Twine & Braids

wooden candle stick Holder

The first set of holders are made to hold tapered candlesticks.  For these I scoured the wood and craft aisle at Michael’s to find a piece that would hold the shape of a candle.  What I found were these 1 1/2 inch unfinished wood flower pots.  For the base I used simple wood cubes.

I stacked up the wood cubes and flower pot at varying heights and secured them together with hot glue.

At this point I gave the candle holders a rough sand and coated them in white paint and added a gold design.  You may choose to leave them as is for an unfinished look or maybe give them a quick stain.

Heart candle holders

The second set of candle holders are shaped to fit a tea light and are made of air drying modeling clay.

To complete this project I used; Staedtler FIMO Air-Drying Modelling Clay in white and a heart shaped cookie cutter.  I took about half the clay and started to work it in my hands until it became soft and easy to mold.  I worked it into a ball and pressed it into the cookie cutter. (Anyone else use aluminum foil as their work surface for easy clean up?)  Once the clay is in the cookie cutter I placed a tea light in the center and traced it with a toothpick.  This gives me the shape I need to carve out.

There are specific tools for modeling clay you can use to carve out the center and shape the clay but I found using a toothpick and an x – acto knife got the job done well.  Now for the hard part, waiting for the clay to dry.  It should take about 24 hours to dry but I found that because this mold was rather thick it took closer to 48 hours.  You can speed up the process a bit by placing the clay in front of a fan.

Once the heart dried I was able to clean up any small wrinkles and imperfections by sanding them out.  When I was happy with the shape and finished the sanding I wiped down the candle holder with a dry cloth, slapped on some paint and placed the tea lights in the center.  Super easy!

Enjoy!

Meghan