Part of the fun of an agriculture themed camp, is learning how you can use things from the farm to make things for your home--things you might buy at the farmers market. Our class discussions started with the importance of bees in agriculture and the fact that the honeybee is our state insect. We discussed how candles were made during pioneer days, with systems of dipping multiple candles at a time. Since one of our administrators at the school has a beekeeper husband, she was able to get us a lot of free beeswax. The rest, we had to buy. It takes a lot to melt enough wax to fill a coffee can which makes tall narrow cans (spaghetti sauce) or even old, metal thermoses are even better.
Wax cools quickly, so it took me a couple classes before I was able to
acquire a hotplate for my room to keep it hot enough to work with. If it's too hot, it doesn't really stick. I kept the can in a boiling pot, rather than on direct heat. Students worked in groups of 5 or 6, holding a wick with a bolt tied to the bottom. They'd dip it once, count a few seconds and dip it again before getting to the end of the line for the next layer. Once the candle is thick enough, the bolt can be cut off the bottom and the wax around it remelted. Wicks will need to be trimmed when the project is finished, and then put one on a candlestick and light it. Beeswax smells great and feels authentic. It's a great homestead-y project.
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