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Candle-Making

Materials:

Wax (old colourful candle remnants or wax from a craft shop)
Yoghurt pot (or if available, proper candle casting moulds)
Modelling dough
Kebab Skewers or small sticks/cocktail sticks.
Wick (not too thick, otherwise the candle gives off an un-necessary amount of smoke when burning)
Stove that is available for use (the more burners it has the better)
One glass per wax-colour (old jam jar/gherkin jar…)
For each burner on the stove, a saucepan with water.
Hand towel
Warm-hot water in a bowl or sink.
Newspaper for underneath
Old Clothing
A lot of patience!!! maybe some activities to do whilst waiting

Preparation:

The candle remnants are sorted into jars according to colour. Warm the water in the saucepans, using the stove. Lay newspaper down at the work stations. The youth club attendees should be advised to wear old clothes and to tie back long hair. Additionally they should be aware that the wax, including the glass jars containing it is hot and should not be touched. It is also advisable to only have a small group for this as otherwise the waiting time is too long.

Making procedure:

As soon as the youth clubbers have arrived the jars of wax can be placed into the saucepans of hot water. To reduce the waiting time it is advisable that each child makes two candles. To do this each child receives two yoghurt pots, two wicks, modelling dough and two small sticks. The wicks are secured in the yoghurt pots using the modelling dough. The small sticks are laid over the rim of the yoghurt pots to which the wicks are attached. The supervisor’s role is to fish out any old candle wicks using the small sticks if the wax is from old candle remnants. Each child can choose a colour and receives a layer of wax in a yoghurt pot and another layer in a second pot. Now on one hand they have to wait until the wax has dried before adding a second layer of wax, and on the other hand they have to wait for the new layer of wax to be melted on the stove. Beware! The stove should never be left unsupervised. Whilst waiting you can play a little game with the children in an adjacent room. In this way, layer by layer of wax is added until the yoghurt pots are filled to the top; more waiting is now required until the candle is completely cold. Once cold, the yoghurt pot is placed in warm/hot water until the candle is loose enough to easily slide out. Beware!!! Don’t burn fingers in the hot water!!! Now trim the wick otherwise the candle will give off a lot of smoke on lighting. When lighting the candle you should place it on a small saucer or base as wax can drip down.