Making Your Own Candle Molds

Do the prices for those silicone candle molds make you cringe? Making your own is not that difficult and you definitely have more options than what the store offers. The next time I find a giant strawberry, I’m making a mold out of it. Maybe I’ll even drizzle some fake chocolate onto the candle and scent it to match.

Anyway, to make the mold here’s a couple videos from Tap Plastics that go into how to create it.

Part One

Part Two

If you’re not a visual learner or you would just prefer to read about it, Starla and Lisa’s Candle Making site explains it very simply and it sounds much less intimidating coming from them. They use Smooth-On Silicone Making Rubber that apparently costs $24.95, but I have paid that much for one darned mold so it doesn’t sound like much to me.

Their site is very helpful and their enthusiasm about candle making really shines through. I have never made a mold, but I’m beginning to eye all kinds of things around the house to use.

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It might seem weird to feature a book about protest movements around the Fourth of July, but as Rise Up! Powerful Protests in American History reminds us, protest is patriotic and part of the very fabric of American life from the beginning.

This picture book, written by history teacher Rachel C. Katz and illustrated by Sophie Bass, tells a rhyming story of how Americans have stood up throughout the nation’s history to protest and spread the word about injustice and unsafe conditions. From the Boston Tea Party to modern movements like the Standing Rock pipeline protests and the Obergefell case, it touches on women’s rights, environmental activism, civil rights, Pride, access for disabled people and more.

The illustrations, often based on historic protest signs and artwork, help tell the stories, while a timeline, map, and overview of each event for further discussion. Readers will learn about Silent Spring and The Jungle, the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike, the Seneca Falls convention, Robert Smalls, the Delano Grape Strike and the movement to un-dam the Klamath River, to name a few.

Each event includes a few bullet points to provide context about what happened, why and what the result was. The book reminds readers that protests are not always effective, or don’t always get the people involved what they want right away (since it took women 72 years to get the right to vote after Seneca Falls, for example).

This book is a great way to introduce kids to the long and proud history of protest movements in the United States and could prompt discussions about current events and things happening that they might want to see changed. It could also be used to start kids researching different protests discussed in the book for further learning. You can talk about how art can educate people and encourage kids to make their own art pieces to educate others about something important to them.

Rise Up! is a great starting point for learning about the history of protest and the effects it has had on American history. The publisher’s website has more resources for teaching with this book at the link below.

About the book: 48 pages, hardcover. Published 2025 by Barefoot Books. Suggested retail price $17.99.

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Have you read?