Candle Making Craft 4u

So that a candle has a good burn right through it is important that the wick is straight but that does not happen on its own so you need to take precautions that the wick does stay straight when you have made your candle.  Wind the wick around the stick and it will hold firm.

Here are several items that you can use to secure the wick at the top of the mold:

• on a smaller mold, an ice block stick
• a chop stick
• a pencil with flat sides – a builders pencil Read the rest of this entry »

When you are making candles one point to remember is to trim the wicks correctly.  Keep candle wicks trimmed to 1/4″ and not less but not over 1/2″ or the canadle will smoke.

If you are having trouble with your candles smoking it is probablybecause the wicks are too long.

People think that keeping a long wick will give a higher flame, and this is true to a certain extent, but the do not realise that it does cause the candle to smoke and also the candle does not really burn as well.

Sometimes candles do smoke if they are caught in a wind, but again this is usually only if the wick is too long.

Interesting articles from the web

• Keep Spent Candles In Your Sock Drawer (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Letter Re: Building a Supply of Long-Burning Candles (survivalblog.com)

For the beginner candle maker there are quite a few challenges in choosing the right wick to do the job.   For this reason it is probably a good idea to only buy a few wicks at a time.

The pre-tabbed wicks are very good in that they are coated with a high melt wax and with the round tin base and the small neck they stand straight and this makes for better burning as the candle burns to a lower level.

The reason that using the right wick is so important is because it affects the burning factor of the candle.  Over time you will become more adept at choosing the right wick for the job so to help you do this, take notes so that you know what wick you have used in what candle, the wax type, the fragrance you chose and so on.  Because you will most likely make all sorts of different shaped and sizes of candles keep a note of the height and the width of the candle.

This is the way to find out what is the perfect burn factor for the candles that you want to make.

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It is possible to buy pretabbed and prewaxed wicks, but it is up to you what you buy.  Wicks are a very important part of candle making because of the burn factor.  You will need to research this, especially if you are making more novelty candles.  You will get plenty of help from a good supplier.

Have in mind what you want to make when you talk to your supplier and some details about the mold that you will be using and then they will be able to help you more accurately.

The wick thickness and make of the wick will make a big difference to the burn that you will get from the candle.  It will make a difference to the length of time that the candle will burn and whether the wick will stay alight or go out.  The width of the mold that is used is a determining factor on the size of the wick that will be used.

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