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Make Your Own Bayberry Candles

How would you like to make a souvenir of Cape Cod? Anywhere on the coast, you can find the fragrant bayberry. This you will recognize by its spicy green leaf and waxy blue-gray berry. Gather all of the berries you can find and you’re ready to begin.

Don’t try to make your candle all of bayberry wax. Use candle stubs or paraffin as a base.

Boil your bayberries in water to cover. Chill and remove the sheet of wax that forms on the top. Melt a candle stub (white) or a cake of paraffin. A green crayon will add enough green color. Add the bayberry wax and strain through cheesecloth. Keep on the back of the stove.

Use regular wicking or a small piece of boat caulking for your wick. Molds may be anything. Like a star-shaped gelatin mold, but you can use a doughnut cutter with the removable center, a muffin tin, or any suitable shape. A tall candle, or one in a deviled meat can, is easy to make.

Fasten the wick to a penny with a dab of wax to the bottom of your mold and let it set. Tie the top to a pencil or run a knitting needle through it and lay across the top of your mold. Pour about a quarter of an inch of warm wax into the mold very carefully so not to melt the wax holding the wick. Then fill to the top. When the mold is removed, you will have a candle that gives a delightful odor.

Decorate with little leaves and berries of colored wax, or, if you should have used a pointed paper cup, decorate as a tiny Christmas tree, for a lovely souvenir of your time spent at the beach.

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