November 2024 Monthly Adventure
One thing that you may not know about me is that I love candles. I have so many candles that I actually had to stop buying them for a while. In fact, I haven't purchased a candle since February! When I had to pick a local activity for the Monthly Adventures Series this month, I opted for a candle making workshop.
Background
I have always wanted to make a candle ever since I was about 7 years old. I watched an episode of Lizzie McGuire where the main character, Lizzie, was sitting at home one evening making candles in the kitchen. My younger self thought it was such a cool thing to do and I have continued to dream of the day when I would learn to make my own candle. With October being Austin's busiest month of the year, things slow down a lot in November and that can sometimes make finding a local activity a difficult task. So, I opened up the Eventbrite app on my phone and searched for events within a specific date range. That search produced results that included multiple candle making workshops and I picked one at Mañana Coffee which is a local coffee shop in Austin, TX. I guess candle making is a popular fall craft!
Tickets
Purchasing my ticket on Eventbrite was very easy and only took a couple clicks to complete my order. The cost of a single ticket was about $24 and included a cup of coffee, latte, or tea and one 8 oz. candle.
Candle Making Workshop
The entire length of the workshop was 2 hours to kick off a lovely Sunday afternoon in November. The first 30 minutes was dedicated to getting coffee and meeting the other workshop attendees. After coffee time (I ordered an horchata), it was candle making time!
An expert instructor from Candlelit Experience, a company based out of Dallas) led the workshop and guided everyone in attendance through the process of making selecting scents, pouring wax, and letting the wax set. Our workshop group was small with only 5 total attendees and I was the only person that had not made a candle before. Everyone was excited for me to learn how candle making works and some people even shared more about how I can get into other forms of crafting around Austin. They gave me some great ideas for some future Monthly Adventures Series posts!
Selecting Scents
Our instructor, Veronica (who is also the founder/CEO of Candlelit Experience), set out 6 scents for us to smell and fill our 1 oz. cups with. She intentionally gave us options that were more seasonal with options such as mahogany teakwood and autumn spice. We were encouraged to mix scents and think about it in terms of ratios. This ratio process for creating scents is similar to how the color mixing process was for my custom lipstick at the Lip Lab from my previous Monthly Adventure. After smelling all the scents, I filled my 1 oz. cup with three parts autumn spice and 1 part tuscan tobacco.
Prepping the Jar
We had a selection of colorful tins, brown jars, and clear jars to choose from. I opted for the brown jar and, like the other containers, found a warning label, brand sticker, candlewick holder, and a candlewick. We started by putting the warning label on the bottom of the jar and followed that with putting the adhesive candlewick holder on the metal base of the candlewick. We pressed our wicks into the base our jars and took a small stick with a hole in the center to straighten the wick for pouring and setting the wax.
Mixing the Ingredients
Veronica heated our wax for us and shared instructions on the steps to take as we received our containers of wax. The first step was to mix in our dye. We had a wide range of colors to choose from such as pinks, yellows, reds, purples, black, and other colors. I chose a color called ivory yellow to add a bit more depth to the original wax color so it wouldn't be too plain in the brown jar. Once our dye was mixed in, it was time to add our custom scent from our 1 oz. cups! After stirring for about 30-60 seconds, we poured the wax into our jars. Veronica was super awesome and got pictures and videos of me pouring the wax. I will post the videos as an exclusive on Instagram.
Letting the Wax Set
It took about 40-45 minutes for the wax to be set enough to transport home. As the wax set, we were given florals and foil to decorate the edges of our wax. I chose calendula and gold foil to add to my candle and cut off the excess wick once the center of the wax was set enough to keep the candlewick stable. I chatted a bit more with some of the other candle making workshop attendees as we let the wax continue to cool for our candles. I also learned that this was the first workshop that Candlelit Experience has hosted in Austin and I hope they return in the future!
Once the candle making workshop concluded, I went to the Austin Central Library a few doors down (where I went for my June 2024 Monthly Adventure) to pick up my brand new library card. Turns out the library was closed for Veterans Day, so I'll have to try again another day to get my library card.
Wrap-Up
After having not purchased a candle for nearly nine months, I'm glad that my newest addition to my candle collection is one that I made! Making candles is actually much easier than I thought it would be and I think I finally found a craft that I will feel confident in doing again. This cozy, crafty workshop was the perfect way to spend an autumn afternoon and I can't wait to try candle making again!
On to the next adventure!
Feel free to leave comments below, tweet/post (@KimiThoughts), or leave a post/message on Facebook (@KimisTravelThoughts) !
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