Candle Making for Beginners - for Fun or to Build a Business
What you'll learn
- Make a range of beautiful candles at home using standard kitchen equipment
- Choose the right wax and wick combination for each candle
- Decide how much candle fragrance and dye to use for each candle
- Handle wax and scent safely in the home
Requirements
- No previous knowledge or experience needed
- To get the most out of this course, you should be prepared to follow along with the practical demonstration. A "have a go" attitude is strongly recommended!
Description
Launched March 2016! Candle making is one of the most fulfilling and enjoyable of all crafts. You get the creative pleasure and sense of achievement from making your candles and then the enjoyment of using them in your own home, giving them as wonderful gifts or even starting your own craft business. Making candles requires no special skills beyond those taught in this course, it's a craft that's open to anyone - if you can measure flour and boil water, you can make candles!
So why not click the Start Learning button to get cracking in this amazing craft. Or continue reading for more info on the course.
This course will take you from knowing nothing about candle making to having all the knowledge and skills you need to make a range of gorgeous pillar and container candles. Once you've completed the course, you'll be able to use your new-found expertise to confidently invent your own candle recipes.
The course is made up of two main parts. In the first part, I'll use a series of animated video lectures to walk you through the essential concepts you need to understand in order to make candles safely.
We'll cover:
- Why candle making is such a fantastic craft to learn
- How candles work
- How to use candles safely at home
- The best way to melt wax safely and quickly
- What equipment you'll need (you've probably already got it!)
- How to choose a candle mould
- What sorts of containers you can use for making candles
- The different kinds of wax you can use - and when to use them
- How to use dye to create coloured candles
- How wicks work and which wick to choose
- The two main types of candle making scent
In the second part of the course, I'll show you how to make nine different candles. I provide complete ingredient lists (I use only standard ingredients you can obtain from most candle suppliers) and you can watch me make the candles live on camera. Every step has been filmed so you can make your candles with me!
We'll make
- A basic pillar candle - the foundational recipe for all pillar candles
- A tea cup container candle - the basic technique used for all container candles
- A two colour pillar candle
- A pillar candle made using wax chunks
- A pillar candle with a base of coffee beans
- A candle made out of a flower pot
- A candle made in a tin
- A glass container candle
- A glass candle with a transparent base containing coffee beans
I'll also show you a range of decorating techniques for your pillar candles including transfers, stencils and stamps.
To keep costs down, I use a relatively small, plastic, mould so you're not wasting wax as you practice but all these techniques can be easily scaled up to a candle of any size.
And I'm on hand to answer any questions you have on candle making - just add a question once you've enrolled.
I'm Kevin Partner of MakingYourOwnCandles and I've been making candles for many years - why not join me by clicking the Start Learning button?
Who this course is for:
- This course is suitable for complete beginners, all you need is access to basic kitchen equipment
Instructor
Founder and Chief Geek at MakingYourOwnCandles-co-uk which has the UK's widest range of candle making kits and equipment. A candlemaker since 2009, I have designed and developed dozens of candle styles and turned them into easy to use kits that have been enjoyed by tens of thousands of people in the UK and elsewhere.
I am also a published writer - contributing to national magazines in the UK on a regular basis since 1995 as well as authoring a number of books published traditionally and also self published. I write mainly about business and technical subjects. I am the author of the best selling Your Craft Business: A Step by Step Guide which has gone on to sell many thousands of copies to aspiring crafters.
I'm a professional programmer who, over the years has learned and used over a dozen languages for commercial purposes. My current expertise is in PHP, Python, ActionScript and Ruby.
In my leisure time I like to play video games with my son, write fiction and cook.