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Candle Making Supplies: Make Your Own Molds

March 9, 2015 by Homestead Lady 17 Comments

Candle Making Supplies l Make your own candle molds from upcycled materials l Hometead Lady (.com) l A DIYAre you looking for a fun wax craft for the kids but don’t want to spend too much on candle making supplies? Or are you a seasoned candle maker looking to reduce your materials costs with easy upcycled materials? Come learn how to make your own candle molds from materials you probably already have on hand.


The Why of Making Your Own Candle Supplies

If you’re new to candle making, the first thing you learn, apart from the fact that it’s really fun, is that it can be expensive. For one thing, it’s a bit addictive to take wax and wick and produce a real, usable candle. The more you make, the more candle stuff you need. Candle molds (for poured candles) are one of the higher-priced items.

So, before you dash to the craft store, go to your recycling bin to get your candle making supplies. You can make your own candle molds with upcycled materials and a hot glue gun.

FYI, if you’re really a candle nerd, I suggest you expand your repertoire with my friend Chris’s fantabuous book on beeswax and the many, many things you can do with it – including candle making! Check it out on Amazon below – I think I’m going to try making modeling clay from beeswax after I’m done with this batch of candles.

Candle Making Supplies

There are certainly other ways you can make your own candle supplies, though they’re not quite as straight forward as upcycling candle molds. There are methods to spin and ply your own candle wicking, for example. If you keep bees, you can also get a decent supply of beeswax built up to use for candle making. Extracting and cleaning beeswax is certainly an investment in time, though.

To begin some place a little simpler with crafting your own candle making supplies, may I suggest you savvy shoppers start with the humble candle mold?

Make your own molds

Here are some ideas for upcycled candle molds:

Upcycled Glass Jars:

The most obvious – Glass jars previously used to house candles. You know you have some in your house somewhere! Those glass, lidded jars, with the embarrassed remnant of some seasonal candle still stuck in the bottom? You never did throw it out because, and rightly so, you thought it had to be useful for something.

  1. Dig out the wax and wash as much of the previous sticker off as you can (if it had one).
  2. Put the jar onto a jelly roll pan, and put it in the oven. Set the oven temp as low as it will go.
  3. Watch the wax in the mold until melts. As soon as it’s melted enough, pour out the wax into a foil lined container to add to your candle wax stash. (Doesn’t everyone have one of those?)
  4. With a paper towel in one hand and a hot mitt on the other, carefully wipe the warm wax out of the container until it’s gone.
  5. If the wax starts to harden, just put it back in the oven for a minute.

Voila, brand new jar to use for a poured candle! To learn to make new candles from old candles, visit this link from Tenth Acre Farm. If you have tea cups to upcycle into candles, here’s the perfect post for you from Untrained Housewife.

Upcycled Plastic Bottles or Milk Cartons

The easiest – An orange juice bottle, or a milk carton.

Any paper carton will do, but the individual serving size cartons are probably the best. This is especially true if you’re making candles with kids, and don’t want to spend a small fortune in wax to make larger candles. However, if you decide to go large and use something like a half gallon-size milk carton (big candle!), just make sure you use enough wick to keep it burning.

To learn a little bit more about what wick to use, and what effects wick use, just visit this link.

To learn more about making your own candle mold from a plastic container, please visit this link. Basically, you cut off the top of the bottle and insert a wick. Using a candle wick with its own metal base will help keep the wick stable. If you need to create your own hole for a wick, the video can show you how – it’s simple, I promise!

FYI, those flimsy plastic water bottles aren’t thick enough to deal with the hot wax so don’t bother using them. You also don’t want anything too ribbed, or you’ll never get your candle out of the mold.

Make Your Own Cardboard Mold

The most fun – Cardboard in many shapes and sizes.

The first mold you try to make with cardboard should be a toilet paper tube, with a hot-glued, flat cardboard bottom (see the photo below).

  1. Stand one toilet paper tube up onto a scrap square of cardboard.
  2. Using hot glue, secure the tube to the square base.
  3. Allow the glue to dry completely before filling about an inch from the top with melted wax.
  4. Insert a wick (see instructions below).
  5. Allow your candle to dry at least 24 hours before tearing away the cardboard mold.

