How to Make Rolled Beeswax Candles

I don’t know when you will be reading this, but at the time of writing it, we’re right in the middle of the holiday season. I don’t know about you, but cold weather gets me wanting to light some candles.

When we first got into beekeeping a few years ago, my Dad purchased wooden frames for the bees. With this setup, you put in beeswax foundation for the bees (thin flat sheets of beeswax) and they build up comb from that. While this method works great, it’s NOT so great when it comes to extracting honey. We have a spinning honey extractor and those beeswax frames completely blow apart when we spin them and clog up the system. That also means the bees have to do a lot of work to rebuild their honeycomb.

ALL of that to say — we had some extra beeswax foundation that we weren’t using. I did melt down some of the foundations to make beeswax container candles, but I had a lot leftover.

That’s when I decided to make hand-rolled beeswax candles from the beeswax foundation! They’re beautiful, functional, and SO easy to make. Wanna learn how? I’ll teach you.

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What You Need to Make Rolled Beeswax Candles

It only takes a FEW items to make rolled beeswax candles.

• Beeswax foundation
• A length or a spool of wick 
• Craft Scissors
• Hair dryer

What size wick you get depends on how big you want your candles to be. My candles were about 3/4 inch in diameter, so I used a 2/0 size wick. If you’re making a pillar candle that’s around 3 inches in diameter, you may want to get a #3 wick.

Depending on where you purchase your wicks, you may be able to find a guide to help you choose the right size. If you choose a wick that’s too small, your candle may snuff out easily. A wick too large will often have an excessive flame that quickly burns through a rolled taper candle.

I used a company called Toadily Handmade Beeswax Candles to purchase my wicks, and they offer their own chart for sizing. That makes things nice and easy when you make rolled beeswax candles!

1. Lay Out Your Beeswax Foundation and Size

Lay out your beeswax foundation and measure how tall you want your candles to be. My beeswax sheets are 17 inches tall, which is taller than I wanted my candles to be. A typical taper candle is between 6 and 20 inches tall, but the most traditional length is 12 inches. I cut off about 4-5 inches from my beeswax foundation which I saved to make shorter candles.

2. Roll Your Candles

Lay your wick at one end of the wax sheet. Try to keep it as straight as you can. You can push it into the wax a little to keep it in place if you like.

Roll the wax a few times to the wick is securely in place in the middle. It’ll look like this. Why did I choose to take pictures on a background that looks almost the same color as the beeswax sheets? I don’t know. I was working with what I had at the time…but it doesn’t look great now haha

Here’s my daughter helping me roll the candles up. She did a GREAT job. If you have kids, they can help too!

3. Use a Hair Dryer to Help Seal the Candles

Once the candle is rolled, it won’t exactly adhere to the other side. It may begin to unravel a little. I set my blow dryer on medium heat and gently ran it across the length of the candle. Then I pressed it down so it would stay in place.

4. Enjoy Your Candles!

Once your candles are complete, you can begin to use them!! They’re very pretty while burning and perfect for the dinner table.

Safety Tips for Burning Candles

I can’t make a post about candles without talking about some safety tips. Let’s go through these before you start burning your candles!

• Choose the right wick size. Choosing a wick size that’s too large can result in a candle that burns very hot. This can make it an unsafe candle.
• Don’t leave candles unattended. It’s easy to walk away from candles, but it’s also easy for something to happen. Taper candles have a better chance of being knocked over so please be careful not to leave the room and allow them to keep burning.
• Don’t burn a candle near something that might light on fire. This seems like totally obvious, but sometimes you might not realize that the table you’re lighting your candle on is also very near your curtains. Curtains + fire = disaster. Or, you may have something on your table — a decoration or something — that comes too close to your candles. Please do not light them near something that may catch on fire.
• Keep candles away from children and animals. Not only will your children try to slide their fingers over the flame-like they’re some kind of magician, there’s also a high chance of them knocking the candle off the table. Teach your children not to play with the candles — although they may enjoy blowing them out.
• Don’t put your candles near flames or vents. Keeping your candles away from air currents will keep them from uneven burning or shooting.
• Don’t move candles while they’re burning. Once your candle is lit don’t move it. I know you want to walk around your house with a candle like you’re in a mystery novel, but taper candles could easily fall off your candle holder landing you in an entirely different type of book.
• Put your candle on a stable flat surface. Try to avoid putting your candle on something that can easily fall over or on a surface where it could slide off.
• Don’t burn a candle for more than three hours to four hours. It’s recommended not to let your candles burn more than three to four hours, and to stop burning a container candle when it’s reached half an inch of wax at the bottom. This can help avoid getting the container too hot and accidentally causing a fire.

Share Your Rolled Beeswax Candles

Ready to start making some rolled beeswax candles? Use them as presents this holiday. Set them up as part of your holiday display. Have a romantic candlelit dinner with your sweetie, or pretend you’re at a fancy restaurant with your kids. My kids think it’s SO fun when I pretend I’m a waitress at a restaurant and I deliver their food. They especially like it when I talk in an accent.

Okay, enough about me. What about you? I can’t WAIT to hear about your rolled beeswax candles.