Beeswax candles
Step by step guide
Handmade beeswax Christmas candles are the perfect craft for the holiday season. They are creative, eye-catching, and easy to make. With some simple laser cutting and hand rolling, you can create unique and personalized gifts or fragrant decorations for your home. Below are step-by-step instructions so you can make these sweet-smelling candles yourself.
Preparation
Required material for Christmas Tree Candles
One sheet of beeswax (8.5" x 3.9") in green
One sheet of beeswax (8.5" x 3.9") in a natural color
Required material for Candlewick:
Beeswax leftovers in various colors for decorations
Piece of paper for the jig
Required material Santa Candle
One sheet of beeswax (8.5" x 3.9") in red
One sheet of beeswax (8.5" x 3.9") in a natural color
Trotec laser used
- Speedy 100, 60 Watts
- Speedy 300, 80 Watts
- Cutting table
Step by step
Step 1: Design
Use the templates at the bottom of this page. Import the design into Job Control.
Step 2: Laser Processing
Cutting the body of the candles
Place the beeswax sheets onto the jig. Laser-cut the beeswax sheets on a diagonal or straight, as shown in the picture. This will create the bases of the candles.
Cutting ornaments
Choose festive designs for such as stars, stockings, and snowmen. Since the wax is sticky, cuts can easily re-adhere to one another, so you must remove your ornaments from the surrounding beeswax sheets immediately after processing.
Step 3: Parameter Settings
USING A SPEEDY 100
Cutting: Power 20%, Speed 2.5%, Frequency 1,000Hz, Pass 3, Air Assist ON
USING A SPEEDY 300
Cutting: Power 30%, Speed 0.5%, Frequency 1,000Hz, Pass 1, Air Assist ON
Step 4: Sheet Rolling
Christmas tree
Warm the cut-out shape of the Christmas tree with either your hands or a blow dryer. Then, overlay the dark, green wax with the lighter, natural colored wax, as shown in the photograph. Next, place the candle wick along the wider edge, and gently roll the sheets together by hand.
Santa
Arrange the red and white sheets, so they are touching, as shown in the photograph below. Then, place the candle wick along the wider edge of the material, and gently roll the sheets together by hand. Make sure that the red and white sheets do not separate from each other. Roll another layer of red over the top of the Santa candle you have just created to make his clothes, and be sure to leave a bit of white exposed for his face.
Step 5: Decorating with Ornaments
Take two of the stars that you cut out and warm them in your hands. At the top of the Christmas tree, position one star on either side of to the wick. Sandwich the wick between the two with some exposed at the top, as shown in the picture below.
For small details such as eyes and buttons, roll leftover wax remnants into small balls and apply them to the body of the candles using toothpicks. These parts should easily stick, so adhesives are not necessary.
Use your hands to warm the small, wax pieces, and position them onto the candles as you please. Be sure you fasten them firmly to ensure they will not fall off. The body of these candles is comprised of two sheets, but you can make traditional candles by using one layer at a time. Sandwich a toothpick at the center of the layers to make stick candles.
Step 6: Hints
- When laser-cutting the body of the candles, we recommend using a paper jig.
- Remove the ornaments from the beeswax immediately before the edges harden and they re-adhere.
- Detailed designs with sharp corners and lettering are very difficult to remove from surrounding beeswax sheets.
- Rolling and assembling candle wax layers can be very difficult in low-temperature environments. For better results, work in warmer locations with a room temperature within 59℉ to 77℉.
- Tools such as scissors, rulers, cutting mats, toothpicks, and blow dryers will be useful when processing and assembling these candles.