One of the things we did last week when Chloe was home was to make candles. This time I used up a lot of old candles. Ones that burned weird, or I didn't want to use anymore. It is simple to melt them down and start again. The burned bits and wicks tend to collect at the bottom of the melt pot, so the resulting candles are not too dirty.
I use an old rice cooker that has just two settings- warm and cook. The cook setting is used for initial melting and then it's turned down to warm when the wax is hot. If it stays hot the water can spit and it's dangerous. Always melt wax in a double boiler arrangement. I look for tin cans that are tall and skinny for candle dipping. Juice cans work well and I also have a coffee tin from Trader Joe's that's really tall and skinny. I also have a container made for wax that has a handle. That one is great for pouring votives.
I got the votive molds recently and this was the first time I used them. They are really great. Votives are my favorite candles to burn. They don't drip and are really efficient when it comes to burning up the wax. I also got wick pins to use with the molds and that makes it super easy to add the premade wicks with the metal tabs attached. The wicks I bought were about 6" long so I had to trim them. The trimmings were used to make the little birthday candles. We also made the pinecone firestarters, but they didn't work very well in the fireplace. Perhaps the pinecones were too wet. I love making candles. It takes some time and space, so I like to set aside a whole day to work on them. I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon!