Making your own Christmas Gift Idea

[Guest]

Since we’ve been talking about making your own Christmas gifts, I was

searching the interenet & came across flower pressed candles. Seeing

that we’re in flower season, I thought this would be perfect to make

with the kids. We’re going to make a bunch of these for teachers at

school, my husbands staff at work and relatives.

Tools and Materials

* Microwave flower press (Available at Lee Valley Tools, $29.95 –

Item GM420)

* Natural coloured beeswax, either sheets or chunks (available at

White Rose and other craft stores)

* Tin pie plate for melting beeswax

* Fresh flowers, pine needles, cedar, rosehips, or leaves

* Big candles (at least 4″ in diameter)

* 1/2-inch art paintbrush

The key item you need for this project is the microwave flower press,

a kiln-fired pair of terra cotta slabs measuring 6″ x 6″. This

remarkable unit presses flowers in less than two minutes (instead of

the three weeks it takes in a traditional press) and preserves the

colours brilliantly.

Steps

1. Put on some Christmas music and pour yourself a libation.

2. Count on making a mess. Arrange newspapers and paper towels on

the kitchen counter to catch waxy drips.

3. Melt beeswax in a tin pie plate. The reason I use beeswax and

not paraffin is that it’s more stretchy and gooey, so it makes a nice

flexible seal for the flowers. Paraffin tends to chip, crack and

crumble when used as an appliqué medium.

4. Start pressing flowers. Roses take about two minutes.

More

delicate flowers or leaves may take only one minute.

5. Dip your paintbrush into the melted beeswax and dab it all over

the back of a pressed flower. While the wax is still hot, press the

flower onto the surface of the candle. Then paint lots more melted

wax over the surface of the flower so it’s preserved under a layer of

wax.

6. Add more flowers to the candle surface. When you’ve finished

covering the candle with flowers, paint over any blank spots with

more beeswax so the whole candle is the same texture and colour.

7. If you’re making the candle for a guy, use screws, nuts and

bolts instead of flowers and he’ll have his own workshop candle for

screwing emergencies.

If the flower-pressing thing doesn’t grab you, try carving designs on

the surface of candles using a chip carving knife or traditional v-

tool, available at craft stores or Lee Valley Tools. Carving wax is

way easier than carving wood, so it’s a great project for beginner

carvers. You can carve geometric patterns, or your company logo

(urf!) or wavy, curly ivy vines. Then if you’re really hot-dogging,

use a contrasting colour of beeswax to paint in the lines you’ve

carved.

Tammy

[Author]

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