Crafts

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MELT AND POUR

A great thing about making candles that there is minimal equipment needed. All you need is something to melt the wax in, a heat source,  some wax that you can buy in the arts and craft store, some wicks and coloring and scent but these last two things are optional. You also need a mold. You can buy one at the store or you can use an old coffee can, or plastic coke bottle or empty frozen juice container. You can use whatever your creativity and common sense put together tells you.   

Making Candle Molds 

Any container you've got in the house that is leak-proof and heat-resistant can make a good candle mold. If you want a really large candle use a really big coffee can. Or you can use a mason jar, cut the top off a 2 liter coke bottle and you have a candle with feet, or use an empty frozen fruit juice container. Then just heat and pour your wax like normal. Using this method you can make candles in just about any size and shape that you like. Basic Steps to Make Your Candle Creation Choose a type of wax melt and pour can be found as paraffin or soy. Check your arts and crafts store for the different types. You can add color or scent apply different objects such as sequins or pins or other ornamental piece. Making homemade candles is easy, there is minimal preparation and materials required and supply costs are minimal.  Choose basic paraffin to start with, and you can get started making candles. Most arts and craft stores sell medium to large blocks of candle wax. Block candle wax is usually unscented, and you can add your own scents and coloring to it. You can also melt down old candles to make your own ‘block’ for future use. This is an easy way to recycle old candles too!  

To make a basic paraffin pillar candle, you will need:   

A block of unscented paraffin wax  

Double boiler  

Candle mold  

1/8 cup vegetable oil  

Standard wick  

Shoe polish spray  

A clean towel  

HOW TO MAKE A BASIC CANDLE 

Melt the wax in a double boiler until it is liquid.  Rub the inside of your candle mold with vegetable oil. Pour about 1 inch of wax into the mold and insert your wick. Hold it in as best you can until it sets a bit and then fill the mold up to within a ½ inch of the top Tap the mold to release any air bubbles that may have accumulated. Let it set briefly; hold the wick as the candle sets.  The candle should come out of the mold very easily. Tap it on the side gently if it doesn’t.  Spray shoe polish on it to give it a nice finish. You can add color by either using wax dyes or by melting color crayons along with the wax. You may care to embellish you candles with sequins or glitter whatever your creativity tells you.  You can buy scented oil for wax candles at most arts and crafts store.  You should never pour hot wax down the sink, wear gloves when pouring to avoid uncomfortable burns, and take steps to make sure kids and pets aren’t near the hot wax.  Safety is so important!

HAND DIPPING CANDLES 

MATERIALS 

Double boiler  

2 to 3 lbs. paraffin wax, broken into chunks

Kitchen tongs 

Candle dyes or crayons (optional) 

Newspaper  

Wicking 

1 or 2 dipping sticks 

Heat source (a stove and a hot plate are suggested for this method.) 

Drying rack (narrow cardboard box with one side cut out) 

Pot holders 

Dry towel 

Fill the bottom pot ½ way with water. Pack about half the paraffin (cutting it up into chunks is suggested) into the top pot. Turn on the burner to medium-high. As the paraffin melts, add more chunks until the level is about 1 inch from the top of the can. It will take about an hour for all the wax to melt. If colored candles are what you want you can shave in broken crayons until you achieve the color you would like.  While the wax is melting, clear the dipping area and cover it--and the floor below--with newspaper. Measure out two 9-inch lengths of wicking and tie the pieces to the dipping sticks. Set up the hot plate, water bath and drying rack on the table. When the wax is melted, carry the can to the table using pot holders and place it on the hot plate, which you set on a low heat.  Prepare the wicks by tying one end to the dipping stick. Dip the wick into the wax, let it cool for a moment, and then pull it tight to make it straighten. Dip it in water and run the clean cotton cloth down the wick to dry it. Leave this wick on the rack, take the second wick and repeat the process. Continue this process until you have 2 candles that are about ½ inch in diameter.   

Beeswax Candles 

A cutting board 

A knife 

A double boiler 

A wick 

A sheet of bees wax 

Take your wick and measure it out so that it is about a half inch longer that the height you want the candle to be. Take the sheet of wax and put it on the cutting board. Melt some wax on the stove in a double boiler and place the wick in it so that the wick is covered with wax. Remove the wick; be careful it’s really hot. Let it stand a minute and then straighten it out. Place it on the very end of the sheet of wax and fold the end of the sheet over it and smash it down. Allow the extra ½ inch of wick to remain outside the candle. Roll the candle up carefully to get it even on both ends.

Potpourri is made of 3 distinctive parts: An essential oil, a fixative and dried material. The essential oil can be purely an enjoyable scent or for aromatherapy uses. The fixative is usually one of the following: Calamus root, Orris root or oak moss. The purpose of a fixative is to hold the scent. The dried material can be dried flowers of a particular scent or color.  

