Subject: Herbs for charging candles
Materia Artistica: Koh-i-noor tech pens
Reffernces: a lot of plants laying around my room and a commercial candle with rose petals placed in it.
Notes: From a book project from C.R.O.C. press (and no i am not making this shit up. i once confronted him on the usage of croc as a anagram and he said it was his initials and that was that.... ) this was not only my favourtie piece even above the crsytal ones but also the training i learned the most from including making a discovery that even my teacher did not know. which is that some herbal stuff will steep thier essential oils into the wax if you let it remain liquid and left alone for a few hours. Many spices will of course let their oils go in wax since many have waxes in them say like cinnamon bark or sassafras root or even cloves. however many herbal oils are very heat sensitive and do not gently go into the good night. however some will espeically some flowers but you have to use a good clean parafin as it remains liquid at lower temps (around 110 - 120 degrees F) which is warm enough to coax the oils out but not hot enough to disrupt thier chemical makeup. resulting in some nice natural scents. Also something to remember when using herbs in candles is they are flamable and will become wicks. therefore you must have about an inch and a half at least between them and the wick. this is best achieved by making a core mold of at least a three inch diameter candle and then find a larger mold (incidently the Best molds out there are snack food cans. the cardboard ones with metal bottoms like pringles cans and nut cans. the inside is oiled and allows ease of extraction with a can that peels away nicely and the metal bottoms secure the wicks nicely. you punch a small hole in the bottom of the container. place wick through and knot. place it in a shallow ban and do the first pour of wax and it will seal the bottom for the rest of the pour) Anyway into the next bigger mold and stuff lightly around the inner candle the herbs you wish to present through. generally you will have to work in layers here. put in some herbs and pour in some good translucent parafin and repeat process until you have brought up the outer layer to the level of the inner. when burning this candle pay much attention. Also just a hint as you are pouring molds sometimes massive bubble will form in the candle as it is sitting. the top of the wax solidifies first and smaller bubbles will rise getting caught and coalesing into a bigged bubble usually along the wick as it seeds the bubbles (gives them a place to form) so a longer knitting needle is good to poke into the bubbles and make it so you can fill them as you layer up. No matter ho well the first pour goes you will always have to do a second pour because wax shrinks a lot when it cools. and this will end up as a bug dip in the top of the candle. you have done nothing wrong here it is just the nature of the wax... Holy shit that turned into a lesson! well anyway be safe with candles either made or bought that have flower or stuff embedded into them or covered in cheap paints as they can flare up and cause great fire danger.