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DIY Mushroom Candles

 

DIY Mushroom Candles

I love the mushroom candles on the market, but I find them expensive. I had some straight pillar candles from the dollar store which I carved into small, birthday sized candles. I carved 2-3 small mushroom candles from each regular candle. Each candle took around 15 minuets to carve.

Before I get into how I carved them, I have 2 notes of caution:

  • this will get messy, have some newspaper handy to work on top of
  • SAFETY FIRST: this is an adult craft, use caution with blades
Supplies:
  • straight taper candle
  • wax in desired colours (old birthday candles, natural beeswax)
  • acrylic paint (optional)
Tools:
  • a VERY DULL BLADE (I used an old army knife a bought from the dollar store years ago)
  • heat proof container (I used an old votive candle holder)
  • pot of hot water to melt wax in
  • popsicle sticks






1) with your blade, mark out a line (going all the way around the candle) the total approximate size you want your mushroom candle to be






2) snap the candle so it breaks along the line you made, slice through the wick with your knife or scissors


3) mark the line where you want the bottom of the mushroom cap to be, going a little deeper





4) continue carving the area below the cap. SHAVE the wax off (in the direction away from your face), you should not use too much force. If it's difficult to remove the wax, you are digging in too deep.

It's messy!





5) with broader strokes (away from you!) remove even more wax. to make things easier, don't worry at this stage if your stem areas is "square" at first. Main thing is to make sure the wick is in the center of the stem.






6) refine the stem so it's rounded. Do not make the stem too thin and make sure the wick is in the center of the stem. Dollar store candles may have "off center" wicks that get exposed. It only happened once to me, but I would advise you to just start over with a new candle piece.






7) refine the cap, exposing some wick at the top. At this stage if you'd like to smooth out/ polish the wax you can run the carved wax mushroom quickly over a flame (like a lighter) and smooth out with your fingers.








8) if you would like to add colour to the caps - take your popsicle sticks and place them at the bottom of hot water. Place your heat safe container (I used an old votive candle glass) into the water (on top of the wooden sticks), making sure that the water line is at least 5cm lower than the top of your container. 


9) melt your desired colours  inside the heatproof container


10) holding the stem, place the mushroom cap end in to the wax, remove and let dry. Continue to dip the cap into the coloured wax as many times as you want until you get your desired colour and let dry.


11) add acrylic paint as desired      

DIY Mushroom Candles









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