Crayon Candles. A pretty but not a functional project.

Every Valentine's day my daughter joins me to create a project I can share with all of you and she can give it to her friends for Valentine.

Cake pops and clay charms were done in previous years, and when she talked to me about her plans for this year I was really excited because it was something I have never done. Candles!

She explained to me she had seen many videos on how to make candles using crayons. She loved the colors and it was something she wanted to make to give to her friends. 

Well, I jump right in :) 

An immediate trip to Michael's and the Dollar store followed.  We got wax, scents, wicks, glass votives... All in all, it was like thirty-something bucks spent and we hurried back home to begin working.

We were happy to get rid use the many crayons we've accumulated throughout the years.

She took charge of the project, I was simply photographing the process.  

I was surprised when I saw her using Superglue to attach the wick to the votive. I couldn't help but think of how expensive would it be if all the candle makers use this kind of glue for the same purpose. She reassured me it was safe and even better than anything else because that kind of glue was pretty strong (yeah, I know).

The crayons got broken and each color was placed inside a paper cup.

The big bar of wax we bought had to be broken into little pieces, well, we didn't use all the bar, not even a quarter of it.  The bar of scent was also broken down into smaller chunks.

Wax and scent pieces were added to the crayons.  When I asked for how much wax and scent to crayon ratio she was using .... Her answer was "Oh, it doesn't matter, the videos said a couple of chunks are OK"  hmmm really?

I let her continue, after all, SHE was in charge! 

Although, a moment later when she told me it was time to melt all the ingredients in the microwave,  I said NO! 

I just pictured myself cleaning wax off my microwave walls and I had to stop that from happening, so the stove was put to good use ;)

One-color at a time, waiting for it to dry and then onto the next color.

Here she was waiting patiently, snapping close-ups of the whole process.

Well, I was happy, the votives looked really nice :)

The pictures couldn't look any better!

But wait! she said.  I want to smell them, let's lit at least one, and so we did. And here comes the most
important lesson we learned:

Our beautiful candles didn't light! :-(

We couldn't even smell them, the wick burnt out way too soon.

You can clearly see the difference between a regular candle votive and the crayon one.

After looking for answers this is what I found:
Crayons are colored with pigments, and those pigments don't dissolve in the wax, they just float around. As the wax melts and is carried through the wick to the flame, the pigments clog the wick :(

The best way to color wax is by using dye, it dissolves into the wax and won't clog the wick.

Kind of upsetting :( but oh well, we learned a lot. ;)


You can check other Valentine projects that have worked :)

Cake Pops

Clay Charms

Heart Pillow

Upcycled Heart Art

Love Wall Art