Continuing with our Handmade Holidays, today we made sweet little walnut candles. They are enchanting little gifts from nature, made with walnut shells and beeswax. They will flicker warmly on our Thanksgiving table.
We needed…
walnuts (halved and shelled) and other pods
a jar of beeswax
candle wicks
and scissors
We used 3 walnut halves, a seed pod and a big acorn cap.
Place you candle wick into the walnut and measure how long you need your wick to be. Cut it accordingly.
We needed 4 shorter wicks for the walnuts and acorn cap and one longer one for our bigger pod.
Now it is time to melt the beeswax. I made a bain-marie by filling a pot with a few inches of water and bringing it to the boil. When your water is boiling, put your jar of wax in the boiling water. This gently melts your beeswax. Please be careful… boiling water and melted wax is hot!
When we work with melted wax, I always have a bowl of iced water prepared. Touch wood, we haven’t burnt ourselves as we are very careful, but I feel safer knowing that if an accident happened, I could put a burn in cold water immediately.
(Note: this is from a reader who says… “I wanted to let you know, though, that burns should never be put in ice water, nor should a burn be iced. You should not even use cold water, it can cause cold damage to the sensitive skin. Instead, immerse the burn in room temp or cool water to help bring down the swelling and help with the pain, or run cool / room temp water over it”)
(Note: this is from a reader who says… “I wanted to let you know, though, that burns should never be put in ice water, nor should a burn be iced. You should not even use cold water, it can cause cold damage to the sensitive skin. Instead, immerse the burn in room temp or cool water to help bring down the swelling and help with the pain, or run cool / room temp water over it”)
Once the beeswax is melted, it takes on a gorgeous golden glow… just like honey, as K noticed. And it smells wonderful too.
I use a paper towel when I pour melted wax. Dab a little melted wax onto the paper towel and then fix your walnut to the wax.
This holds your walnut in place for you to pour the wax safely into.
Pour the melted wax right up to the rim of the walnut.
After a few minutes, the wax hardens enough for you to insert your wick. The cooling wax holds your wick in place.
We made 4 candles… 2 walnut, 1 acorn and 1 seed pod.
Don’t they look charming? K thinks they are just the right size to fit on a bunny’s table… I had a wonderful flash of her imagination when she said that :-)
We lit one just to see that it really does work. It gives off the sweetest honey smell… fragrance from Mother Nature herself.
The others, we have packed away in a special place… we are saving them to decorate our Thanksgiving table with. We will sit around our table smiling and loving and laughing while our little candles flicker happily, reminding us of all we have to be thankful for.
Check out our other Handmade Christmas decorations and these bright nature-inspired Felted Wool Acorn Christmas Tree Decorations here.
Blessings and magic.
24 Responses
So sweet!
You will have a beautiful table! Happy Thanksgiving.
I love these! Very sweet! Happy Thanksgiving!
I wish we had an nth of the natural findings you have. Amazingly, here in Alaska, at least where I live, we have little. I feel like I need to go digging in the bulk walnut bin for big walnuts. :)
What a lovely idea! Thanks for the tutorial. I really like that you used all natural materials to make this.
Christi
FatBottomBLOG: Living Green in a Colorful World
We make these with acorns too. They float beautifully in water. :)
http://homemadeserenity.blogspot.com/2009/10/preserving-autumn.html
How lovely and precious this is! I cannot wait to try this, myself! You always post the most lovely nature projects. :) Sincerely, Theresa
What a wonderful post. These would make such simply sweet Christmas gifts for little ones to give, too. I love it!
-Phyllis
These are the coolest thing ever! LOVE! I heart walnut shells & walnut shell crafts! Found via One Pretty Thing!
Gorgeous! **TIP** If you place your walnut on waxed paper while filling then if any spills you can ‘peel’ off and reuse.
Love your blog.
NZ
We finally got around to making these. We plan to add them to stockings and gift baskets. Thank you for the lovely idea. (I have linked this to my post.) I love this tutorial…it feels like I am right there.
-Phyllis
I love these candles! My craft neighbor, Miss Teapot, saw one on my nature table and decided to make her own… Then she gifted one to me for my birthday.
My first walnut candle is in a very large shell and the nut comes from a rare walnut tree. I received this candle as a part of a gratitude ceremony in my Waldorf parenting group. We used a group process to write poems about each other and lit these candle’s in each person’s honor. I felt so honored to take my little candle home, and can’t look at it without remembering how uplifting it was to hear my group’s expression of love for each other.
I plan to link to this post in my upcoming Solstice article on Sono-Ma. Making these nuts is a great activity for many holidays or occasions! Thank you for creating such a lovely instructional article and for sharing!
I love it! I’m planning to make these in our home:-) Thanks for sharing!
so precious
these are cute, i remember making them as a kid, but couldn’t remember how exactly, and with what kind of wicks!
how long do these burn, on average, do you think?
Absolutely love these! Thank you so much – we are definitely going to make some of these this fall!
These are just wonderful. I’ll definitely add these to my craft list for next fall when the walnuts ripen. Is there any concern about the walnut itself catching fire?
These are awesome! Great idea.
what a great idea. :)
Okay…am I the only one concerned about these pretty little things catching on fire while they sit on your table and the wick burns down?
Hi Cindy,
Thanks for your concern. I definitely think parents will be vigilant in watching for that. Whenever we have used these sweet candles, I have let the children blow them out before we leave them alone.
xo Donni