How to... Botanical Candles

I thought it couldn't hurt to show you how I made the garden candles shown in a previous post.

First, I collected botanical items from the yard.

Next, I used a glue stick to attach them to the candles.  I went with a Spring-Summer-Winter theme.

Then, I dipped the candles into melted wax (I keep it in a tiny crock pot).  One dip provides enough coverage of the greenery without making the plant parts look cloudy.  As I dipped, I quickly rotated the candle to cover as much of its diameter as possible in one dipping.

After dipping, I quickly checked to make sure all plant parts had stayed attached, and I pressed down anything that was popping away from the candle surface.

The finished project; here's what I learned.  Fresh items can become scalded by the hot oil (the clovers turned yellow in some areas, as did the white flowers a while later).  Next time, I will only use dry flowers.  The autumn leaves worked very well.  Silk flowers would work great.

Happy dipping!