Ice Candles / Happy Solstice

Happy Winter Solstice!



December 21st. is the shortest day of the year, so it's a great time to make some wintery looking candles to give light and warmth.



The storage locker was not kind to my candy cane striped candles this year. When I took them out of the box this morning, every single one was cracked.



I had been wanting wax to make ice candle, so instead of buying any, I just used a pocket knife to peel off all of the red and white stripes from the outside of the candles, and then melted them down.

An old juice can made a fine disposable top level for a double boiler.

I had been saving various sizes of wax coated cardboard cartons ( from eggnog, milk, and half and half) for this purpose. Those were the candle molds. For a round pillar candle, the containers from frozen concentrated juices work well.



A wick was tied to a popcycle stick, which rested on the lip of the open carton, and small ice cubes and crushed ice were dropped into the carton until it was full. The melted wax was then poured in on top of the ice, covering the ice completely.

The carton was set aside for about an hour and then the cardboard carton was ripped and peeled off to reveal the candle (be sure to do this over a sink, because the water from the melted ice will come gushing out).



The candles were left in the sink for another couple of hours to melt more and dry out.

I displayed ours on a wood tray that had been painted silver. After the candles were placed on the tray, I covered the tray with clear marbles, because they reminded me of ice, and I like the way they reflect the candle light.

I made a lot of ice candles when I was a teenager and I've always enjoyed the unique, freeform way they turn out. Like snowflakes, no two ice candles are ever alike.