How to Make a Pretty, Broken-Glass Candle

One of my favorite pastimes is to be outside searching for tiny, pretty pieces of old broken glass in ghost towns. My next favorite activity is to use the old broken-glass pieces in interesting ways to form new art.

The broken-glass pieces that I am picking up have been laying outside in the elements for many years so that their edges are not very sharp any more.

New broken glass can be used for this project, too. You just need to put it into a coffee can with a tight fitting lid, with a few handfuls of plain cat litter or course sand, and convince your children to roll the can back and forth between them over a couple of days while watching television; or, use a rock tumbler to remove some of the sharp edges.

Broken-Glass Candle Supplies:

Pretty colors of small broken glass pieces

A light color pillar candle

Plain white candle wax

An old knife

An old turkey basting brush or paint brush

Improvised or real double boiler (directions below)

Broken Glass Candle Step One: Being careful not to cut yourself, lay your pretty small pieces of broken glass out on a piece of paper, and discard any piece that has thin ragged edges or that will not lay mostly flat.

Broken Glass Candle Step Two: Arrange your broken glass pieces into shapes like flowers or into one large shape where all pieces look nice together. After you are comfortable working with broken glass and wax, you may want to try arranging your broken glass pieces into a landscape scene or portrait.

Broken Glass Candle Step Three: Heat your old knife blade and press it against the pillar candle where you want your first piece of broken glass to go. Quickly stick your broken glass piece onto the pillar candle. Do this until all of your broken glass pieces are on the pillar candle in a pleasing design. It is not important to be super neat, just worry about getting your broken glass design onto the right place.

Broken Glass Candle Step Four (optional): Make a double boiler by stacking a pan with some water in it, a cookie cooling wire rack that fits over the pan, and then placing an old coffee machine glass pot (remove lid) on top of the wire rack. Melting wax in a glass coffee pot makes the wax easy to use and pour. Never melt wax over direct heat.

Broken Glass Candle Step Five: Melt a little bit of your plain white candle wax in a double boiler over low heat. Stay with your melting wax at all times.

Broken Glass Candle Step Six: With your brush, start painting melted white wax around the edges and between cracks in your broken glass pattern. It is still not important to be neat. Your goal is to fill in the cracks between broken glass pieces like a mosaic so that they are firmly attached to the pillar candle without any sharp edges sticking out.

Broken Glass Candle Step Seven A: If you have a large supply of plain white candle wax, melt enough in an old metal coffee can over your double boiler so that you can dip at least 2/3rds of your broken glass covered pillar candle into the hot wax at a time. Dip from the top, and then dip from the bottom over and over until you have a pleasingly smooth candle with your broken glass showing through.

Broken Glass Candle Step Seven B: If you have a limited supply of plain white candle wax, paint melted wax over the whole candle until you have the whole candle and all of the broken glass pieces covered. Heat an old metal coffee can over your double boiler with enough water in it so that you can dip at least 2/3rds of your broken glass covered pillar candle into the water at a time. Dip from the top, and then dip from the bottom just once or twice until your outer layer of wax is smooth.

Broken Glass Candle Step Eight: While you are burning these broken glass candles, the broken glass pieces will shine through nicely. You need to keep a saucer, old ashtray, or tray of some sort under the broken glass candle while it is burning to catch any glass pieces that fall off while the candle burns down. On the thicker pillar candles, the broken glass pieces normally do not fall off, and seem to stay with the used wax pretty well.

Options:

Flat fish tank or flower arranging marbles called "gems" can be used instead of broken glass.

Marbles can be broken into fine glass sand to draw on candles with if you boil them and then drop them instantly into cold water so that they crack. Then, put the cracked marble into two (or more) layers of heavy baggies and hit them with a hammer. This sand should not be touched with the fingers, use tweezers or a small souvenir spoon to arrange the glass sand where you need it on the candle.

You can use mixed media with broken glass and paint, broken glass and dried flowers, or broken glass and your imagination.

For you Gothic lovers, dark-colored candles do look nice with white-colored, bright gold, and clear broken glass on top. You might want to try a medieval tattoo design that you can find online to print on your computer.