How To Make An Ice Candle

Make a cool Ice Candle using a milk carton and ice. The ice creates holes in the candle when you pour in the wax.  Great gift craft!

How To Make an Ice Candle

Materials

Mold: Milk carton (washed and dried)
Wax: Premium wax for pillars
Wick: Large bleached flat braid wicking
Mold sealer
Blue dye block for candles
Ice cubes

Tools

Candle making thermometer
Hammer and chisel (to break wax up into chunks)
Cutting board
Double boiler
Kitchen scale
Potato peeler
Chopstick
Scissors
Pencil
White index card
Tablespoon
Paper towels
Awl
Oven mitts

Steps

Here’s a video showing how to create a candle mold out of the carton:

1. To turn the milk carton into a candle mold, use the scissors to cut the top off. Cut the carton down so it is five inches high.

2. Use the awl to poke a hole in the bottom of the carton. Feed the flat braid wicking through the hole at bottom of mold. Pull it through so one inch of wick is sticking out of the bottom of the mold.

3. Coil the one inch piece of wick that is sticking out of the bottom of the mold. Roll the mold sealer into a ball. Press it over the coiled wick to seal the hole in the bottom of the mold.

4. Prop a pencil across the top of the mold. Then tie the long end of the wick up to the pencil.

5. To figure out how much wax to melt, take the volume of the milk carton and divide it by two (because we are using only half the carton as the mold). Our milk carton holds 32 ounces. Half of that is 16 ounces. If we were making a solid candle, we would melt 16 ounces of wax. But we are going to create holes in the candle by adding ice, so we only need half that amount of wax. Cut the pillar wax into chunks with the hammer and chisel. Use the kitchen scale to weigh out 8 ounces of wax. Add an extra 2 ounces for spillage.

6. Melt the wax in a double boiler. Place the candle thermometer in the melted wax and keep a eye on it. Heat the wax to 200-210°F. Use the potato peeler to shave a few carrot curls of color off the dye block. Add the shavings to the melted wax and stir with a chopstick.

7. Test the color by placing a few drops onto an index card. Add more color shavings if desired.

8. Drop the ice cubes into the mold.

9. Pour the melted wax into the mold right over the ice cubes. Make sure the wick is centered.

10. Let the candle cool completely. About 1 to 2 hours. Remove the mold sealer from the bottom of the carton. Turn the candle upside-down over a bowl. Water (formerly ice!) will pour out.

11.  Peel the carton away from the candle.

12. What was the bottom of the candle – on the bottom of the milk carton mold – will be nicely shaped, so now this will be the top of the candle. Trim the wick on the top to 1/4”. Trim the wick that is now on the bottom so it is flush with the bottom of candle. Let the candle dry out completely before burning.

Have you made candles before? This is an easy one! Remember if you have any queations, just post a comment and we’ll reply!
Cheers,
Jennifer & Kitty