Candle Making Supplies Make Your Own Molds Out of Almost Anything l Homestead Lady (.com)To Insert a Wick

  1. Measure the length of wick needed by holding it up to the outside of your homemade mold. Use that measurement, plus an inch or two, and cut your wick.
  2. Insert your wick into your mold until it reaches the bottom. Wrap the excess wick at the top around a small stick or a nail so that the wick is straight and touches the bottom of the candle.
  3. Place the stick or nail across the opening of the mold so that it balances on top and keep the wick in the center of the mold for even burning.

A Note on Inserting Wicks:

The easiest wicking to use for control and straightness is wired wick. You can buy wicking with a small, flexible wire running down the center in spools at most craft stores. This wire enables you to control the wick and keep it straight as it goes down the length of your mold.

If you don’t have wick with wire in it, you can wrap the end of your wick securely around a small pebble or coin and place that in the bottom of your mold. The pebble will act like an anchor for your wick, keeping it straight. Be sure not to pull to hard and remove your wick from the bottom of the mold. You don’t want your wick to end up halfway up your candle!

Likewise, you can puncture the bottom of your candle mold and feed one end of the wick through the hole. Tie a secure knot at the end of the wick and pull the remaining length up through the mold. Secure the top of the wick as described in the instructions, keeping the wick straight. You’ll need a bit of clay or even glue on the underside of the mold surrounding the area where your knotted wick is placed. Without that clay or glue, you’ll get hot wax leaking out around the hold you made.

Candle Making with Kids

Making candles, as well as making your own candle making supplies, are fun activities to do with children, so be sure to include them.

To learn more about teaching candle making to kids, please visit this link.

If you have candles you’d like to decorate for gift giving, try this method – click here. Decorate Candles Tapers or Pillars with Colored Bees Wax l DIY holiday gifts and decorations kids can make l Homestead Lady.co

Here’s how to make crushed ice candles from Simple Life Mom.

Joybilee Farm teaches us how to make the perfect taper candles, for which you won’t need a mold.

Here are some simple melt and pour soy candles from Mama Kautz and some tallow candles from Homesteading Hippy.

Candle Making Supplies Makde Your Own l Glue, pour wax, peel and enjoy l Homestead Lady (.com)

For more ideas on how to save money and live green on the homestead, be sure to check out the Homestead Finances and Green the Homestead chapters of our book, The Do It Yourself Homestead. Don’t have your own copy of the book? Click here – we’re saving one just for you. With 400 pages of homesteading information,  over four different levels of homesteading experience, there’s bound to be something there for you! We eat homestead DIYs for breakfast, man. If you’d like a free sample from either of those chapters, simply email me at Tessa@homesteadlady.com and I’ll get you set up.

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Alternative pin cover photo for this post gratefully attributed to this Pexels user.

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Filed Under: Green Living Tagged With: Family Time, Festive, Green Living, Homestead Craft, Homestead Holidays, Homestead Question, Kids on the Homestead, Make it Yourself

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tammy Landers says

    April 23, 2017 at 12:42 pm

    Any bottle making suggestions

    Reply
    • Homestead Lady says

      April 24, 2017 at 3:04 pm

      Thanks for stopping by, Tammy!

      Do you mean, suggestions for how to make a bottle into a candle mold? I’m glad you asked because there’s a video hyperlinked in the post on how to make a mold out of a plastic bottle, but the link was incorrect and I wasn’t aware of the mistake. Since you’ve asked, I was able to fix it – thank you! If you look under the section “Upcycled Plastic Bottles or Milk Cartons,” you’ll find a link for the video tutorial.

      Let me know if you have other questions and have fun with your candles!

      Reply
    • Savanah Shanesia says

      April 16, 2019 at 11:45 pm

      Hi, would you be able to suggest an idea about how I would go about, making a taper candle mold, thanks in advance.

      Reply
      • Homestead Lady says

        April 17, 2019 at 7:24 pm

        Good questions, Savanah! My first suggestion would be to learn to roll or dip candles, if you want tapers. It may take longer, but it will probably be less bother. If you happen to come across a sturdy cardboard tube that’s thin enough, that would certainly work. Just attach a bottom to it, as it details in the post. You can also purchase taper molds. If you make them a lot, it would be worth the investment. The molds are metal and re-usable.

