Pouring candles with children

What you need:

• Casting molds or suitable vessels
• Candle scraps or casting wax
• colored wax or colored pastilles
• wick
• Tin cans
• Pots
• Sand (for example bird sand)
• Dough
• Shish kebab sticks
• small ladles, measuring spoons or the like
• Parchment paper
• stove

How to prepare for watering

• Find suitable molds. You can use standard candle molds. But empty packaging, such as sliced, narrow beverage cartons, yoghurt cups or coffee cans are also very suitable. For egg-shaped candles, use blown-out eggs, carefully enlarging an opening for filling.
• If you are not using special candle molds, it is advisable to put the molds in a vessel with a little sand while you are pouring them. Prepare appropriate storage facilities. These can be bowls, pots or boxes into which you put some moistened sand.
• Casting wax from the craft shop, candle scraps or inexpensive household candles are all possible casting materials.
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• The household candles provide you with the wick at the same time. Either carefully cut it out or you melt the candles and get the wick out of the liquid wax. Otherwise, buy wick from a craft store. Using regular cotton thread is not recommended as candle wick is braided in a specific way.
• So that the children can also get creative, prepare two or three different waxes Colours before. To do this, either sort your candle scraps according to color or color the wax with coloring pastilles or pigments from the craft store.


Make candles yourself for Christmas

At Christmas and during Advent they spread their cozy light and help ...

• Melt the wax in a hot water bath. That's why you need a tin can and a matching pot for each color.
• By using wax splinters, you can achieve special effects when pouring candles. If you want to make some yourself, place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet or other wide shape and pour the melted wax on top. The children can later break the solidified wax sheets into pieces. Use is described in the second section.
• If you want to do handicrafts with smaller children, prepare the wick as well. To do this, tie one end of the wick around a shashlik stick with a double knot. If you are not using a special candle mold, poke a small hole in the bottom of the mold and thread the other end of the wick inside out. Tighten the wick and fix it to the outer bottom of the mold with a little modeling clay, which also seals the small opening at the same time. As the form can then no longer stand securely, place it in a container with sand as described above.

This is how the children make different candles

1. Melt the wax in a water bath. The water shouldn't boil. Once the wax is almost completely melted, turn off the stove. Explain to the children that the wax is hot and that they should be careful with it.
2. The children now have several options for designing their candles. The simplest is a single-colored candle. To do this, the children fill the liquid wax into the candle mold with a small trowel or spoon. After solidification, a depression usually forms in the middle, which can still be filled with liquid wax.
3. If the candle is to have layers of different colors, the children only partially fill the mold and allow the wax to solidify before pouring the next layer. If the mold is positioned at an angle, the individual layers will also run at an angle. The shape only needs to be straight for the last layer. Of course, these candles need a little more time. During the waiting times, the children can, for example, make wax splinters or pour other candles.
4. If the children first fill the mold with wax splinters and then pour liquid wax of a different color over it, interesting color effects are created. In this case, the liquid wax should not be too hot so that the wax splinters do not melt immediately.
5. It takes at least an hour for the candles to completely solidify, and longer for larger candles. Detach the candles from the molds. If that doesn't work right away, dip the mold briefly in hot water and pull the candle out immediately. You can also carefully cut shapes made of cardboard or thin plastic.
6. Remove the wooden stick and trim the wick. The candles are now ready.