I love using candles when the days are short and it gets dark early. The smell of beeswax in the air and the golden light of the candles always lifts my spirits.  Alice over at Paris Bourke inspired me to make these beeswax candles using a silicon mould.  

I've been hand rolling beeswax candles from sheets of beeswax for years.  And I've always saved the little odds and ends you get when the candle has burnt out.  They were stashed in a box, waiting to be used.   I couldn't bear to waste all that beeswax goodness.

Beeswax Tea Light Candles

Silicon Mould

Needle 

Cotton wick

Beeswax odds and ends

To make these candles I've used a silicon mould - the kind used for ice cubes.  You can find loads of different shapes on line. I loved the shape of these little stars.

Use a skewer or heavy duty needle to poke a hole in the centre bottom of each cavity.  

Cut the wicks into lengths.  I have about 0.5 cm poking out the top and have the wick long enough to almost reach the bottom of the candle.

To insert the wick I threaded it through a needle and then poked the needle through the bottom of the mould. It was a little fiddly, so be patient.

The beeswax I melted on the stove, Bain Marie style. I like to use a solid glass jug - it makes pouring into the moulds a breeze. I now have two jugs - one for candle making and one for confectionary. Once you've put beeswax in a container it's really tricky to get clean again.

Put water into the bottom saucepan.  Bring to the boil. 

Pop your beeswax into the jug.  Put it in the top saucepan and place over the boiling water.

The beeswax takes ages to melt (around 15 minutes depending on how much you have in the jug), so be patient and make sure you check the level of the water in the bottom saucepan so it doesn't go dry.

When you pour the melted beeswax into the mould be sure to pour around the wick so you don't flatten it. As it cools, it shrinks a little so be sure to fill right to the top.

Once cooled, pop out of the moulds and enjoy your lovely beeswax candles.  You can even use them in your solstice lanterns.