Reusing candles

What if I would tell you, you are throwing away perfectly good materials that can be used in so many ways it would make your head spin?

So you have bought that amazing vanilla scented candle that lasted 2 days and now it slowly extinguished itself. I am sure you pick up the cold candle and dispose it ...so many people do that, I used to do that.

But at some point I started thinking why should I throw out candle stumps, when I can reuse them?

Take your candle and put it in a deep bowl, boil some water and fill the bowl, careful so that water doesn't spill inside the candle.

Pour some of that boiling water in a cup and have a tea while you wait for the candle to melt.

If you are impatient, take the candle and stick it in to the microwave to rush through the procedure. No need to worry about the glass, they use heat resistant glass for the candles. As an alternative tot he microwave you can use the oven too, but the procedure will take a bit longer.

! Careful when you take the candle out of any of the ovens use a dry cloth or an oven mitten to avoid getting burned.

As the wax is still melting, decide what will the next candle or candles look like. You can use the same recipient too, or you can have fun making some really cute candles.

I have a lot of cooking pans I never used but were gifted to me at several points in my life. I keep them all stacked in the kitchen.

I dug in that pile and found a heat resistant silicone tray, as you can see it will shape the wax in to roses. If you don't have one of this you can use a similar tray for ice cubes... IKEA has a large variety of shapes.

Once the wax has melted carefully pour the wax in to the tray, make sure you don't drop wax on your skin or on other objects.

In case you drop hot wax on your skin, put the affected zone under the cold running water and remove the wax from the skin to avoid future damage. If it is removed quickly and the skin is cooled you should get a maximum second degree burn that will heal by itself in a few days.

if you drop wax on a table cloth, instead of cleaning it hot, let it cool, but lift the cloth from the table to avoid furniture damage. Once the wax on the cloth is cool scrape it off with a knife. You will see a greasy spot on the cloth where the wax was earlier.

No need to panic. Put a white paper under the spot and another one over the spot. Get an iron, let it heat, then press the spot between the papers. As you do this you will see a grease spot migrate on the paper. Keep moving the papers and pressing until you remove all the grease from the cloth.

Once the candle is cold remove it from the tray.

Take a small sewing needle and pierce the candle in the middle. remove the needle and find a bigger one to make the hole wider.

Pick an appropriate thread to pass through the candle, make sure the thread burns before you put it inside the candle, it would be unfortunate to use a thread that will not burn.

With the help of the large needle pass the thread through the candle, starting from the bottom. Leave about 0.5 cm of thread at the bottom.

Use a small peace of wax to seal the bottom thread. Stick the peace of wax over the thread and with a lighter gently melt the wax.

Now that the sealing wax is cold as well, put your new candle on a candle plate and light it.

The glass may still have some wax left on it. Boil some water and pour it in the glass, add some liquid soap. Let it soak for a few seconds then empty the glass. And voila you have a clean glass.

The empty glass is like an empty canvas, transform it in to a vase, water glass or pen holder. Leave it blank or get some glass colors and paint it. Use your imagination to transform it in to something beautiful instead of throwing it away.