Lights
This is another area where we are good. I could not make it indefinitely, but I could make it a year, hopefully. I have a lot of tapers, jars and 11 oil lamps. Not to mention all the votive and tea lights. I have the supplies to make a few more candles but nothing of any significance. I also have a couple gallons of lamp oil and a couple gallons of olive oil ( more for cooking, but I still have it. ) Wendy Brown talks about making and using tallow candles. These are candles that are made with animal fat. At our living history museum, they have a tin smith. He makes candle boxes for tallow candles. The box has a lid and a latch. Now your thinking why do I have to lock the box….? Well, he explained that it is because critters will want to eat your animal fat candles. So if your going to make them keep them in a safe place. The reason I went with tallow before bees wax is because tallow should be easier to find unless you have bees already.
If you have bees or can get wax, ie; neighbor, friend, family, then you can make candles with the wax.
But whatever way you make them you will still need to have wicks. These are cheap and won’t take up much space in your box of supplies. You can dip or pour.
Need to Do or Get
- Get more wicks
- See about purchasing wax in bulk. 5 or 10 pounds
See about getting bees
Yart
4 comments:
Funny, they sell bee's wax all over the place here. It isn't cheap, so tallow is the good way to go or have your own bees [which I know you can't. dang]
You can go online and buy the chips to melt down to make your own candles. An enormous bag isn't that expensive [can't remember the cost] but I bought a bag two years ago and the family is still making candles from it. It works out to be pennies per candle.
Thanks Skippy, I will look into that.
Great idea! I will have to look into the idea of tallow candles!
As much as I like our oil lamps (some Aladdin, some Kosmo, some cheepie), the whole spilling possibility scares me, especially now with a 2 year old daughter.
I buy up after-holiday candles, especially the ones in jars when they go on sale.
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