Ice, Ice Baby: how to make ice candles

I remember my Mom making these candles for the holidays.

These candles are ridiculously easy to make and the finished product can be pretty impressive looking.

I made mine out of almost all recycled materials.

First you need to gather your supplies. I used two old pillar candles and a taper I had left over from last winter. I like to use a taper candle for the wick instead of a standard wick because the holes the ice leaves can make air pockets inside the candle and the taper will stay lit better than a bare wick.

SUPPLIES:

Clean half gallon milk carton

Pillar candle wax or old pillar candles to recycle

Taper candle the height of the mild carton or taller

Crushed ice

 

 

 

 

I chopped up the pillar candles and put them in the double boiler to melt. See my post about making soy container candles for how-to and safety tips for melting wax.

I am not going to show you how I chopped up these old candles because it was decidedly NOT a recommended way to do it and I don’t want to be responsible for any nasty candle related amputations!

As the wax melted, bits of soot and old wick floated to the top. I carefully used my wooden skewer to fish them out. I suppose you could strain your melted wax to remove any other little bits of stuff that may be in there from the old candles but I wasn’t that concerned.

Once the wax was melted I prepared my milk carton by filling it with crushed ice. I also added a little bit of fragrance oil to the melted wax at this point. I used Vanilla Hazelnut because the original pillar candles were already vanilla scented and I just wanted to boost the fragrance a little bit.

My refrigerator has crushed ice through the door so I just used that. Some of it was shaved pretty fine and next time I will probably just take cubed ice, put it in a baggie and smash it up with a hammer to get bigger chunks.

 

 

Shove the taper candle down into the ice, centering it as best you can. The ice should hold it upright while you pour the melted wax.

 

 

 

Carefully pour the hot wax into the milk carton. Much of the ice will melt immediately so it is a good idea to put your carton in a pan to catch any water that may run out. Usually the milk carton is still water tight so that doesn’t happen. The wax will start to harden quite quickly because of the cold of the ice. You can go ahead and pour off any water that rises to the top. (Don’t pour it down your drain! It will have floating bits of wax)

Let the whole thing cool and harden for a half an hour or as long as you can be patient. Then tear the carton off your new candle. There will probably be some bits of ice and water inside the candle at this point. I just sit it in a shallow dish to catch the water as it melts away.

At this point your candle is pretty much finished. As you can see with mine the taper candle I used as a wick sticks up above the level of the wax. After all the ice melted out of it and it dried, I lit the taper and let it burn down to where the taper is now level with the top of the candle.

Also because I used such fine crushed ice there are a few areas where the holes are really fine and the wax was almost lacy and fell apart easily. Next time I’ll be more careful with my pour and the size of ice chunks I use.

When you burn this candle be sure to sit it on a candle tray or other wax and fire proof surface. The holes make it a somewhat unpredictable burning candle and melting wax can come dripping out of the sides at unexpected places. But when the wick gets down inside the candle it throws a really pretty effect through the holes in the wax.

A fun modification to this process is to leave the candle in the carton until all the ice is melted and pour the water out. Then melt another batch of wax and color it and pour it in to the mold. The new colored wax will fill in the holes left by the ice and make a really cool looking multi colored candle.

You can also use all kinds of recycled packaging for molds. How about a tall cylinder candle made with a Pringles can? Or a rectangular one out of a soy milk carton or the Tazo Chai tea carton? If it is waxy, water-proof container it will hold wax and be able to be torn away easily.

Hope this inspires you to recycle some old candles into something unique and special for your holiday decorating. If you do make one of these (or anything else inspired by my tutorials) I’d love it if you shared a photo with me. Either email it to beth AT myeclecticmess.com or post a link to it in the comments.

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Speaking of comments, I know with my old theme the comments were hard to see and sometimes it would seem like they weren’t going through when they really were. So I changed themes until I have some time to do some much needed blog tweaking. Like all bloggers I LOVE COMMENTS! It lets me know someone is listening. I also love Facebook followers and I’d love to increase that number too. So if you would please comment on posts that you like and follow me on Facebook I’d be eternally grateful. It would also be really sweet if you’d share me with some friends and encourage them to follow/share/pin/comment.

(Whew! That was hard. I really have a hard time asking for followers/comments. It just isn’t in my nature to ask. The way my mind works is that I just do what I do and if people like it and it is worthy, they will comment/share/pin etc. But I’ve come to realize that sometimes you just have to ask for what you need and hope for the best. It is all about being vulnerable. Thank you for understanding.)