Behind the Scenes With Our Winter Candles

At Old Rusted Chair HQ, we like making lots of different things. For some time, we've been making candles just for ourselves, and since we've enjoyed the process -- and the results! -- so much, we're now offering them in the shop.

Here's a look at the process behind some of the latest scents that are coming out in December.

We start with Lou's blend of soy wax and beeswax, carefully measured out in metal canisters.

Then we start melting the wax in a big pot, adding in one full canister at a time to keep the mixture right.

While the wax melts, we finish setting up the rest of our work area. We also do any other prep work, such as hot-glueing wick tabs into the candle tins.

 Now the tins all have wicks added, are wiped clean, and ready to go!

Once the wax is melted and at the right temperature, we pour out a specific amount (using a spout a friend helped add to the pot) into a canister.

Then we add fragrance oil to the melted wax and give it a really good stir. And then...we wait. The wax need to cool down but not get tooooooo cool. We decide when to pour it based off both the temperature and how the wax looks.

Once we pour the wax into tins, we set them aside to cool, adding on these metal wick-centering tools to hold the wick upright.

Here are some tins at various stages of cooling. They start off more golden and turn white as they fully cool.

After they sit for a while we go through with a wick trimmer to cut the wicks down so they're not higher than the top of the tin. Next, we take a heatgun and heat up the top of each candle to melt out any cracks, fill in any tunnels that happened as they cooled, heat out any air bubbles, and just overall clean the tops up.

Once that's done, they sit a little more and then we do the finishing touches: giving the outside of the tins a good wipe and adding on labels!