How to Filter Dirty Candle Wax

May 24, 2011 by SandraW

When making candles, there’s always a risk that the wax might become dirty or have specks in it, which can ruin the final product. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to filter dirty candle wax so that it can be reused.

One of the most common methods is to use a fine mesh stainless steel strainer. This type of strainer is readily available at candle-making supply stores, and can also be found in hardware and household sections of department stores. A fine mesh strainer ensures that any debris or specks in the wax are removed before the wax is reused.

If you don’t have a fine mesh strainer, there are other options. One clever method comes from Powers Family Homestead, where Kara made a candle out of deer fat and used a coffee filter to filter out any impurities. This is an excellent idea, especially if you don’t have a fine mesh strainer on hand.

Another option is to use a wax screen or cheesecloth. The Bee Buzz has an excellent tutorial on how to make your own wax screen. This method allows you to reuse the wax while still ensuring that it’s clean and free of any impurities.

In a pinch, paper towels can also be used as filters. If you don’t have any paper towels on hand, pantyhose can be used as a substitute. In fact, this is a trick that some people use to filter dirty oil, and it works just as well for filtering dirty wax.

If you’re a frequent candle maker, it’s a shame to let any wax scraps or spills go to waste. By using one of these filtering methods, you can reuse your wax and minimize waste. If you have any other methods for filtering dirty wax, feel free to share with others who are interested in candle making. Remember, a little bit of creativity can go a long way when it comes to candle making.

At Powers Family Homestead, Kara made a candle out of deer fat and came up with a filtering method using a strainer and a coffee filter. This is an excellent idea, especially if your strainer doesn’t have a fine mesh.

The Bee Buzz uses a wax screen or cheesecloth. For instructions on how to make your own wax screen, see the tutorial at the Bee Buzz.

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Build a Paper City with Free Printables

My daughter’s school has project-based finals instead of tests in the spring, and in her geometry class last year the students constructed a scale model of a town complete with three-dimensional buildings.

Of course building a paper town doesn’t have to include a geometry lesson (they also calculated the volume of their buildings) but it is a fun way to get kids to express their creativity by decorating the buildings and talking about the things they would want to include in their own town.

Putting buildings together is a test of fine-motor skills, and if kids are working on a town together they’ll need to negotiate what goes where and why.

Get started with the house printables from Kids Activities Blog. They’ve got a “plain” roof house and a “fancy” roof house to choose from. Just print, color, cut out and assemble.

You might want more than just houses in your little town, though, so I went hunting for some more printable templates you can use to make different kinds of buildings.

Brother has printable skyscrapers, cars, people, trees and lights (shown above) that are meant to be printed in color buy you can do them in black and white so kids can color them in if you want.

Printablee has another colorized set of paper buildings including different kinds of houses and something that maybe looks like a church or school.

If you’re willing and bale to pay for printables to use in your paper town, there are lots of great ones available on Etsy. Ludlow Prints has a collection with a school, grocery store, bakery and other buildings, while Paper Fun By Yumi includes things like a hospital, fire department and police station (essential if you’ve done a community helpers unit!).

Tiger Bee Learning has a printable set with 20 different buildings, including a bank, library, museum and zoo to name a few, as well as a blank template for kids to design their own buildings. Once you have the basics of making a piece of paper into a 3D building down, kids are sure to want to make their own buildings to add to the town.

Older kids can also write about why they picked the buildings they did, and littler kids will have fun building their town over and over again.

[Photo: Brother]