Colonial Candle Making

Colonial candle making

Colonial candle making was essential in an era where there was no electricity and the cost of oil made it beyond the reach of common people. The most common colonial candles were made of animal fat or tallow, and only the rich benefited from beeswax candles, which smelt and burned better. Colonial candle making registered a true progress when people discovered that they could make nice-smelling and clean-burning candles from bayberry shrubs. Wax is still extracted by boiling the bayberries, however the process is as time consuming as it used to be in the past.

The colonial way to candle making

Colonial candle making largely depended on whale oil, which was used as a primary matter. The cleanest, but more painstaking way to have the best colonial candles possible was to harvest berries from bayberries bushes. The only problem with this process was that you only got one pound of wax for every eight pounds of berries. Then it took manufacturers several days to prepare the berries in order to extract the purest form of wax to be used for quality candles. Remember that their whole point was to eliminate the bad smell of animal fat candles, not to mention the mess

Seven Legged Lamb Born In New Zealand...
Here is a pretty crazy photo of a lamb that was born in New Zealand. It was ranked as one of the top most emailed photos on Yahoo. Apparently the lamb was born with seven legs as you can see in the photo. It doesn't look like the lamb is even able to stand up as it has some many legs. There isn't any other information on the caption for the photo other than it's a one a in a few million occurance that a lamb is born like this. Are there any nuclear reactors in New Zealand? If so, this lamb mi...
Weird Facial Expression Robot Gets Confused By Bab...
Here is a pretty bizarre video of a face only test robot that does facial expressions. However, it doesn't seem to be able to handle the group of people that are attempting to communicate with it. It just keeps telling them to come close and asks their name over and over.Link...
Tallest Man In The World And One Of The Smallest M...
Here's an article from the UK with photos of the tallest and one of the smallest man in the world. The tallest guy is 7 feet 9 inchs and the small guy in the photo is 2 feet 4 inchs tall. Apparently there is another guy that is slightly shorted. The small guy is 19 years old and the tallest guy is 59 years old I. The tallest guy was also recently married.Link...
The Batmobile And Barbie Meet In A Cacophony of Gl...
If you ever wanted to cross the Batmobile with glitter, a pink flamingo, neon lights, and Disney this might just be the ticket for you. This site has a bunch of photos of extremely customized Japanese vans. This thumbnail here is only one example of how crazy they get customizing over in Japan. Click over and see the other insain van photos.Link...
Cross Between A Zebra And A Horse In This Photo Fr...
There is a photo up on the most emailed Yahoo photos of a cross breed horse in a zoo. Apparently the parents of the horse were a horse and a zebra which gave the resulting animal a very strange pattern. The head and rear of the horse have zebra stripes while the middle of the horse (front legs and stripe down the back) are just white. Darwin theory at work!Link...
Amazing Tuvan Throat Singers Video From Black Sea ...
This video is from Turkey (or around there somewhere in the general area) and it features two Tuvan throat singers. The one guy on the right starts up and then the person on the left breaks in with a much harsher note.Link...
Furby Lights Up And Burns To A Crisp In A Microwav...
Here is a bizarre video of what happens to a Furby toy when it is microwaved. The head of the Furby burns brightly and then catchs on fire before burning down into a pile of ash. For a good time.Link...
Crab Footed Miniature Steam Locamotive Moves Aroun...
This video features a pretty bizarre vehicle. It is a miniature steam locamotive except that instead of wheels and a track it runs on crab legs. There looks to be maybe 50 or so crab looking feet that moves the miniature engine around.Link...
Live TV Mushroom Cloud Weathercam Video Injection ...
Here's a funny video of an automated weathercam which was displayed on live Czech TV that was hacked to display a mushroom cloud. The footage looks pretty realistic with the camera whiting out for good period before showing the cloud. There wasn't any shockwave though which kind of gave it away as being a prank. War of the Worlds is that you?Link...
Bizarroland Superhero Music Video From India...
This music video from India is very bizarre. It features a guy dressed up like superman and a woman dressed up as spiderman flying around (on a bad blue screen), singing, dancing, and fighting off baddies.Link...

they made while burning. For those of you who'd like to try colonial candle making at home as a way to satisfy your curiosity, there is bayberry wax available in shops, so that you don't have to prepare it yourself. The big difference between modern times and the colonial era, is that we now have all sorts of molds to make wonderful candle shapes. Colonial candles used strands of cotton as wicks that had to be taken care of in order to be kept burning. Usually candles made to be used for the household use were tapers. They were made by repeatedly introducing the wick in melted wax until it became candle sized.

Colonial candle making today

Colonial candle making may appear rudimentary, but it takes quite a lot of skill and dedication. Many people try it as a hobby, and thereafter learn how rewarding it is. Basically you need to deep a non-waxed taper wick into melted wax. Extra care is needed, particularly since both parts of the wick need to be coated evenly. Don't wait too long between dips, since the candle doesn't have to cool completely. Furthermore keep stirring the wax so that you maintain the same temperature. You may even have to melt it again during the process. Enjoy it!