How To Make Floating Candles

We love the romantic look of floating candles! We made these pretty flower candles using a silicone baking mold. It’s amazing how many wonderful molds are out there and we’ll show you how to adapt them to make candles.

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How To Make Floating Flower Candles

Materials
Silicone flower-shaped cake molds
Premium wax for pillars
Red dye block
Gardenia candle scent
Large bleached flat braid wicking
Mold sealer
Vybar wax additive

Tools
Cutting board
Chisel
Hammer
Pyrex measuring cup
Sauce pan
Candle making thermometer
Chopstick
Pyrex measuring cup
Potato peeler
Scissors
White index card
Scale
Teaspoon
Paper towels
Chopstick
Oven mitts
Skewers
Awl

Steps
1. Weighing The Wax: To do this, place the mold on the scale and zero it out. (Or write down the weight of the mold to subtract from the weight when filled.) Fill the mold with water and weigh it again. This is approximately how much wax you will need. (We used individual molds, so we weighed one mold and multiplied by the number of molds we wanted to make.) Cut the wax into small chunks using the chisel, hammer, and cutting board. Weigh out the wax for the volume of the mold you are using, then add 2 ounces (in case as spills or sticks to the melting container.) We used 12 ounces for 4 molds.

Here’s a video we made showing how we wicked the silicone cake molds to turn them into candle molds.

We created a video course on candle making (ten candles!) on Curious.com. All you have to do is sign up with your email. (It’s a really fun site so it’s worth it.) Here’s a link to our course.

2. Preparing The Wick: Make a hole in the bottom of the mold with the awl. Feed the wicking through the hole at bottom of mold leaving about one inch of wick. Coil the end of the wick. Roll the mold sealer into a ball and press it over the coiled wick to seal the bottom of the mold. Tie other end of the wick to a skewer and prop it across the top of the mold. Trim off excess wicking. (We cut the six flower cavities apart to make the whole project more manageable. That way, you can make just one flower candle or a few.)

3. Melting The Wax and Adding Color & Scent: Melt the wax in a double boiler to 210°F. Add 1 teaspoon of vybar. Stir with a chopstick until melted. Shave a few carrot curls of color off the dye block onto the index card using the potato peeler. Add the shavings to the melted wax and stir. Test the color by dripping a few drops onto an index card. Add more color if desired. Add 2 teaspoons of liquid candle scent to the wax. Pour the wax into the molds and recenter the wicks.

4. Unmolding The Candles: Let the candles cool completely. Remove the skewers. Remove the mold sealer from the bottom of the molds. Unmold the candles. If they do not release from the molds, refrigerate for 10 minutes then try again. They should slip right out. Trim the bottom wicks flush and trim the top wicks to 1/4″.

Light the candles then float them on a pool or in a dish of water. What makes them float? they are wax and wax floats! Let us know if you make them!
Cheers,
Jennifer & Kitty

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