Coloured Beeswax Comb Foundation for Candles product reviews

I love the look of waxsheet candles and have always enjoyed the smell of them too. When I was given the chance to make some of my own I was really happy to give it a go. With a copy of the instructions plus some ideas I found on waxcraft websites I dived in and gave it my best shot. Sorry to say my first attempt was quite a disaster but with some careful pateince I managed to unwind it all and reuse it for another go.
This second try went a lot better because I used a knife to cut the sheet on an angle to give me the cone shaped top instead of trying to roll the straight sheet on an angle. The knife I used to do the cut was a sharp straight-edge but it still grabbed at the wax and caused a few jagged tears along the visible edge. After a bit of thought I decided to try something a little different and grabbed the old pizza-cutter out of storage and tried that. Brilliant results! Nice clean edge, reasonably straight and by holding the cutter tilted over I was able to bevel the edge of the wax to give a really pleasing edge along the cone.
After that I decided to get a bit experimental and tried cutting 2 sheets of wax at slightly different heights, so that when I rolled them together around the wick I got a candle with a coloured spiral around the cone. This worked reasonably well, but as thin as the sheets are, they were a bit too thick to do a really impressive job. But that is my lack of skill, not a flaw in the raw materials.
Lastly I tried my hand at decorating the candles I had made. Considering the bad results the knife gave me, and knowing my lack of ability when it comes to making even shapes freehand anyway I decided to continue the food-tool concept and borrow the set of little play-doh cookie-cutters from my little one's room. Careful placement, some firm even pressure and presto, a pile of nice little stars, moons and geometric shapes. With a light puff from the hairdryer and a bit of speed and they seem to have stuck quite well.
Really excellent quality wax sheets, and a NZ product, which is better yet. Was quite impressed with the range of colours on offer and only wish I had more to play with.

Do you know how infernally difficult it is to locate decent candle wax sheets in this country?! I must have phoned nearly every store in the North Island trying to find some, and the best I could find was a pack of 5 sheets, available only in plain default-yellow, and it's imported from France! But, was it worth the effort? No way! Not at $33.00 for the pack!

So when I read a review of a candle-making kit, and discovered the link to this bunch and their extensive range, I was overjoyed! After having a browse through their website and seeing what was available, and some chats to them on the phone, I was really impressed with the parcel that arrived.

Not only do they supply New Zealand produced beeswax products, but they have an impressive range of types, colours and formats. You can buy wax in sheets or pellets, natural, organic or de-coloured, or in the case of the sheets, a range of colours. It was tough to decide what to get!

Now something to keep in mind is that the prices vary depending on the quantity ordered, naturally, and direct retail sales are usually too small to be cost-effective, so you might want to have talks with your local craft shops, arts collectives, fellow candle-bufs, etc... a bulk order will be far more viable, and if you jiggle it right, you might even get yours for peanuts.

After having gotten inspired by testing out the wicking, I ended up getting a bit lost in the process of rolling the candles in various ways, in accordance with instructions supplied with the goods (which scored bonus kudo points, thanks folks) and in an instruction book that came with the candle-making kit (which I went out and bought after reading the review). This led to much fun and enjoyment as I discovered ways to change the looks of the candles based upon the angle of the slice, the pressure during rolling, the temperature of the wax as I rolled it, and adding interesting shapes made from leftovers and offcuts, and even stuff from $2-shop craft kits, such as googly-eyes!

Overall, so simple to use in a number of ways, amazing range of colours (my favourites are the grape purple and the apple green), and a really pleasing Kiwi-made product. Well worth exploring for anyone at all interested in crafts. With winter coming in on our heads at a great rate of knots, it's a great stay-indoors project that has no real mess factor, and could even prove useful if the power goes out. Just remember, after rolling your candle, grab some wax scraps and be sure to coat the exposed wick with wax, to make it easy to light quickly.