Calamus root (cut or powder) - Acorus calamus – Is a reed type plant that grows in the same environment as cat tails. The plant has been used widely through North America and china to treat many ailments. Generally one would use this in potpourri in its ground up state. You can purchase it in craft stores and on the web. 

Orris Root – Has a scent similar to violets. It comes in a powder form and is easily obtainable on the internet or in craft stores or even health food stores. 

Oak moss (Evernia prunastri) - herbs are a grayish, green little moss which is commonly found on oak trees across Northwestern America and Europe. These natural herbs are one of the classic base notes used in modern perfumery  The mixture: Basically the ratio is 4-6 different dried flowers and leaves and 3-4 herbs and spices to make a botanical blend. You'll need 2 cups fixative for every 4 cups of dried materials. The fixative then is scented by the essential oil drop by drop until the scent level is achieved. The fixative should be moistened not saturated.

Rose Blend

Rose oil –drops placed on fixative until you reach the scent desired. 

1 cup Orris root 

½ cup rose petals 

½ cup yellow pansies 

½ cup myrtle 

You mix the dried flowers then drop by drop you add the essential oil to the Orris root then sprinkle the Orris root on the dried flowers. You can place this in a glass jar open at the top. You may also want to get a potpourri warmer.

Sweet winter Blend 

1 cup calamus root  

Bayberry essential oil  

1 cup purple delphiniums 

½ cup white gompherena

 ½ cup cedar chips shavings. 

Summer strawberry Blend 

1 cup Orris root  

Strawberry oil 

1 cup Myrtle 

½ cup white gomphrena 

½ cup rose petals

Lavender Blend 

Lavender oil  

1 cup oak moss  

1 cup lavender  

½ cup myrtle  

½ cup blue static

Winterberry Christmas Potpourri 

Winterberry essential oil 

3 cups oaks moss 

1 cup Green Pine Needles 

1 cups Pine Cones - Mountain Pine 

2 cups Milo Berries (Cranberry) 

2 cups Rhododendron Leaves 

1 Cinnamon Stick

Orange Spice Potpourri 

1 cup Orange peel cut into small pieces 

1 cup Lemon peel cut into small pieces  

1 Tablespoon Anise  

1 Small Cinnamon Stick (about 1 inch)  

1 Tablespoon Allspice  

1 Tablespoon Whole Cloves  

1 cup Orris root  

Cinnamon essential oil  

Take your cinnamon oil and drop by drop scent the Orris root. When you have achieved the level of scent you may add the other ingredients. Place them in a jar and when you want to scent the house just open the jar.

Christmas Sachets

Sachets are wonderful for adding a little scent to drawer’s cabinets and interior rooms such as closets and the like. 1 cup Orris root Pine essential oil 1 cup fir needles 1 cup rosemary 1/2 cup basil 2 - 4 bay leaves crumbled Sachet bags can be purchased at craft stores or if you can sew you can easily make them yourself. Pour a little of the mix in a bag and place them wherever you would like in your home.

Infused method

The easiest method of making an essential oil is by steeping the plant material in jojoba oil carrier oil. 

During the summer you can put the Mason jar in the window but in the winter you may want to place it in a 

pan of warmish water to speed the process a bit. What you need is: 

1 pint sized Mason jar 

1/2 pint of carrier oil (jojoba oil) 

Muslin or cheese cloth  

Dark glass bottle with tight fitting lid. 

Plant material you want to make the essential oil from for this we will use lavender. 

Note: you need to buy quite a bit of lavender because the process is repeated 3 times.   

Instructions on To Make Essential Oils:  Pour the oil into the Mason jar then fill the rest of the jar with the lavender. 

Tightly cover it and put in the window sill for 48 hours. Be sure to shake it every 12 hours or so to mix the stuff. 

Open the jar and place a piece of muslin or cheese cloth over the opening and let it drain into a non reactive bowl. 

Allow the oil soaked lavender to fall into the muslin and squeeze out as much oil as you can. Put the oil back to the 

jar and add fresh material and repeat this process 2 more times. If the weather is gray and rainy or cold place the jar 

in a hot water bath in a slow cooker on low for 10 minutes every 24 hours. It will help speed the process. 

After the final straining, you can put the oil into a dark glass bottled. Health food stores carry these. 

The shelf life for your essential oil is 6 - 12 months if kept in a dry, dark, cool place.

I began my soap making adventure several years ago because my skin starting getting really dry. It seemed like it would be fun. I had a Crockpot and olive oil and a wand mixer….why not? Crock pot soap is so incredibly easy to do. As long as you use the safety devices it’s very safe and no...It won’t stink up your kitchen or leave a nasty taste at the back of your throat.

