Candles can be elegant, whimsical, cute, primitive or even grubby. What? You’ve never heard of a grubby candle? Grubby candles can be any type of candle with whipped up or bumpy wax on the outside. No matter how small or what shape, any type of pillar candle can be grubbed.
How to Make Grubby Candles
The easiest and simplest way to make grubby candles is to start with a candle you already have. Anyone, whether you are a candle maker or not, can make the type of grubby candle described below.
To begin, decide what type of candle shape you’d prefer. It can be a votive, a taper (like the one pictured), a round pillar, a square pillar, or any other type of pillar candle you have on hand.
Second, you will need an old candle that you will not be using again. This candle will be remelted and used for the outside grubbing of the other candles. Candles that have been burnt all the way down the center, but still have the sides are great to use for this project. If you do not have any old candles on hand, dollar stores normally have cheap candles. You may even find some on clearance.
As you are deciding what candle you will be grubbing or what candles you will use to re-melt, pay close attention to their scents. You will not want to mix a rose scented candle with a sugar cookie scented candle. The final candle scent would not be very pleasing to the nose.
Grubby Candle Steps
For directional purposes, we will be using an old taper candle that has been lying around the house for years and an old candle that the wick has been burnt all the way down. The steps below describe how to grubby the taper candle. Of course, you can use this same technique with any pillar candle.
- Melt the old candle and remove the old wick.
- In an old 8×8 inch meltal cooking pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, sprinkle ground cinnamon (the kind you cook with) and some quick oats.
- Dip the taper candle into the melted wax and immediately roll in the cinnamon and oats.
- Repeat step three until desired look is achieved. Hang to dry.
If needed, you can redip the grubby candle into the wax to set the oats in place.
Homemade Fall Decorations
An easy way to use the grubby candles in fall decorations is to place the candle in the center of an old plate. Next, add silk fall leaves around it. I like to use the fall leaves that comes in three-to-five foot long bunches. These can sometimes be found at dollar stores. Try using decorative fall berries around the base of the grubby candle and place on a shelf, over a fireplace, or even in a window seal. To make a little extra money, make several of these homemade fall decorations and sell at a local craft fair or bazaar.
If you’d like to learn more about candle making, you can check out my eBook on making caked & grubby candles.