Beeswax Candles

I have a soft spot for anything dealing with bees. Growing up, my neighbor was like a second father to me. He took me everywhere, bought me whatever I wanted, taught me the importance of being an Auburn tiger, and so much more. I began helping him in his shop as soon as I could crawl, and was running a table saw at the age of 8. He taught me how to put things together, and how to create. 

Me at about 2 doing a little cleaning in Buck's shop. 

He was a farmer, a carpenter, and a beekeeper. He would take me along to check on the hives. I can remember being surrounded by bees but I never was really afraid because he never seemed afraid. I would help him harvest the honey and that was the best part. Buck died when I was about 14. I decided to travel to Colorado with my best friend and her family. I will never forget the call I received from my dad. I had to fly back home to Alabama,(first flight I ever took) and it was so tough. He had a sudden heart attack.  There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of him. My dad does a lot of woodworking now and he even uses the tricks and trades that Buck taught him. So I decided to make some beeswax candles, and when I opened the box of wax, the smell automatically took me back to Buck's shop. 

Buck and I in my parent's backyard. 

Beeswax is great to burn for many reasons it produces negative ions when burnt and that helps get rid of bad stuff such as pet dander, dust, allergens, etc. Plus it smells subtle and warm. 

Materials needed:

Beeswax(I ordered this online, but you may be lucky enough to find some locally) I used about 1.5 lbs for this project.

Coconut Oil

Pliers

Large gauge wire or wick holders

Clothespins 

Jute

Container ( these I made from concrete, poured into styrofoam cup, inserted smaller cup inside, taped down, and let dry).

To begin I melted my wax and oil in a pan I purchased just for this at the goodwill.

Melt on medium, and add in about 3 feet of jute while it's melting. This preps it to become a wick.

While wax is melting, I cut down small pieces of wire to use as wick holders. Real wick holders would work better but I didn't have any of those. 

Once wax is melted, carefully pull out wick and cut down when cooled off to sizes you want them. I then clamped these wire c's to one end of wick. Place in container and use clothespin to hold up.

Should look something like this.

Then pour your wax mixture a little at a time into a styrofoam cup, and carefully pour into each container. Let cool, then trim wicks. Boom, you just made a candle. Or you could just skip all of this and come buy these from me at the farmer's market. 

 Enjoy. 

-Meg