The Glass Slipper

Late one night, I melted down the remainder of my wax on hand to fill a glass vase, which was a recent estate sale find. The sale took all the dollars out of my wallet for the following items as well: a wonderful collection of pumpkins (or glass slippers in need of something to fill them!)

Everything came to a total of $8, the smoking chips being the most expensive item (unopened from Williams-Sonoma.)

While washing out the glasses, my husband pointed out how the little grooves would prevent them from getting easily dropped--something I am especially prone to do. Though I took this as the general observation for which he intended it to be, I conceded that we needed them more as drinking glasses than as candle holders. Late night candle making is ill-advised for someone as clumsy as I can be when tired, but it was the only time I had free this week.  Getting the wick to stay in place involved much grumbling, pouring in the wax, pouring it back out, and finally letting the husband help, but in the end a candle came together with a couple plastic knives and a plethora of tape.

Now, we'll break to an experiment I ran with the left over wax from the jar candle in my last post. I poured two smaller candles, one with a toothpick and one with a shoe lace.

Here are the stunning results! Left hand is the toothpick and right hand is the shoelace.

When the toothpick wick was clearly out for the count, I started shaving off excess wax from the other and dumping it onto the first. But in the end, there were no survivors.

Here is another experiment I tried with mixed results--Crisco and crayon tea lights.

Besides choosing a terrible color, I didn't prop the wicks up while drying, so three out of four did not burn well or at all. I may have sunk an entire sleeve of matches into these.

All the candle ends from one night of dining transformed to burn again...or not.

P.S. If the glass slipper breaks, why not just accept that bare feet are better anyway?

This pillar burned very low for a few hours, but then would put itself out. Soaking the wick in borax and salt water overnight is really key to having a well-burning candle. I'm discovering the long way that there are only so many short-cuts candle makers can get away with!