The materials you will need are   

1. Safety goggles  

2. Rubber gloves  

3. Long sleeve shirt  

4. Wand mixer  

5. Crockpot  

6. Lye calculator-you can find these on the internet. https://www.soapguild.org/tools-and-resources/product-price-calculators/lye/ is a great ly calculator. you can choose from a wide assortmen of oils.

7. Oil  

8. Sodium hydroxide for bar soap and Potassium Hydroxide for liquid soap.  

9. Spring water  

10. Scale 

11. Soap molds

To begin with, this guide is for making castile soap or variation thereof. Castile soap goes back to 1616 in the Castile area of Spain. The history of soap itself goes back much farther. The earliest recorded evidence of the production of soap-like materials dates back to around 2800 BC in Ancient Babylon. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC. The Ebers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) indicates that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly and combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance. Egyptian documents mention that a soap-like substance was used in the preparation of wool for weaving. Cleopatra credited her complexion with the use of mare’s milk in soap. However this substance is not like what you see today. Soap is made by cooking fats and oils with toxic materials such as lye, caustic soda or potash. You must have just the right combination of ingredients and just the right measurement of these ingredients for the soap to be usable and not to goopy or not too grainy.      

As with all things, people began to specialize in the manufacturing of soap. The best soaps were known to come from the Castile region of Spain, where olive oil instead of animal fat was used in the making of the soap. The wealthy classes in Europe used Castile soap for hundreds of years. In the American colonies, people made their own soaps at home. They made lye by mixing burnt wood ashes with water in a bucket. The lye dripped out of holes drilled in the bottom of the bucket. They got the fat they needed from the butchering of livestock. The animal fat was melted and mixed with the lye until it formed soap. As you can imagine, it was a nauseating (and dangerous) process. In America, the first commercial soap making companies came on the scene in the early 1800s. People were happy not to have to make their soap anymore and these early soap entrepreneurs were very successful. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I don’t have to make soap that way! That just seems nasty….        

So today we can go shopping for soap. Have you ever read the labels? I can’t pronounce half the words and I sure have no clue where they come from. Well probably the lab. So I digress. We don’t want to shop for soap...we want to make it. Out of natural ingredients. We’ll start with the oils. There are many different oils you can use to make soap. Some are vegetable and some animal. Castile soap as it is made today is made with only vegetable oil. Back in the day it was only olive oil but today it is all inclusive. Oils are weighed out as are the other ingredients. All oils weigh different amounts and therefore have different lye ratios. That’s why it’s so important to use a lye calculator .The one I listed is the best on the internet because you can create your own soap recipe and save it. Also you can use a variety of different oils in combination for different purposes. You can create soap for dry skin and medium skin and oily skin. You can add exfoliant and colors and scents. Use your creativity to make the perfect soap for you

Vegetable Fats & Oils 

Almond Oil, Sweet-Almond oil is used to remedy dry skin conditions, as a carrier or base oil to blend essential oils and for a variety of skin care and cosmetic products. Because it is a Light oil it is fully absorbed by the skin and has a lot of vitamin e in it. coupled with its excellent emollient and nourishing properties, promotes a soft and smooth skin.  It can actually dislodge dirt and debris that gets caught in skin pores, thus preventing acne and blackheads. Almond oil is recommended for use in the treatment of eczema and psoriasis.

Apricot Kernel Oil-For soap making, apricot kernel oil is recommended. Apricot Kernel oil adds a conditioning asset to soap. Use it in moderation. Apricot kernel oil is easily absorbed by the skin without leaving it feeling oily or greasy. It is high in poly-unsaturated fatty acids. Since apricot oil helps to soothe inflammation, it is particularly beneficial for dehydrated, delicate, mature and sensitive skin.

Scenting Oils - There are two types of scenting oils, fragrance oils, which are man-made and contain alcohol and essential oils which are natural. The alcohol in fragrance oils tends to cause problems in soap making so essential oils are normally used. You can make the essential oils yourself and use them as one of your base oils. They may also be added at the trace stage

