Easy Candle Making for Lazy People

I've made triples colored candles, I've melted nasty gel to make glass container candles, I've used three additives to get just the right mottled effect, and I have used specialized wax so that I could add extreme amounts of citronella to make enormous outdoor pillar candles. I'm done now.

What I want now is lazy people's candles- I want to make candles that look pretty close to how I want them, and to be cheap and easy. Once you learn to make candles, it is impossible to be able to ever buy them again ($30 for a small scented pillar?!), so if you don't have the time to do it right- do it lazy.

One of the easiest ways in the world to make a candle in about three seconds is to buy the Candle Magic, or the offbrand, kits that have wax crystals. You just have to pour the crystals in, stick the wick in, and light it. The lit wick will melt the wax as it goes, and before long it is a real candle. I have seen these kits in the local dollar store as well, so it doesn't even have to cost more than a buck.

If the thought of being just that lazy bothers you, there is another lazy method that has excellent results. If you have a pouring pot (a metal pot with a handle, used to melt and pour wax in), you can use that. If not, go to the thrift store and buy the cheapest, most hideous pot they have. And while you are there, buy a couple of giant, half-burned candles for about a quarter each. When you get home, just cut the burnt part out off the wick, and put the whole candle in the pot. You can then melt the old candle in a couple of different ways- you can place the old pot into a large pot of water, thereby creating a cheap, lazy man's double boiler, or you can plop it onto a hot plate. If you have a candle or candy thermometer, that is a great safety device, and you can stick that in as well to make sure that the wax doesn't get to a flammable temperature. If not, you can just stand around the pot for a few minutes until the wax melts. Once it gets pretty melted, pour it into something. You can put it into a container (thick glass or ceramic, or an interesting vase), or you can pour it into a mold if you have one. You will need to fish the original wick out of the mess and tie it to something that you can hang over the container- like a spoon or a stick from the yard. The wick should just hang into the wax and still be a little bit above it. Then, you leave. If you remember later, come in and cut off the end of the wick, and you have a candle, complete with wick ready to light. It's not fancy, it's not perfect, but it's a candle, darn it.

A few shortcuts if you want to get any fancier than that are to get a Jiffy Wicker- a cool little thing that helps to keep a wick in the wick hole without any leakage. That alone will cut 10 minutes out of your candle making time. Another thing to get is wicks that are already waxed and stuck onto wick tabs. You just drop it into a container and pour in the wax. eBay is the best place to buy these- they are much, much less expensive than in a hobby store (search- zinc wicks). If you want raw wick, eBay is the place for that as well- you can buy it in insane bulk for incredibly cheap and then use it whenever you feel like it for the next year or more.

If you have a container candle that you love, but it looks gross because it is half burned, here's a method that can fix it up without resorting to any real work. Take a piece of zinc wick and just stab it into the candle, right through the old wick. Tie the new wick to something that you lay on top of the container, then pour in new wax. It probably won't be the same color as the old wax, but so what? A two-toned candle is pretty fashionable- you'd have to pay more to get an effect like that at a store. Once it hardens, cut the wick from the object you tied it to, and lay that sucker out like it was an imported masterpiece.

One popular trend in candle making in the last couple of years has been imbeds- they are mostly for gel candles, but people use them in paraffin/soy wax as well. The thing with imbeds is that most people thing you need to buy a set of things, all alike, to imbed in the candle. Why, nothing could be further from the truth! As long as something isn't flammable, it can go in. If your objects are non-matching, so much the better. Like your two-toned candles, these rare, eclectic and possibly insane candles are hard to find and look expensive. Most people like small glass objects as imbeds, and they do tend to work nicely. You can also use chunks of other candles for a fancy effect with little effort. Just take one of those thirft store candles and cut a few chucks out of it, then put the chunks in the mold or container, along with whatever else you found. Pour the new wax in, and you have a candle with an easy mottled effect, changing colors and stuff poking out. Sounds gross, but it looks great.