of .

The chips will melt on the surface of the water. Start with a few shavings and see how much coverage on the surface of the water you get.

Use the , chop stick, or toothpick to stir the on the surface of the water. If the melt and form into large pools on the surface of the water, break it up with your stirring implement.

Heat the water in the to . This is the point at which the will melt. If the water gets too hot, it will cause the to coat the surface of the water, not form into little dots of color on the surface. When the is too hot, the will have less of a marbled effect when you dip it; it will have more of a washed effect. Also, the higher the temperature, the more quickly the you are dipping will melt away in the water. Just around 135 to gives you time to dip your without it melting, and keeps the the proper consistency on the surface of the water.

Water is the correct temperature; the candle dye is maintaining its drop like shape. Very little wax has melted off of the dipped candles to coat the surface of the water.

Water too hot, the candle dye is dispersing to coat the surface of the water, losing its drop like shape, and wax has melted off the dipped candles to coat the surface of the water as well.

A sparse spattering of melted on the surface of the water will give you a sparse marbling on your . A thick coating of melted will coat more of the surface of your . You can experiment with the different effects of different amounts of in your .

Dip Candle

Use the pliers to grip the wick of your . You will need to just very quickly, in one fluid motion, submerge your into the and then pull it out. Do not leave it in the as the hot water will begin to melt your .

You can experiment with twisting the as you dip it to get swirling effects.

For Two or More Distinct Colors:

Dip each separately. (Do not mix shavings in the same or they will melt together and form one , not multiple colors)

Either use different for each , or use the same , removing the in the water completely before adding your next of chips.

To remove the from the water dip some dry newspaper into the . The melted will cling to its surface and be lifted from the water as you remove the newspaper from the .

For Mingled Colors:

Mix shavings together in the same . The colors will co-mingle, in some spots creating a new entirely, and in other spots, giving the look of one blending into another .

This candle wax dipped first in green dye, then blue. The two colors are distinct.

Blue and green dye were mixed together before dipping this candle, creating a blue-green color with occasional streaks of solid green and solid blue.

Cool Candle

If your will stand on its own, you can place it on a flat level surface to cool. Use craft paper, newspaper, or wax paper to protect your surfaces from wax and drips.

If your will not stand on it’s own, you can rig a simple drying hanger by placing a wire or stir stick across the opening of a large pot, and clipping the wick to the wire with a close pin or other clip, to allow it to cool and dry.

This is usually not necessary, as these will usually cool and harden up within 30 seconds or so.

Finished Marble Dipped Candles!

This is all it takes to make exotic and intricate marble dipped candles!