It’s got a nice ring to it, the tapers with toppers.

Yay, it’s the final installment of candlemaking, and I probably couldn’t be happier about that.  This last one was the most… well, complicated is probably not the right word, but at least the most frustrating.

Here we make a taper candle by rolling a thin sheet of beeswax.  Then, you cut out shapes from the same thin sheets of beeswax, attach them to the top of the taper, and if you are Martha you end up with this:

But I am not Martha, as we all know, so you will see what I ended up with in a bit.

But first: more supply shenanigans.  As you are well aware if you’ve been following this series, sometimes finding the necessary materials, like organza or air mail envelopes, is like trying to find the Holy Grail.  And once again, finding the supplies for this project was quite challenging.  In fact, they were not available in the United States.

That’s right, folks, I had to turn to international trade in order to get what I needed.  In the Encyclopedia’s defense, it did provide me with the supplier, so, thanks for that.

What I needed were smooth beeswax sheets.  I found plenty of honeycomb sheets all over the U.S., and had I not been adding the toppers, those probably would’ve worked.  But for the cutout shapes on top, as you will see, I really can’t imagine that the honeycomb stuff would work.  So I needed to get the smooth ones.

They were available in Canada, from Alberta Beeswax and Candle Supply.  Ok, I know, it’s like, Canada, so it’s not like I had to order it from Yemen or something.  But the thing about Canada is, (right, Keely?) you always think it’s like the U.S., but it’s still a foreign country.  Which entails customs and crazy shipping prices and the like.

But the complications didn’t stop there.  When I got to the AB Beeswax site, I found this:

Oy, vey.  So now I can’t order online, and I’m calling Canada?  So, I called, and the phones were down!  I kid you not.  I then emailed the order form to them and gave them my number so they could call to get payment info.

And, to their credit, they did call that afternoon, and the lady was very sweet, and told me she was <stereotypical Canadian accent> sorry </stereotypical Canadian accent> about the website being down and the phones and the whole deal.  And she got my info and mailed those smooth beeswax sheets out that afternoon.  So, thank you, Alberta Beeswax!

Of course, it took about a week to arrive, which honestly was shorter than I expected.  But when it did, the sheets were a little smashed up on the edges in some places.  I managed to work with it, but this is, I suppose, an occupational hazard when you have to order internationally.

I’ve been really wanting to make these videos of my craft projects for a while, and I finally figured out how to do it and got all the necessary equipment.  So, I happily now give you: “Stop Motion Video of Project 43″:

What do you think of my music, y’all?  I found it on a site full of royalty-free music.  Wanna know my favorite part?  It’s called “Fluffing the Duck.”  That sounds nasty, frankly.  But I found the music hilarious.

So that’s how I made it.  The biggest problem was that the wax sheets didn’t roll all that well.  I mean, they’re stiff, so they kind of break and crack and you end up with a more geometric than round, cylindrical kind of candle.  As you can see in the video, I tried heating it up and then smooshing it with my hands to get it rounder, but it still looks wonky.

Here’s what the final product looks like:

TIME INVESTED

About 45 minutes

DIFFICULTY

There’s no melting wax here, and therefore no danger of asphyxiating yourself or burning down your house.

Moderate

TOTAL COST

Oh, people, are you going to make me calculate the US$ version of the Canadian beeswax?  I think my mind will explode.

• wicking = $2.99
• cookie cutter set = $4.99
• smooth beeswax, 10 sheets = CAN$43.89

As a side note, the wax cost CAN$18.90, and the shipping was CAN$24.99.  Sheesh.

TOTAL COST = ???  Like, $38.00 or something?

WAS IT WORTH IT?

No.  Not with the ordering from Canada… hell, it wasn’t even worth it if I could get the wax at Michaels.  It doesn’t work all that well, and I don’t think it’s so outrageously cute.

And now, as one of you lovely readers suggested, here’s the poll on the candle projects.

[polldaddy poll=4598421]

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