        Hope that’s helpful!

        Reply
        • Savanah Shanesia says

          April 18, 2019 at 12:44 am

          Thank you so much for that, I appreciate the suggestion it was really helpful

          Reply
  2. ChecheNZ says

    December 25, 2018 at 8:20 pm

    Thanks for this! I was about to buy a candle mold but have now decided to try making some candles out of old toilet paper rolls. Great way to put them to good use.

    Reply
    • Homestead Lady says

      December 26, 2018 at 8:11 pm

      So glad it was helpful! Have fun with your candles!

      Reply
    • Sarah says

      December 24, 2020 at 7:56 pm

      You can make a lot of things out of toilet tissue rolls!!!!

      Reply
      • Sarah says

        December 24, 2020 at 7:58 pm

        What can you use for wicks if you don’t have any?

        Reply
        • Homestead Lady says

          December 31, 2020 at 4:22 am

          There are a few good blog post tutorials on how to make your own wick from cotton string – some more complex than others. You can also try your hand a wooden wicks – more online tutorials for that! The basic idea is that you use thin, dry wood soaked in oil and then trim them to size for your candle. It’s very worth learning to make your own, if you end up a happy candle nerd (which I confess to being).

          Modern wicks are twined and soaked and engineered to not smoke and burn evenly, so they’re really good at what they do. You can buy spools in bulk, which can save you some money. You can also find wooden wicks for sale, if you’d like to experiment with store bought first.

          Was that helpful? Need more ideas? Just let me know!

          Reply
  3. Pamela Scott says

    March 20, 2019 at 5:23 pm

    I tried the toilet paper roll with glue stick to seal the bottom to another piece of cardboard but when I poured the wax in, it melted the glue and poured out everywhere. Is there a trick to keeping the glue hard and not melt so the wax can set? It seems if candle wax get too cooled down, it will become somewhat lumpy looking. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

    Reply
    • Homestead Lady says

      March 21, 2019 at 3:15 am

      I’m so sorry you’re having a hard time, Pamela! My first guess is that, perhaps, the molds weren’t allowed to sit for 24 hours to cool completely? Is that the case? My second guess is that you might have low temp glue, which will melt at 260F, and that you might be overheating your wax. Paraffin will melt around 100F and bees wax at around 145F. Have you checked the temp of your wax?

      I’m sure we can get this figured out between the two of us, if we put our heads together. I’m offline for a few more days with a large project and just happened to see this. May I check back with you when I get back?

      Reply
    • Homestead Lady says

      March 25, 2019 at 7:21 pm

      Ok, I’m back, Pamela! Any updates or ideas on your end? How can I help?

      Reply
  4. Tara says

    December 31, 2020 at 3:37 am

    Are you using 100% beeswax to make your candles, or a blend of beeswax and oil? What kind of wick is used in your egg carton candles? Those are so cute. 🙂

    Reply
    • Homestead Lady says

      December 31, 2020 at 4:26 am

      I usually use paraffin wax when I’m fiddling around with new molds or making a lot of candles at once, especially with children. Paraffin isn’t the greatest product (it is petroleum based), but it takes dye well and is economical. I use bees wax for special molds and tapers, especially if I’m giving them as a gift – it’s the best substance on earth. It is pricier, though.

      You can add fragrance oil to your candles, if you’d like, but you won’t need it with bees wax because it has a wonderful fragrance all its own.

      With the egg carton candles, I use paraffin with candle dye. You can also use melted crayons for color, in a pinch – they’re not as even or as tempered as actual candle dye, but they’ll make some fun colors.

      Reply
  5. Tara says

    December 31, 2020 at 3:38 am

    Also, I can’t seem to use the Contact page to send you a question. There appears to be some kind of error on that page. I was wondering if the 12 Day of Christmas book is an e-book or hard copy.

    Reply
    • Homestead Lady says

      December 31, 2020 at 4:28 am

      I’m sorry the contact page isn’t working – we’re doing some website work and things are still wonky. The Christmas book is an e-book with printables – so, you can print it all off, or just the printable pages. I’m happy to send you a sample, if you’d like to see inside it. Just email me at tessa@homesteadlady.com.

      Reply

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