Glow Lamps

Today, me and the girls made beeswax glow lamps. We were rather nervous. We melted three pounds of beeswax in the crockpot. Then we filled balloons with water and dipped them individually into the melted wax. We let them cool, flattened the bottoms, and then dipped them again. Fifteen times per balloon. Finally, when we thought they were thick enough, we broke the balloons and dried out the lamps.

With the extra beeswax, we made little tealight candles to put into the glow lamps. They look so pretty all lit up! I can't believe how much fun we're having with this stuff. It's so nice to have something useful to do that makes us feel good, isn't it. It seems like the world's gone crazy and I personally need something normal and rustic to bring me back to a place of sanity and simplicity.

Candles and Soap

As you might remember from an earlier post, I decided to tackle the art of soap making. I am very pleased at the way my bar soap is curing, but today I felt the need for instant gratification. So... glycerin soap to the rescue. Glycerin soap is very easy to work with and it requires no curing time. You just cut, melt, scent, color, pour, and wait. As soon as they harden in the molds, remove them and let them sit out until they are completely hard. Then they are ready to use. It's as simple as that.

I probably should have started with glycerin soap rather than lye soap, but it all worked out in the end. I now have so many ideas tumbling around in my head about different kinds of decorative soaps! I'm having such fun.

Here a some pictures of my glycerin soaps in the molds and drying on newspaper after I popped them out.




I also started making candles today. I used paraffin wax with stearic acid mixed in. I used Christmas and Autumn molds because that's what I had on hand. Tomorrow I am going to try making beeswax glow lamps. I'll let you know how that works out. Let's just say, it involves water balloons and very hot wax. Scary!

Here are the candles I made today. When I took the pictures, I hadn't trimmed the wicks yet, so bear with me.