Candle Making Project - Marble Dipping Pillar Candles

This is a great project, and so amazingly easy! It only takes about a minute to make one of these candles, once you’re started, but it looks like you spent hours on each candle!

You can use almost any candle, as long as you have a container big enough to dip it into. You can use inexpensive candlesticks, floating candles, fancy tapers, votives, small pillars, seasonal candles like Easter egg shaped candles, or for Halloween, bat shaped candles… the possibilities are endless!

Put down newspaper or butcher paper on tables and countertops to catch spills and for easy cleanup.
Have paper towels and Windex on hand for cleaning stovetops.
Wrap stove burner bowls in tin foil to catch drips of wax, and for easy cleanup afterwards.

This project requires you to completely submerge your candle in the water, to get full coverage of the marbled look on your candle. When choosing a melting pot, choose one deep enough to allow you to completely submerge your candle. Also remember that your submerged candle will displace the water, raising the level. So choose a melting pot deep enough to allow you to completely submerge your candle without water spilling over the edge.

2. Fill Melting Pot with Water

For this project, you will use your double boiler, but instead of filling the melting pot with wax, you will be filling it with water.

Fill the bottom part of your double boiler (the steamer pot or the deep sauce pan) with about two inches of cool water, and place on the burner set to high temperature.

Fill the melting pot with water and place it in the steamer pot. Do not fill it to the top, because when you dip your candle, it will displace some of the water, bringing the water level up.

When the water in the steamer pot begins to boil, set the burner to medium or low. The water in the melting pot will heat up, but do not let it boil.

While your water is heating up, drop some dye chip shavings into the melting pot. You can get shavings off of the dye chips with a Craft Knife or a pair of Scissors.

The dye chips will melt on the surface of the water. Start with a few shavings and see how much coverage on the surface of the water you get.

Use the wood stir stick, chop stick, or toothpick to stir the dye on the surface of the water. If the dye chips melt and form into large pools on the surface of the water, break it up with your stirring implement.

Heat the water in the melting pot to 135 degrees F. This is the point at which the wax dye chips will melt. If the water gets too hot, it will cause the dye to coat the surface of the water, not form into little dots of color on the surface. When the dye is too hot, the candle will have less of a marbled effect when you dip it; it will have more of a washed effect. Also, the higher the temperature, the more quickly the candle you are dipping will melt away in the water. Just around 135 to 145 degrees F gives you time to dip your candle without it melting, and keeps the dye the proper consistency on the surface of the water.

NOTE: Never leave your project unattended on stove.

A sparse spattering of melted dye on the surface of the water will give you a sparse marbling on your candle. A thick coating of melted dye will coat more of the surface of your candle. You can experiment with the different effects of different amounts of dye in your melting pot.

Water is the correct temperature; the candle dye is maintaining its drop like shape. Very little wax has melted off of the dipped candles to coat the surface of the water.

Water too hot, the candle dye is dispersing to coat the surface of the water, losing its drop like shape, and wax has melted off the dipped candles to coat the surface of the water as well.

Use the pliers to grip the wick of your candle. You will need to just very quickly, in one fluid motion, submerge your candle into the melting pot and then pull it out. Do not leave it in the melting pot as the hot water will begin to melt your candle.

You can experiment with twisting the candle as you dip it to get swirling effects. For Two or More Distinct Colors: Dip each color separately. (Do not mix dye shavings in the same pot or they will melt together and form one color, not multiple colors)

Either use different melting pots for each color, or use the same melting pot, removing the dye in the water completely before adding your next color of dye chips.

This candle wax dipped first in green dye, then blue. The two colors are distinct.

Blue and green dye were mixed together before dipping this candle, creating a blue-green color with occasional streaks of solid green and solid blue.

For Mingled Colors: Mix dye shavings together in the same melting pot. The colors will co-mingle, in some spots creating a new color entirely, and in other spots, giving the look of one color blending into another color.

To remove the dye from the water dip some dry newspaper into the melting pot. The melted dye will cling to its surface and be lifted from the water as you remove the newspaper from the melting pot.

If your candle will stand on its own, you can place it on a flat level surface to cool. Use craft paper, newspaper, or wax paper to protect your surfaces from wax and dye drips.

If your candle will not stand on it’s own, you can rig a simple drying hanger by placing a wire or stir stick across the opening of a large pot, and clipping the wick to the wire with a close pin or other clip, to allow it to cool and dry. This is usually not necessary, as these candles will usually cool and harden up within 30 seconds or so.

7. Finished Marble Dipped Candles!

This is all it takes to make beautiful and intricate marble dipped candles! Use your creativity to make elegant gold dipped candles, fun and colorful candles, dipped marble candles in colors to match your decor or reflect the season.