Hey makers, I’m Charlotte from the Wooden Wick Co. And I’m Jeff Standley from Standley Handcrafted Today, Jeff and I are going to walk you through all of the components you need to get started, making candles Jeff. Why don’t you start us off?
First, off we’re going to start out with finding a vessel, It’s always important to find a good vessel that you want to work with and which one is this: That is, our matte black Aura from the Wooden Wick Co. Okay, so this is the one that we’re going to be using Perfect, make sure you find out what the diameter is of your vessel, how many ounces of wax it holds and that it’s safe for use in candle making
Now I have candle wax. This is the Virgin Coconut Soy from woodenwick.com. So when you pick your candle wax, there are a lot of options out there. You want to make sure that you have a candle wax, that’s easy to work with. Has great glass adhesion and it’s going to give you a good, hot and cold, throw
So this Virgin Coconut Soy wax from Wooden Wick is super easy to work with and love the performance on. This wax
Next up, you’re going to want to find a fragrance oil that you want to work with Now. This is a really nice one from the Wooden Wick Co, It’s Woody Leather and Brandy, and the other thing that you want to look for along with the wax most waxes, and I know your guys as wax does this. It tells you exactly how much oil to put into the wax per pound, So you definitely want to pay attention to that.
Yes, absolutely And the last component in your candle is going to be your wick. So today we’re going to be working with wooden wicks Wooden wicks are a great wick to start out with, if you’re, an entry-level candle maker They’re easy to use, and if you start out with this sample kit here, you’ll get a nice instruction card on candle making Tips to help you start out, as well as a big selection of different wooden wicks to choose from
Each package will tell you which type of wick is best for which type of wax, so all you need to do is read the bag it’ll, let you know the wax companion for that wick and that’ll be the wick you want to use based on which wax Type you’re using
What’S next on deck, Next, you’re probably going to want to get a good scale Now. This is definitely something you need in any beginning: candle kit or whatever you’re going to get, and the one thing you want to pay attention to when you do get a scale, is make sure that it goes down and weighs at the lowest possible possible measurement.
So you, when you’re doing oils you want to make sure that you get the one point. One point two point three and if that’s off a little bit, it can definitely affect your candle.
So make sure that you get one that it can actually measure down, that low Precision, precision, precision; Okay, we also have our handy dandy heat gun, So we like to refer to a heat gun as the candle maker’s best friend. A heat gun is basically going to help you smooth out any imperfections on the surface of your candle. If you have cracks dents divots, whatever happened to that candle during your candle making process, your heat gun can basically fix it.
Absolutely It’s an awesome tool to have A heat gun is definitely one. I always tell people to get it’s just going to fix everything and make sure that you get a smooth top every time Totally worth the investment. Make your life easy, get a heat gun.
What else do we have? Next up is going to be a melting pitcher and we’ve got the thermometer in there as well.
Obviously, you’re going to be using that to to find out the temperature of your wax when you’re heating it up so that you know you’re going to take the wax to a certain degree and then you’re going to add your oil at a certain temperature as well. So very important, These long stem ones are really nice to hold inside of the pitcher and, of course, which leads us right into the next piece, which is the melting pitcher itself. Now these are a very good one.
I believe this one holds up to four pounds. I typically do two to three pounds in this one, but a very useful tool and something you’re absolutely going to need when starting out And you can tell Jeff – is a professional because he hooked that thermometer on with one hand. So when you get to that skill level of candlemaker, that’s when you know you’ve really made it. Okay, two tools that are really nice to have around, especially if you’re, using a wax that comes in slab form.
So waxes come in both flake and slab form, depending on the type of wax and it’s melt temperature – and this is our wax cutter, so really helpful to just measure out the amount of wax you need. You may not always be making the amount of candles that correlate to your total slab so good. To have this. You don’t have to reach into your kitchen tools at home and get candle wax on them, And then the wax tongs are another little fun tool that can help you just handle your wax. You can also use gloves, but just keeps things a little bit cleaner in the process.
Exactly the wax tongs are really nice, especially like Charlotte said, when you’re working with certain waxes, they can be a little bit softer and if you’re moving quickly back and forth between the vessels to the wicks and everything like that, you can definitely get the wax on Your hand so having the tongs to pick that stuff up makes a big difference.
Yes, I like to call myself a messy maker. I tend to spill things or get things on myself. So having wax tongs, a wax cutter helps to proof my area and make sure I’m not making it an even bigger mess. Next up, we’ve got a a good set of wick trimmers. Now these are going to come in handy when you’re going through, if you’re pouring large batches of candles having a good tool to go through and cut the wicks. It helps a lot
So a good set of wick trimmers will help tremendously Next a double boiler, So you need a stove safe pot as well as a hot plate. Basically, the way that you melt candle wax is you put the candle wax directly into your pouring pitcher, and then the pouring pitcher is going to go and sit in the double-boiler just like how you would melt chocolate same way that you would melt candle wax
And this helps to melt the candle wax nice and evenly so you don’t get any hot spots.
Exactly a very important tool and a lot of people ask this one. This basically keeps the wax from scorching or burning if you have it on direct heat. So this is a very good method to melt your wax. Definitely
Last tool we have here is a snuffer. This is a great tool that you can either use burning your candles yourself or you can sell them to your customers. If you are selling your candles,
But this is a nice safe way to extinguish a candle when you’re done burning it. So this is the rundown on all the components that you need to start out. Candle making In our future videos Jeff and I are going to walk you through in-depth an explanation on each of these components: how to choose the best one for you and ultimately how to make that perfect wooden wick candle. So we can’t wait to share this with you Stay tuned for our future makers, tips and tricks.
Happy making