The Recycapple Candle

[HomesteaderWife]

Some time back I was given a bunch of nearly empty candles from family in order to try my hand at recycling candles. I used one of the candle wicks found unopened from a thrift store and placed it in the bottom of one of my old half-pint mason jars. I lit one of the almost empty candles until the wax had melted, then poured it in the jar. Let it set as I lit the next candle, poured that wax on top. Continued to do this until the jar was nearly full and left some head space to it and trimmed the wick. Just lit it for the first time this morning, and the apple scent is wonderful. I referred to it as the "recycapple" candle due to the apple scents of all the candles that went into it.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Is it layered with all the different candle wax colors? It looks a really pretty red color in the photo.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

@wyoDreamer - It is! The majority of the scents were apple, but there are layers of bright red, dark red, a purple-tint, and white/yellow from a vanilla/sugar cookie candle. My hope is that as it burns down, the different scents will make themselves known.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Here's another photo of it unlit to show a bit of the layering if you can tell.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Nicely done. My asthma doesn't tolerate candles. I miss having them around. When power goes out, we do use them occasionally. I've heard that the soy based candles burn very well and are not as problematic for respiratory issues.

 

[Nifty]

This is fantastic, thanks for sharing!

I have some weird addiction with candles... especially taking the remaining bits of old candles and putting them together into new candles.

The problem I have is always with the wicks. It seems (for reasons beyond my area of expertise) that the candles always just go out after a bit after being lit.

Are the wicks too big, too small, too skinny, too fat... wrong kind? I have no idea

Any suggestions?

 

[HomesteaderWife]

@Nifty - I actually had some brand new wicks in a pack that were picked up at a thrift store. They weren't really wide or too small, just standard wicks. They've worked fine for that candle!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I used to make candles WAY, WAY, WAY back in my teens/early adult years. Now... I'm trying to recall the experience from 4 - 5 decades ago! IIRC, the secret to getting the wicks to burn well was to be sure they were soaked in wax before pouring the candle. I think I would dip/soak the wick at least 3 times to be sure it was well saturated, then place it in the form, and pour the candle. One of my favorite types of candles to pour was: Place a standard taper candle in the middle of your form. Fill the form with crushed ice. Then, pour a wax of a different color into the form. The resulting candle would look like Swiss cheese. When burning, it was important to put the candle in a good sized container to catch the lava wax that would spill out of the Swiss cheese holes.

 

[flowerbug]

I used to make candles WAY, WAY, WAY back in my teens/early adult years. Now... I'm trying to recall the experience from 4 - 5 decades ago! IIRC, the secret to getting the wicks to burn well was to be sure they were soaked in wax before pouring the candle. I think I would dip/soak the wick at least 3 times to be sure it was well saturated, then place it in the form, and pour the candle. One of my favorite types of candles to pour was: Place a standard taper candle in the middle of your form. Fill the form with crushed ice. Then, pour a wax of a different color into the form. The resulting candle would look like Swiss cheese. When burning, it was important to put the candle in a good sized container to catch the lava wax that would spill out of the Swiss cheese holes.

interesting idea! for a more solid candle you could use a dark color for the first pour and then use clear/white to fill in the holes on a second pour.

i've only made a few candles in my life - would do it again sometime.

 

[flowerbug]

Nicely done. My asthma doesn't tolerate candles. I miss having them around. When power goes out, we do use them occasionally. I've heard that the soy based candles burn very well and are not as problematic for respiratory issues.

yeah, some scents i can't tolerate at all. Mom hates vanilla scented things (for some strange reason i've never figured out). between the two of us we just decided to avoid candles all together and if someone gives us one we have other relatives who will take them as a regift or we can rehome it...