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Titled: 10 Tips To Help You Make Candles Safely Get the Crafts category RSS Feed 
10 Tips To Help You Make Candles Safely
Article Summary: Safety is paramount in Candle Making and if all safety precautions are taken hobbyists can confidently make beautiful candles to adorn their home, sell to make an income, or give away as popular gifts.
Candle making has been around for hundreds of years and over time there have some wildly unique candles make. Candles range from the very sophisticated for the formal dinner, to the wildly colorful and perfumed ones for the party or romantic evening. There have been so many types made over the years that you will be able to experiment til your hearts content if you take up this wonderful hobby.
Nearly everybody has a candle or two in their homes, and those that enjoy candles, actually often have a dozen or so.
Why would you want to make your own? Well, if you really like candles you can make them at a fraction of the price of those that you buy. You are free to choose your colors and shapes, and you can perfume them or not, and, with your choice of perfume.
Candle making is one hobby though that you don't want to 'just experiment' with. Obviously you are working with very hot wax, and if not handled correctly, the candle wax can 'explode' and catch fire. It is what is called a 'flashpoint'. The consequences could be disastrous, and that is why you need to read all about safety before you start, and you must use the correct products.
It really is a very economical hobby, so don't go looking for cost cutting by using old wax. that has been lying around the house. You never know what is in it. Use good clean wax that you have bought and handled correctly, then the chance of any problem is much, much less.
So, to help you here are some safety tips: 1. Never leave unattended wax on a stove top. 2. Know your 'flashpoint' of any wax that you use. 3. Always use a thermometer in your wax 4. Always use a double boiler for melting your wax as this slowly melts the wax at a safe speed. Never put the wax in a pot and straight on the heat. 5. Never have wax near an open flame, wax is flammable. 6. Always have cotton gloves handy to handle molds. 7. Keep a chemical fire extinguisher handy in case of fire. 8. Keep a pile of newspapers handy in case of spillage on the floor or bench top. 9. Wear loose clothing in case of spillage and if you get wax on your skin run it under cold water immediately. 10. Never pour molten wax down the sink - it will block it.
Candle making is such fun and you can use all sorts of containers to make candles. For pillar candles you can use milk cartons, or other waxed containers like juice cartons. If you have any old glass containers, either drink glasses or vases, that you no longer use, you can also use these, but make sure that you warm them before pouring in the hot wax.
Like any hobby, candle making takes a little to learn before you start, but there are some very easy techniques to learn in the early stages to make stunning candles.
Start with easy projects and progress through to the more difficult ones later.
if you are going to make candles to sell, do make sure that you use quality products because cheaper products will lead to inferior finished products.
Copyright (c) 2008 Kaye Dennan
Article Source: http://www.upublish.info
About the Author:
Kaye Dennan
Kaye Dennan is the author of Candle Making - Start With Confidence. With over 15 years experience in the arts field Kaye enjoys helping new hobbyists. Go to http://ebooksnowonline.com/hobbies/candle-making-start-with-confidence/ for more information.
