I should be completing decorating the guest cottage since that I use for jarring up honey and testing skin care items. I'm having an open house and honey sale in here next week. But I just can't stop making things! Like this precious candle in a teacup.
Besides honey the other product produced by a colony of bees is the beeswax that they create to store brood, pollen, and honey. It has a lot of uses. While I generally use the wax I end up for skin care products I finally got around to making my first candle. I decided to make it in this adorable tea cup that belonged to my mother in law.
See what the wax looks like in the hive here.
I haven't made candles since I was about 12. Remember making them in milk cartons? Those were with paraffin wax and weren't even scented. This little project took just a few minutes. If you don't count the hundreds of hours tending bees and an hour or so rendering the wax.
Read about rendering beeswax here.
You start by grating the beeswax into a bowl so that it will melt faster and more evenly.
I melt it in the microwave 30 seconds at a time. Don't forget that whatever you melt beeswax in will be unusable for anything else. Designate one bowl for this project.
Use a knife to keep the wick straight. When the wax is thoroughly melted quickly quickly pour it into the cup.
Allow the wax to harden. You will see that the color changes to a beautiful honey yellow.
You could add color and scent to candle in the melted stage but I thought it was lovely in its natural state.