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| Original tapered “colonial” candle Templates. |
Candles were mainly made of tallow and beeswax in earlier times. It was gradually made from spermaceti, pure animal fat, and paraffin wax in both colonial America and American pioneers. Below is a unique craft for your historical dolls… pretend candle molds made out of golf tees!
Support list:
- cardboard scrap
- Metallic “pewter” look, acrylic paint
- Four golf tees
- pickaxe
- strings
- wood glue
- Black acrylic paint
- masking tape
- Hot glue and a hot glue gun
- mod podge
Step by step instructions:
- Cut two pieces of 2″ x 1 1/2″ cardboard.
- Use masking tape and more glue to make a raised edge for one piece of cardboard from a long, narrow strip of cardboard. This will be the tray used to pour the wax into the molds.
- Stick the heavier end of each golf putt in a three-by-two grid pattern, equidistant from each other at the bottom of the stairs. See image details below. Let it dry upside down with golf tees laying flat on the inverted tray.
- Once the tees are dry, glue their ends to the bottom flat tray, which will be the faux candle mold holder.
- Use a nail or the tip of scissors to poke six holes, three sets of two, equidistant from each other on the base piece of cardboard.
- Now stick the ends of the golf tees into these 6 holes and let the pretend building block dry.
- Form a strip of cardboard into a handle for the candle mold and hot-glue it to the underside of the tray end.
- Paint the entire surface of the toy candle mold black. Then, brush on colored paint or metallic silver with a dry brush to give the candle mold a matte finish.
- Using the eraser tip of a pencil, dip in black acrylic paints and dot the six painted holes on the inside of the tray molding on top.
- Cut toothpicks to fit into these painted holes.
- Wrap them with string to make fake candle wicks that appear to be hanging inside the holes of the mold. Glue these in place.
- Finish the candle molds with Mod Podge.
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| Golf tees were purchased in bulk from Craft Resale. |
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| To the left, look at the candle mold, upside down. This makes drying Everything is easier to fall into place. Well, candle molds now Right side up and the “trays at the top” are where these should be. The handles are hot glued into place and all is set to paint. |
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| On the left you can see trays painted with black dots for “holes” and sticking toothpicks in the place. These represent the candles inside the molds with their wicks attached to Wooden supports. At right, see finished colonial candle molds for playing with historic dolls. |
This family blog shows how people from
Made in the 19th century hand dipped candles.
There are gradual gradient candle templates just above this
Head of a young girl on a shelf in the background.
See more candle making on the tube: