Crafts - Candles

Feast Candle Making

Feast Day, November 8, 20O5 weather report: it rained the night before. We all anxiously waited for the phone call in the morning to inform us whether the feast would be held at Robert's Park or at JM. Hurray ! It was decided to proceed at Robert's park. It was a cold, windy day but the kids had the best time. Dress in layers under your costume. Boots, scarves, hats and gloves are recommended. I didn't take my sweater off the entire day. The grill was the warmest place for the craft volunteers to hang out while the kids rotated with their assignments.
Supplies: Candle making supplies are located in the PTA shed on the shelves. You will find 2 boxes marked CANDLES. I purchased a new roll of candle wicking and a 10 lb. slab of paraffin wax. You do not need to purchase any supplies for 2006. There are enough cut and taped wicks for 2006. There is also a container of cut wax to add to the cans on the grill as the wax levels drop. I recommend cutting more wax at home before the feast, it gets a bit messy cutting the wax. Lay out newspaper for easy clean-up. In the box you will find cans for water, clothespins, clothesline, masking tape, candle wicking, slab of wax, wooden spoons for stirring, pot holders and tissue paper. The 2nd box contains the cans of wax. If you need additional supplies, Michael's has all the candle supplies you need. Michael’s also has a 40% coupon in their sale advertisement every week, use it to help out the PTA budget.
Things to bring from home: 2 sharpie pens, handled paper bags to put candles in according to class and 3 tall containers for water to use in candle making. If you don't have tall soup cans, milk cartons with the tops cut off will work too. Knife and cutting board to cut more wax if not done prior to the feast. Cardboard sheets or paper to lay on the picnic tables for easier clean-up. A staple gun to staple down paper or cardboard to the picnic tables. I don't recommend plastic or tarp to cover the tables because the hot cans of wax will melt it. I made a copy of the PTA roster for the 2nd graders so I didn't have any question on which child was in whose class. Duct tape to display the candle
Pre-Feast (the night before): Time requirement is minimal. About an hour and a half before I went to bed, I melted the cans of wax in my oven on an aluminum covered cookie sheet for 1 hour at 350 degrees. I didn't need to melt the wax over the stove as done in previous years. When the wax was completely melted, I turned off the oven and left the wax in overnight. You do not need to cut and tape wicks for 2006. There is plenty left over from 2005. I recommend that you cut more wax to fill up the container. After the feast, if you want to cut and tape more wicks for 2007, I recommend wick lengths of 6 - 8 inches. Wicks longer than 8 inches were difficult to dip because the cans of wax aren't tall enough and there was a lot of unused wick wasted. Label handled paper bags with the 2nd grade teacher's names.
Pre-Feast (1 hour before leaving): Turn oven back on to 350 degrees in the morning to reheat wax for 45 minutes before heading to the feast location. I transported the wax in the box it came in and covered the box with foil to keep warm. Be prepared to leave earlier for the feast location in case of a power outage!

Set-up: The crafts set up area got relocated to the unused adult picnic tables. We used tables 5 and 6 for the candle set up. It was nice to be able to see the children participating in the different areas. Plan to arrive by 8:15. The fire starters should already have a grill heating in the craft area. When you arrive the first task is to put all 10 cans of wax on the grill. The cans will take time to re-melt because of the cold air. Stir the wax occasionally and add cut wax and color as needed. Hang the clothesline between 2 trees. This is where you will hang the completed candles. It's helpful to hang the candles by class. Lay out paper or cardboard to cover the tables and secure. Lay out the pre-cut wicks and sharpie pen on picnic table 6. Fill the 5" containers with water from the restroom sink and put it on picnic table 5 in a row on the short end of the table. Hang the 'candles' sign from the picnic table. Plan for the first group of children to arrive in the crafts area around 9:00oam. When the first group arrives, remove 5 cans of wax (1 of each color) from the grill and put it on the picnic table in front of the containers of water. Keep the other5 can on the grill and rotate as the wax cools.
Making the Candles: Each candle maker is given a wick. Write their name and room number on the masking tape. Have the candle makers hold the taped end. Dip the wick into the can of wax then into the can of water, back into the wax and into the water. Dip at an even pace so the wax doesn't fly all over the covered table. Dipping into the water hardens the wax and readies it for the next dip into the hot wax. I recommend that the candle maker let the excess wax drip into the wax can for 5 seconds before, dipping into the water. If the candle maker leaves the wick too long in the hot wax it will fall off! I had several children drop the entire wick into the hot wax and I used a wooden spoon to fish it out and immersed it into the water to cool off.
Safety: Remind the candle makers that the cans are hot and to not touch the rim, or outside of the can as they are dipping their wicks. Use the potholders to transport the hot wax from the grill to the picnic table.
Overall Comments: Every 2nd grader made a candle and enjoyed this craft. I made several candles as samples to show the children. I saved them and gave them to the children that didn't have an opportunity to make a candle. I wanted every child to have a candle to bring home. I tissue wrapped the candles when I got home; it was easier than doing it on site at Robert's park. I had my son deliver the bags of candles to the teachers the next day. This year the boys were competing against each other on who had the biggest candle so they went through a lot of wax this year. They would come back, check the clothesline and if their candle wasn't the biggest they would take it off the clothesline and dipped some more. The adults enjoyed dipping candles too! Please feel free to give me a call If you have any questions, I hope my report will be helpful to you and kudos to you for volunteering to help for 2006!

