Making a Stripped Advent "Wreath" Candle

                                            4 layer stripped candle using Advent colors.

  My family is making these as a service project.  They will be sold at the church market and the money made will be donated.   Common advent candles are 4 different candles (3 purple and 1 pink) but we are making a non-traditional advent "wreath" candle.  The lid will also be painted green to give it more of an wreath feel and of course the scent is Winter Woodlands Whisper which is a deep rich pine, spruce and fir tree!

Safety First!  Always prepare your candle making area.

Materials needed-Makes 4-1lb Candles
4- 16oz Apothecary Jar with plain zinc lid
4-Pounds Golden Wax 464 (or other wax)
Hot Glue (high temp) or Candle Glue Dots
3.2oz Winter Woodlands Whisper (or scent of your choice used at manufacturers instructions)
Pour Pot
Double Boiler or Presto Pot
Ladle
Thermometer
Purple and Pink Candle Dye.  We used Flutter Dyes
2-CDN22 Wicks.  (Each wick and make two candles when you cut off the extra and add a wick tab)
2-Wick Tabs

Optional
Straw
Scale

These candles are made in a 16oz Apothecary Jar with plain zinc lid.  You can use whatever candle jar you like just divide the ounces by 4 so that you can know how much wax you will need for each layer.  We did 4 candles at a time so that we used 1 pound of wax for each layer (split 4 times is 4oz per jar)

Instructions 
Set up Jars
1)Hot glue tab (with wick in it) to middle of jar. Using a straw will make this easier.  Slip wick into straw and use straw to help apply glue and press firmly into place.  Then remove straw.


2)Candle Cocoon Easy Wick Holder - Rubber band two craft sticks together.  Insert wick.  When wick goes slack after hot wax is poured in simply pull tight.  Or use a metal wick holder.

Wick Holder using 2 craft sticks and a rubber band

To make layer candles—(each layer will be 4oz)

1)Melt wax in double boiler or Presto Kitchen Kettle.  We use EL container soy. (Enchanted Lites Classic Container) or Golden Brands 464.
2)Make sure to raise the temperature of the wax to the required heat.  With Golden Wax 464 it is between 180-190F.

3)To make bottom layer--Working quickly-weigh out 1 pound of wax in pour pot.  Add 4 -(Purple) Flutter Dyes (Wild Indigo Dusty Wing) and .8oz Winter Woodland Whisper to pour pot.  Mix well.  Heat Jar with heat gun (or take out of oven).  Put jar on scale, tare, pour in 4oz of wax. If you don't have a scale you will need to eyeball your amount.  Repeat with each jar.  Let jars cool until they are no longer runny and wax will not break through if you tip the jar.

 After first pour ONLY--Make sure you have dripped out all excess purple color from the first layer.  Clean pour pot by using main hot wax pot to ladle in about 1 or two ladles of wax.  Then, swirl and pour back into main wax pot.  (A little purple in the main pot will not affect the color much.  In fact, it may even add a little to the red candle dye.)

4)Repeat step 3 - for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th color stripes but substitute with the color combinations below.

   2^nd layer  Pink-1/2 Canary Red Admiral in a pound of wax.

   3^rd layer Purple-4 Wild Indigo Dusty Wing and 1/2 Canary Red Admiral in a pound of wax.
   4^rd layer Purple-4  Wild Indigo Dusty Wing

5)Let cure for 48 hours and trim the wick to 1/4" inch!  Enjoy!

***Don't forget that when burning this candle you need to do so for at least 4 hours otherwise it will tunnel.
Thank you for reading :0)