Course description

Whether you'd like a glass jar candle for the kitchen table, a set of travel tins or a pillar for the dining table, this course takes you from your first unscented jar to a planned, costed set of three container candles and a pillar, checked with proper burn trials. It's about making candles safely at home, for yourself and as presents, with a short, careful part for anyone thinking about selling later.

Safety comes first in every making lesson: you melt wax only in a double boiler or a purpose-made melter, keep a thermometer in the wax, never leave melting wax, never use water on burning wax, and keep children and pets out of the room. You learn how a candle burns and how the common waxes behave, how to choose a wick and check it with a burn trial, and how to choose safe jars, tins and moulds. Then you weigh, melt, pour and cure, make jar, tin, multi-wick and pillar candles and rolled beeswax candles, add colour and scent safely within your supplier's limits, fix common faults, decorate safely and make wax melts. Section 10 covers costing, and a careful outline of product safety and CLP labelling for scented candles, with the official pages to check.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Khulan, a bookkeeper in Kendal, from her first jar in January to the set she makes in October, with Dolma, who runs a Wednesday evening craft group, alongside. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, an answer key and a cheat sheet, plus a safety checklist, a workspace setup sheet, a wax and wick planning worksheet, a pouring temperature log, a trial burn log, step guides with simple line drawings, a fragrance safety reminder card, a fault finder card, a selling and labelling checklist, a glossary and a costing spreadsheet with a worked example.

What you'll learn

• Safety first and getting started: heat, wax and fire safety, burns and splashes with NHS first aid, the kit and a safe workspace, and your first container candle.
• Waxes and how they behave: how a candle burns, soy and rapeseed container waxes, paraffin and blends, beeswax, and choosing a wax for each project.
• Wicks and burn trials: wick types, choosing a starting size from a chart, running and reading a burn trial, trimming wicks and burning safely.
• Containers, tins and moulds: heat-proof glass jars, tins, ceramics and reusing containers safely, moulds, fixing wicks and working out how much wax you need.
• Melting, pouring and curing: weighing, melting safely in a double boiler or melter, your supplier's temperatures, pouring, second pours, curing and storing.
• Container candles step by step: planning a candle, a scented glass jar candle, a tin candle, multi-wick candles, and finishing and checking.
• Pillar and moulded candles: pillar waxes and mould release, pouring a pillar, relief holes and topping up, rolled beeswax candles, and burning pillars safely.
• Colour, scent and fragrance safety: candle dyes, fragrance oils and essential oils, reading a safety data sheet, supplier limits and scent throw, and planning colour and scent together.
• Fixing faults, decorating and wax melts: tunnelling, sinkholes, frosting, wet spots, soot and mushrooming, decorating safely, and wax melts and burners.
• Costing, selling basics and final project: costing a candle, a careful outline of product safety duties and CLP labelling for scented candles, and a final project with a worked model answer.

Who it's for

Anyone who would like to make candles safely at home, for themselves or as presents. You don't need any experience. If you later think about selling, Starting a Business in the UK: From Idea to First Customers and Selling on Etsy from the UK: Set Up, Photograph, Price and Grow Your Shop cover the business side, and Jewellery Making for Beginners: Beading, Wirework and Simple Findings at Home is another hands-on craft course.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a beginner's course in candle making at home. It doesn't give fragrance amounts: you always use your own supplier's figures. The safety, first aid and fire advice comes from the NHS and UK fire and rescue services, and the outline of selling and labelling from GOV.UK, the HSE, HSENI and trading standards guidance, but the course isn't legal or tax advice, and you must never copy another candle's label. Temperatures and prices in the worked examples are made up. Khulan, Dolma and every other person in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Set up a safe candle making workspace, melt wax only in a double boiler or melter with a thermometer in the wax, and know what to do if wax catches fire
• Give first aid for small burns and splashes using NHS guidance, and keep children and pets safe while you work
• Choose between soy, rapeseed, paraffin, blended and beeswax for each kind of candle
• Choose a starting wick size from a chart, then run and read a burn trial to find the right one
• Choose and prepare safe glass jars, tins, ceramic pots and moulds, and work out how much wax each needs
• Weigh, melt, pour, second pour and cure candles at your wax supplier's temperatures
• Make glass jar, tin and multi-wick container candles, pillars in a mould and rolled beeswax candles
• Add candle dye and fragrance oils safely, read a safety data sheet, and keep fragrance within your supplier's maximum
• Find and fix tunnelling, sinkholes, frosting, wet spots, soot and mushrooming, decorate safely and make wax melts
• Cost a candle, and know which official pages on product safety, CLP labelling and tax to check before any thought of selling
• Plan, make and check three container candles and a pillar, with a trial burn log, a fault diary and a costing sheet

Frequently asked questions