Cynthia Soohoo

Previous Feasts:

Candles 2005
Candles 2004
Candles 2003
Candles 2001
Candles 2000
Candles 1999
Candles 1998
Candles 1997
Candles - Example Pictures

Feast Candle Making – 2006 Report

[I plagiarized almost all of this report from Cynthia Soohoo’s 2005 report because it was so thorough and very helpful.]

Feast Day, November 8, 2006 Weather report: it rained the night before but the 6am walkthrough and weather prediction indicated that it was clear to proceed at Robert's park. It was a crisp morning that became bright and sunny although still quite chilly. Dress in layers under your costume.

Supplies: No need to get supplies for 2007. Supplies for 2007 have already been replenished. Candle making supplies are located in the PTA shed on the shelves. You will find 2 boxes labeled with CANDLES-Box 1 of 2 and CANDLES-Box 2 of 2. One of these boxes (the one with cans of melted wax) may still be in a large plastic bag, obscuring the label. In the other box you will find cans for water, clothespins, clothesline, scissors, Sharpie pens/markers, index cards, masking tape, candle wicking, concentrated wax coloring, slab of wax, wooden spoons and paint-sticks for stirring melted wax, pot holders, coffee stir-sticks for pushing the wicks into the melted wax, a roll of craft-paper to lay on picnic table and tissue paper. There are enough cut and taped wicks for 2007. There is also a container of cut wax to add to the cans on the grill as the wax levels drop. [It is recommended to cut even more wax at home before the feast and store in a grocery bag to bring along to the Feast. It gets a bit messy cutting the wax so lay out newspaper for easy clean-up.]

Things to bring from home: Rags to wipe picnic tables of previous night’s rain/heavy morning dew. Knife [butcher knife works well] and cutting board to cut more wax if not done prior to the feast. Three grocery bags to sort out each class’ completed candles. Staple gun to staple down craft paper covering the picnic tables for easy clean-up. [Plastic or tarp to cover the tables is not recommended because the hot cans of wax will melt it.]

Pre-Feast (the night before): About an hour and a half before going to bed, place the cans of wax on an aluminum covered cookie sheet and into 350 degrees oven for 1 hour. [No need to melt the wax over the stove as done in previous years.] When the wax is completely melted, turn off the oven and leave the wax in oven overnight.

Pre-Feast (1 hour before leaving): Turn oven back on to 350 degrees in the morning to reheat wax for 45 minutes before heading to the feast location. Transport the wax in the box it came in and cover the box with foil to keep warm. Be prepared to leave earlier for the feast location in case of a power outage!

Set-up: Use one table with benches just to put the boxes on and the other table w/o benches for the candle making. Cover the candle-making table with the craft paper and secure with staple gun. Hang the 'candles' sign from the table. The fire starters should already have a grill heating in the craft area. Put all 10 cans of wax on the grill. The wax will take time to re-melt because of the cold air. Add cut wax and color as needed as the day progresses. Low level wax will produce short candles. Fill the empty cans with water from the faucet near the fire grill and put them on the table. Hang the clothesline between 2 trees. This is where you will hang the completed candles. It's helpful to hang the candles by class, separated by a 3x5 index card with the teacher’s name and classroom number. Lay out the pre-cut/taped wicks and sharpie pens on table. [Kids will write their name and classroom number on the tape.] Plan for the first group of children to arrive in the crafts area around 9am, so grab some breakfast from the upper area when you have a chance! When the first group arrives, remove 5 cans of wax (1 of each color) from the grill and put on the picnic table, each next to a container of water. Keep the other 5 cans on the grill and rotate as the wax cools. It’s important to keep the cans of wax hot to avoid clumpy candles.

Safety: Remind the candle makers that the cans are hot and to not touch the rim or outside of the can as they are dipping their wicks. Watch out for sleeves getting into the hot wax. Use potholders to transport the cans of wax from the grill to the picnic table.

Making the Candles: Some kids chose to use only one color while others chose to make “rainbow” colored candles. A rainbow-colored candle is achieved by dipping the entire wick into the lightest color wax for the majority of the candle followed by dipping smaller sections of the wick into a darker color 2-3 times. To start, have the candle makers hold the taped end of the wick and dip it into the can of wax. For the first dip, they may need to use the coffee-stirrer stick to push the wick into the wax. Raise the wick, hold it over the wax can and count to 5, then dip into the can of water. Dip back into the wax and repeat process. Dip at an even pace so the wax doesn't fly all over the place. Dipping into the water hardens the wax and readies it for the next dip into the hot wax. It’s important to dip into the water as this speed up the wax-hardening process. Also, if the candle maker leaves the wick too long in the hot wax, the entire candle wax will fall off! If this happens, use a wooden spoon or the paint-stirrer stick to fish it out and immerse it into the water to cool off. Since this didn’t happen this year, we don’t know whether or not the wick can be threaded back into the candle wax. Hang candles when done. At the end of the craft-making period (or at home), tissue wrap the candles and place them in the room-labeled grocery bags for delivery to teachers on the following day.

