Here we are again looking at homemade things that are a bit more than special and fun and hopefully better for our world in some way.
I had a thought about candles the other day. I am not sure if i could get away with candle making up here unless it was the loose bead variety but i desperately wanted to do something. Candles are something we use quite alot of and it's coming up to that time of year where candles make all the difference and can make a room not only feel warmer but actually warmer as well.
How was I going to do this ??? I had no idea until looking through an old herbcraft book I can upon instructions for herb candles. Herb Candles ??? really ??? I continued to look realising that you used bought pillar candles and could dip them in water to place the pressed herbs into them ... Well I have to say I think I might jsut be onto something this time. Our budget is worse than little it is non existant right now, however at times we all have a loose £1 coin in our pockets and this is when the £1 shops come in handy. Himself is now under instrudtions that when he picks up the girls in Exeter on a Saturday he is to pop into the pound shop and pick up a tower candle. I would love to go but it is another bus fare and that bus fare would be our electric for a week so that isn't happening!!!
Instead what I have started doing is pressing the leaves to go on the candles. No I don't have a special posh press that everyone thinks they need to do this I have lots of huge massive doorsteps of books and that combined with some tissue of whatever sort you have in the house in our case it was loo roll will do the job nicely.
Work from the back of the book it makes it easier to do several layers, put down 2 layers of tissue on the right hand page.
Pick your leaves off the stalks. Today I am using Ivy leaves, they mean something to us and they will give a great effect to the completed candle.
Be choosey with your leaves though and don't use any damaged ones and put whats left in the compost of back where you found it as Ivy will regrow from these stalks.
Lay your leaves out face down on the paper. and give them plenty of room around themselves as you don't want them to stick together by accident, or curl wrongly in the pressing.
Carefully cover the leaves with 2 more layers of tissue and close the book by about 20-30 pages to start your next layer.
The book I used has over 1500 pages in it so I was able to use up all the leaves at one go with plenty of room in the bok for more should I want to press some more. Which I will do when I find the right ones. If you are going to use ivy use lots of different varieties I found 4 last night so I will have quite a variety. When it comes time to make the candles I will definately let you know. Until then leave your leaves to press for a good couple of weeks. I may take less time I jsut like to make sure. They can then be kept in an airtight container layered on the sheets they were pressed with to keep them safe.
Have fun with this one
xox Love and Light xox
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