How to Make Beeswax Candles
Before we get to the nitty gritty of how to make beeswax candles, let’s discuss the relevance of beeswax in human history and why it continues to be the candle material of choice for creating high end candles.
Beeswax is a byproduct of the honey-creation process in beehives. Worker bees create honey and wax simultaneously, making it possible for beekeepers to harvest wax and honey simultaneously. However, the creation of beeswax is dependent on how fast the honeybees worked, and how often the beekeepers harvested these materials.
Throughout history, candle makers have known that beeswax is the best candle raw material for making church candles. Before molds were invented, beeswax candles were painstakingly created by hand, which was time consuming and labor intensive. When container candles and molds came in, beeswax candles became easier to create, and has been the candle material of choice for religious rituals.
One of the main reasons why specialists still used beeswax despite the cost of buying the raw materials is the scent. Honey gives off a peculiar sweet scent that is almost hypnotic in its essence. You can never get tired of smelling it. The best thing about the scent of beeswax candles is that it’s not cloyingly sweet; but rather gives a pleasant and gentle olfactory stimulation.
Beeswax turns into a sticky mass when melted, so most candle makers have created strategies to maximize the flexibility of beeswax.
With beeswax, you can melt beeswax and create candles according to the usual methods used for other types of waxes (paraffin, soy, etc.), or you can take the beeswax sheets and create candles by rolling them (appropriately called “rolled beeswax candles”). In the latter method, you don’t have to melt the beeswax all the way, so you can use whole sheets as is. In the former, you can use granules or blocks of beeswax (usually cheaper than sheets).
Melted beeswax can be poured in containers or molds to create uniquely shaped candles. You might need to invest a lot on releasing agents to prevent the sticky beeswax from clinging to the mold, but on the whole, beeswax candles form well and take on the shape of the molds easily as soon as poured.
The “easier” method of processing your beeswax is rolling it. You don’t need to heat the already flexible beeswax sheet but you will need to knead very carefully to ensure that you don’t break the honeycomb pattern on the beeswax. This will require patience and firm but gentle handling.
Here are some more tips on how to craft “rolled beeswax candles”. You will need to cut the sheets of beeswax into rectangular shapes, around 8 by 16 inch sheets. You will have to prime your wick before usage. Wick priming simply means coating the wick in melted beeswax and letting it dry. The wick should be 1/3 inch longer than the width of the beeswax sheet so measurements and cutting should be precise. Place the wick at the end of the sheet and roll the ends firmly around the wick. This is probably the only time you will have to use a firm pressure on the beeswax so that the wick can be snugly enclosed in the fold.
If you’re familiar with baking and have tried rolling dough in the past, you might discover that you’re good at making rolled beeswax candles. The question is, “what if you end up pressing too hard and breaking the beeswax?” If this happens, you might want to consider trying the traditional method instead. Just take the broken or damaged beeswax sheets and melt them for container candle making.
