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Candles are very popular, and can be made at home. Easier, and more dramatic, however, are the newer gel candles. Gel is a clear, jelly-like substance, that takes the place of wax. The consistency of a gel candle is something like Jell-O, but less rubbery. Gel wax is more versatile than paraffin, since it is clear. Colored gel is beautifully transparent. You can also add items to the gel...seashells, smooth beach glass, and so on, for an endless variety of looks (see illustrations, below, of the gel candle "fruit preserves" and the "drink" candles that Anette sells on her website). The instructions below will tell you how to make gel candles. These instructions are courtesy of a great website, http://AnettesCookiesNCandles.com and are reproduced here with Anette's permission.

Basic Gel Candle Instructions

Supplies: (You can get all of these items from suppliers listed on Anette's Links Page)

gel wax
zinc core wick and wick tabs or prepped zinc core wicks
liquid dye or dye block
fragrance (Recommend Flash Point to be 170 or greater)
glass container (e.g. wine glass or canning jar)

Equipment:

knife

melting pot

candy thermometer (You can get one at Walmart)

pliers (if prepping your own wicks)

metal ladle

hot glue gun

metal spoon

Instructions

Preparing Your Containers:

If prepping your own wicks Cut a length of wick approximately 1" longer than the length of the inside of your container. Feed the cut wick through the hole of your wick tab and crimp closed with pliers.

For all wicks Place a dab of hot glue on the bottom of your wick tab and carefully center the wick in the bottom of your container. Once glue has set up, pull the wick straight.

Melting Your Gel

Remove the gel wax from your container and cut into cubes using a large kitchen knife. Heat in an uncovered pot between low and medium heat, preferably closer to low. Do not let your gel wax go above 225 degrees F as overheating it will ruin the wax.
Take a tiny shaving of dye and add it to your melted wax. If you want to have a darker color, add a bit more dye. If your color is too dark, add more cubes of unmelted wax to dilute the color. The amount of coloring used is a matter of personal preference.
The guideline for adding fragrance to your gel wax is 1/2 oz. of fragrance per pound of wax. This is mainly a starting point. If you find that you want a stronger fragrance you can add more scent, but I recommend that you not use more than 1 oz of scent per pound. If you feel that the fragrance is too strong, you can add more unmelted wax cubes to dilute the amount of fragrance already used.
Carefully ladle your melted wax into a prepared container. After poured, pull the wick straight again so it remains properly centered. Let gel set up at room temperature for approximately one hour until the gel is no longer liquefied. Trim the wick to 1/4" before lighting.

Tips, Tips and More Tips...

Melting Tips

Cutting gel wax into chunks or cubes cuts down on the time required to melt your wax.

Do not use wooden utensils. Although they may be clean, they are porous and do trap foreign particles in their pours. Thus, you can get "stuff" in your wax when stirring with wooden spoons and such. |

Put some Reynolds foil under stove burners. The smell of burning gel isn't pleasant and it is not easy to remove from these surfaces.

Pouring Tips

For best results, mix all ingredients in your melting pot, then pour into your containers. Trying to mix fragrance and dyes in the containers for your candles will leave a film of gel wax above your original pour line which may be unattractive.

Pouring at a higher temperature such as 215 degrees F will give your candle few or no bubbles at all.

Pouring at a lower temperature such as 175 degrees F will produce more bubbles.

Dyeing Tips

Our regular candle dye blocks used in making paraffin candles work well to color your gel wax. However, the florescent colors may cloud your wax.
Very little dye is required to color your wax. You can use a tiny shave more to achieve a more vibrant color. Avoid water based, paste and powdered dyes as they do not work in coloring gel wax.

Fragrance Tips

As a general rule you can use essential oils, perfume fragrance oils and candle scents to scent your wax. However, fragrances that contain alcohol, have a "sweet" food like smell such as vanilla may give your candle a cloudy appearance. Also too much scent can make a cloudy gel wax. If you get cloudy gel wax, try to add more unscented wax to the mixture to dilute the fragrance. However, if the scent contained alcohol, you won't be able to get rid of the clouding. Avoid using your favorite perfumes as they most probably contain alcohol.

Wicking

I recommend using a zinc core wick for the best burning results. For candles up to 3" in diameter you can generally use the 44-32-18 zinc core wick and for candles up to 4" in diameter we recommend 60-44-18.

Try to keep your wick at least 1" away from each side of the glass to avoid overheating and possible breakage due to excessive heat.

Choosing Glassware

Small containers work very nicely, but you can have a lot of fun and get awesome results by choosing a wide variety of glassware. Examples: wine glasses, juice glasses, mugs, crystal, glass bowls, etc.

Getting Creative

You can embed anything that isn't flammable in gel candles. Following are a few ideas. The imagination is endless so go ahead... see what you can do! If you aren't happy with the end result, you can always pull the cold gel wax out of your container, remove your objects and melt it down again.

Add a variety of different colored gel chunks to container and over-pour with clear gel. To make gel chunks, melt gel, color, scent, and then pour into a cookie sheet. When gel is cool, pick up a cut in different sizes and shapes with scissors.

Fill a container with wax fruit slices or marbles before filling with gel wax. Try to pour at about 180 degrees to keep wax fruit slices from melting.

Place a layer of sand in the bottom of your glass and arrange various seashells before pouring your wax. You can layer colors. Let each color set up separately in the glass before adding the next one.

Clean Up Tips

Let your pot cool down completely and then peel the wax residue from the inside. Use an ammonia based cleaner such as window cleaner to remove oil residue. Wash as usual.

I have found that Baby Wipes work really good for cleaning up work area and pots.

for e-mail, write: Cookies-N-Candles@excite.com

For Anette's web page, visit: http://AnettesCookiesNCandles.com

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