Other Comments: Great fun for kids and adults and the kids were so proud of their creations. We and other adults made candles to give to the students who didn’t get a chance to make one themselves or were absent on Feast day. We left the taped unlabeled so the teachers can distribute as needed. There were two of us for this craft and we were both kept busy the entire time. It was my 2nd Feast but Lisa’s first and she didn’t get to see all the other wonderful things the kids were participating in. Thus, it’s preferable to have three people be involved so that each person has a chance to walk through all the different areas for a bit. Lastly, since Feast day is typically right after the Auction event and many of us were Auction volunteers, it was really helpful that enough wicks were cut and taped, ready for 2006 Feast day. So for 2007, after the Feast day we purchased and replenished all the supplies needed, cut/taped enough wicks and chopped up wax. [If you’re so inclined, it was suggested that small fish weights could be used to tie on the end of the wick so that the first dip into the wax wouldn’t require stir-sticks. We didn’t find it to be such a big deal and we also didn’t have the time to do this for 2008.]

Post-event To Do’s and Purchases for 2007: Cut and tape ~60 wicks: wick lengths of 8 inches is best. Wicks longer than 8 inches were difficult to dip because the cans of wax aren't tall enough and there was a lot of unused wick wasted. Craft paper to cover picnic tables. Tissue paper for wrapping candles. Perhaps some concentrated wax color, a new roll of candle wicking and a 5-10 lb. slab of paraffin wax. Any additional supplies that need replenishing. Michael's has all the candle supplies you need and a 40% coupon in their sale advertisement every week, use it to help out the PTA budget.

Megan Ward and Lisa Brown

Candle Making 2007

We found the comments from previous years to be invaluable, especially Lisa's, Megan's and Cynthia's. We made copies of their comments and followed their instructions; everything was covered.

I just want to reiterate how cold it can be up at the park. We dressed in layers but were still very, very, cold at the end of the morning. Take shawls or blanket for extra warmth.

I just have a few suggestions to make which may make the candle making volunteers job a little easier.

Our biggest problem was that when we arrived there was no fire lit. The focus was obviously to get the fires for the feast started and our grill was not lit until 9:00am when the first group of students arrived at our table. Make sure the fire starters know where you are.

Bring lots of old towels to wipe down the tables; the mist hangs heavy up there at the park and you will need to wipe down the table and benches. The butcher block paper to line the tables is in the main hallway at JM next to the Lost and Found.

( We would strongly support the idea of moving the craft activities closer to the rest of the feast. There were a number of tables behind the adult lunch tables which we could have used. It would have been nice to be more connected to what was going on. We felt that in the morning at least, we were missing out on what was going on in the main area and because we were so far away, it was difficult to get an opportunity to check out what was happening down the hill.)

We felt that ideally 3 volunteers were needed;
the first to help the kids with their projects, giving instruction and keeping an eye on what was going on around the table, the second to ensure the cans of wax on the grill do not get too hot, switching them over when those on the table started to cool and adding new blocks of pre-cut wax and/or dye when the levels in the cans start to get low. A third body would be really useful to help with the name tapes, making sure the kids are dipping the correct end of the wick in the hot wax, keeping an eye on fingers getting too close to the very hot metal and hanging up the candles when the are finished. (some will be the size of baby carrots and others more like giant parsnips!)

Label the color of the wax and the water cans clearly. Since all the containers used are metal coffee cans, we should have marked those which contained cold water/hot wax more clearly. Most adults are a foot or two taller than the kids who cannot see over the rim of the can and often end up dipping their candle in the wrong container, which is a bit frustating for them.

We found that if the wax got too hot on the grill, it would not stick to the wick or even melted that which had already solidified. We were however able to rescue those candles which were left too long in the wax and slipped off. It was quite easy to thread the wick back through the candle provided the candle is substantial enough to hold.
On the other hand if the wax sits out on the table for too long and starts to cool we found that it clogged and formed some very lumpy candles which the kids thought were hilarious but seemed to waste quite a lot of wax.

Although, we had a trial run the evening before in my kitchen, we should have made more candles. Since some of the kids, for whatever reason, did not have a chance to make their own, I ended up making about a dozen the night after the feast so that we could deliver candles to every student the following day. Better still invite some of the other parents to help you make a few extra on the day.

Finally, all the supplies are ready to go for the Feast 2008: wax and wicks are pre-cut and there is a extra block of wax and plenty of dye in the candle making supplies container in the PTA shed.

Hope you have as much fun as we did. It really is an incredible day.

Liz Wardman and Kristen Bunner. 2007