Casting Heart Shaped Candles in a Silicone Baking Mold

This is my first instructable and also my first time making candles. I did this project together with my 12-year-old daughter and it wasn't at all difficult. I encourage you to try it if you are like me and save all your old candle stubs.

You need:

• Old candle stubs or candle wax
• A container to melt the candle wax in (I have a tall copper container with a handle but a glass jar or metal can would do)
• A pot with water (don't heat the candle wax directly on the stove)
• Candlewick (I bought a pack, but realized that some candle stubs will leave a long enough candlewick behind after being molten and this is perfect to reuse)
• Something to secure the candlewick with (I used clothespins, but there are many solutions out there)
• A silicone baking mold

Also good to have is:

• Aluminium foil (to protect the stove from candle wax)
• A pair of chopsticks (good to have when handling hot candle wax)
• Crayons to decorate and colour the candles with

Heat up the water in a pot on the stove so that it barely is boiling. Melt the old candle stubs in a container in the hot water. The amount in the picture took less than 10 minutes to melt.

Cut the candlewick to a suitable length and secure it to the clothespin and dip it into the molten candle wax. The chopsticks came in handy as separators when the mold was too full. You can also use some of the old candlewicks that you fish out from the molten wax with your chopsticks.

Wait an hour or so for the candles to cool down and solidify. It is super easy to remove the candles from the silicone mold. Cut the candlewick to a suitable length.

The next step was to spice up the candles a bit with some colors. We used old crayons as coloring agents. I used a hammer to crush the crayons in a plastic bag. I did that outdoors on an old concrete slab.

Melt more candle stubs and make new candles.

We tried different versions of coloring.

1. Putting some crushed crayons in the bottom of the mold and then pouring molten wax on top gives a nice pattern in the bottom and a bit of a color gradient to the candle.
2. First pouring molten wax and then filling up with crushed crayons after a while gives a white candle with speckles of color, but also a bit rough surface to the candle.
3. We also tried melting the blue crayons together with the candle wax to give blue-colored candles.
4. The last attempt was to make layered candles with one dark blue and one light blue layer. Somehow the layers separated during cooling. Perhaps we have to pour the second layer while the first layer is still warm?

The candle wax will shrink during cool down and we tried topping up in some cases. This resulted in layered candles the didn't quite stick together.

Feel free to experiment with other combinations - good luck with your candle making!