Superfatting Soap - This means that oils or fats have been left in the soap unconverted by the lye either because the amount of lye was decreased to allow some fat/oil to remain or oil/fat was added at the trace stage after the mix had saponified. (In lay terms saponification means that the lye/water and oils have been mixed and brought to a trace stage where at this point the lye has been mostly neutralized. Any oil added at this stage will basically remain unchanged in the final soap bar) The method of adding additional fat to the soap mixture after it has saponified has an advantage in that it allows the soap maker to better control what oil is left in the soap. Adding the extra oil at this time keeps it in its natural state, and ready to instantly moisturize your skin as you use the soap. When superfatting your soap at the trace stage makes sure you use the 1% excess fat lye amount. Otherwise the soap will be too oily because it will not only contain the oil you add at the trace stage but will also have excess fat from a lack of lye.  Superfatting soap by decreasing the lye content eliminates the step of adding oil at trace but decreases the control that the soap maker has over what oil is left in the soap. For example, if 5% cocoa butter was added as part of the base oil (say 95% Olive Oil) and the lye amount was calculated for a 5% excess fat level the excess fat in the soap would be made up of a combination of Olive oil and cocoa butter with most of the excess fat being Olive oil. If the same batch was mixed using just Olive Oil at a 1% excess fat level and the cocoa butter was added at the trace stage you would know that the final soap bar contained 1% olive oil and 5% cocoa butter. The cocoa butter would have in this case been unaffected by the lye since it was added after the soap had traced.  (NOTE - When adding oils at the trace stage (superfatting) is sure to use a lye calculatation that gives you about 1% excess fat. When using the Soap-Calculator program or any other lye calculator do not include the oils that you will be adding at trace in the calculation)

Trace - The point at which the soap/lye mixture begins to thicken. At this point the solution is about 80-90% saponified and essential oils, superfatting oils, colors, additives, etc. can be added without their characteristics being changed substantially by the saponification process.

Unsaturated Fat - Oils that are in a liquid form. They need to be mixed with saturated fats at the base oil stage in order to create a hard bar.

Lye- Now a little bit about Lye. It’s really dangerous. Keep vinegar handy when making soap. If you spill any on you pour some on the area. The vinegar will neutralize the burn and lye does burn. Lye, also known as sodium hydroxide, is a key ingredient in the soap making reaction called saponification. Although this chemical is essential to produce mild handmade soaps, the substance in an unadulterated form is extremely alkaline and caustic.   Sodium hydroxide is leached from wood ash using water. In this process, Soft water (rain water or water from a dehumidifier) must be used because it lacks unwanted substance like calcium, magnesium and acidic chemicals that may react with the sodium hydroxide.  The ashes used in this process must be white ashes only. This type of ash is the result of burning wood at extreme temperatures. Because of lye's harsh properties, caution must be used when working with it. When handling this caustic chemical, always wear rubber gloves and thick outerwear. And now to get completely scientific on you!

Saponification is the hydrolysis of an ester under basic conditions to form an alcohol and the salt of a carboxylic acid (carboxylates). Saponification is commonly used to refer to the reaction of a metallic alkali (base) with a fat or oil to form soap. Saponifiable substances are those that can be converted into soap.

Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is a caustic base. If NaOH is used a hard soap is formed, whereas when potassium hydroxide (KOH) is used, a soft soap is formed. Vegetable oils and animal fats are fatty esters in the form of triglycerides. The alkali breaks the ester bond and releases the fatty acid salt and glycerol. If necessary, soaps may be precipitated by salting it out with saturated sodium chloride. The saponification value is the amount of base required to saponify a fat sample.  Ok basically that means you need oil (fatty acids) and lye (alkaline) and combining them and heating it up makes soap...hey that was much easier right. So anyways….to sum this up you need protective gear so you don’t burn yourself, you need oil, you need lye and water to mix the lye in. Please be sure to keep some vinegar handy just in case you get the lye on you. Pour the vinegar on and it will neutralize the lye.

Are you ready to start….I am!

Get out your scale for this recipe you need...

20 ounces of olive oil 

20 ounces of Grapeseed oil. Olive oil is awesome for your skin and Grapeseed oil lathers incredibly...olive oil doesn’t. 

5.5 ounces (measure by weight) of sodium hydroxide. I get mine at the hardware store up the street you have to look in the plumbing section. 

Put 12 ounces (liquid not by weight everything else is by weight) of water in a glass measuring cup...Pyrex is good. You always pour the lye into the water the other way around creates a lye fountain...not good!. Put the lye and water mixture aside. It’s very hot be careful. Safety at this point is essential. You put the Crockpot on high and pour your oil in. wait for the oil to hit about 180 degrees. When the oil and the lye mixture are the same temperature pour them in together. Use your wand mixer to give it a swirl. It will thicken and become 1 solid color with bubbles around the edges. As time goes by the bubbles will get bigger...you can just leave it alone or you can stir it...either way it works. Personally I place the cover on the Crockpot and I do something else. Although the first time I did this I sat and watched with amazement. The bubbles over time create a soap island. At the end it’s all bubbles. At this point I turn off the Crockpot and wait a few minutes for it to cool just a little bit. Then I add any coloring or scents or goats milk to it and I mix it really well. Yes really it’s that easy.