Today I had some wonderful me-time ☺️and did a short workshop: ‘the basics of candle making’ with Lewis and Jennifer at @ProjectAbundance. I love learning something new, even if I never do it again.
I went along to The Green Backyard at 2.30pm armed with 5 Gü Desserts ramekins to upcycle ♻️… I could have taken any empty jars, old tins or ceramics as long as they were heatproof, and the clear tubs were perfect rather than throwing in the recycling bin.
We were a small group of ladies; me, Ellie, Claire & Marion and Gracie the dog with Sue watching (some didn’t turn up). We started off with Lewis telling us to go off to pick some pretty decorative flowers that we wanted to use in our candles from around the Project Abundance garden.
Whilst the vegetable wax was being heated, we created coloured wax crayon shavings to give a colour to our candles, rather than plain white.
We chose from a variety of scented essential oils and added a few drops to our containers and then hand poured the wax into our jars and stirred to melt the coloured wax in to get our desired strength, remembering that it would be much fainter once set.
We then cut and waxed a candle wick, then hung it on a stick into the centre of the hot wax. We learned as we went on and found it better to leave it a little while to cool, and then add our pretty flower heads so they didn’t sink. Now was waiting time… Our creations took around half an hour to start setting, while we enjoyed a chat about growing veg, oils, and seasonal fruits etc.
All that was left was when they were completely set was to cut off the extra wick length at the top. I came away with 4 lovely small candles to try at home or gift…
~pale pink: lavender & ylang ylang with purple heather,
~purple: neroli with bright orange flowers,
~dark pink: lemongrass with carnations,
~blue: bergamot with daisies.
I’ll let you know how they smell when I light them!
Project Abundance do quite a few workshops like this. It’s great for the community to get involved. Coming up is mosaics, macrame and courses on how to grow your own fruits and vegetables. Including some courses for children.
They also have a little shop so you can buy their own grown fresh fruits and vegetables, plants, and hand made jams (must try their beetroot jam!) etc to buy weekly.
Definitely worth a visit. Open Thursday, Friday & Saturday 10am to 4pm.
#Peterborough #WeLovePeterborough #ProjectAbundance #Education #Gardening #Crafts #Community #VegetableGrowing #CommunityGarden #Recycling #upcycling #GreenBackyard
