Pure Beeswax Candles

The Wax

Bees have a specialist gland , akin to our salivary glands, which they use to produce and secrete wax.  They have to put a lot of energy into doing this as the honeycomb structures they engineer form the basis of their hive.

Honeycomb cells are nature's strongest shape.  The bees create and use these honeycomb cells   a) to provide brood cells for the queen to lay her eggs b) for stores, not just honey but also pollen, which is collected from  their foraging trips and is food for their young.

After honey extraction, intact empty honeycomb can (at the right time of year) be returned immediately to the same hive.  The bees will clean it up and reclaim it for the next batch of honey stores.  The beekeeper can reclaim the cappings and excess honeycomb to make beeswax products.

We started collecting small amounts of wax, and my first attempt at candle making began.  Peter did, and still does, the messy part of cleaning the wax.  Boiling the wax with rain water and cooling until the wax solidifies means that you obtain a block of wax with dirt on the underside which you remove and repeat the process until you end up with a clean, solid block of wax to use for candle making.

Candle Making

This craft has remained unchanged for centuries . There are three different methods:

Candle dipping – produces clean tapered candles.

Rolling – which uses flat rectangular pieces of wax  (foundation) which is imprinted with honeycomb pattern.  A wick is placed along one edge and tightly rolled into a candle, using the warmth of your hands to make the wax malleable enough to roll.

Moulds – This is the method I mainly use.  It creates consistently beautifully detailed candles in all shapes and sizes.

The tricky bit is ensuring you use the correct size of cotton wick for each mould to ensure the longest burning time and the least amount of wax left after burning.

The end results are pure natural beeswax candles which release a natural honey scent.  No artificial fragrances are added, and no artificial colouring, so you see the natural colour variation of the beeswax. This also means that no toxins are present when the candles are burning, which makes these candles ideal for people who have respiratory issues such as asthma.