So what makes our carved candles so special beside the unique look?  For one they burn different than most pillar or square candles.  What traditional good quality pillar candles have attempted to achieve is burning the entire candle without leaving any wax behind.  This is exactly what you would want to see with solid color candles or ones that have an outer skin.  Gateway Candles carved candles are intended to be reused by putting a votive or tea light candle in it after it burns!  Why would Gateway Candles do such a weird thing? 

The carved candle designs are translucent.  Either the design is lit up or the wax behind the design is luminescent.  The more the pillar is burned the more the design is punctuated but only by keeping an outer shell!  The affect of the outer shell is stunning and the colors are vivid making it worthy of a centerpiece.

First we created the translucent effect with the stained glass looking candles (please see the Home Page for a description).  Once the stained glass candle process was down pat we turned our attention to using the same stunning luminescent affect for carved candles.  We carved a solid piece of wax and then put it back in a candle mold and poured over it, only then to shave it down to expose the design.  Once we figured out how to do this then we had to create a mold of the carved original because it takes about 25 hours to get from the design faze to a carved out core.  By molding, this time is cut to only one hour.  Candle molding large cores was a whole different world.  My goodness it's really complicated.  It was necessary to invent special containers that would release this size molds.  There are several different kinds of mold material that had to be tested.  They all release gas and therefore bubbled into the setting wax core.  Finding the right temperatures for each stage was no picnic, but to be honest, solving these problems really was lots of fun.  They were challenging and frustrating problems but exciting to figure out, if you have a love of wax and the many wonderful things it can do. 

At the end process of creating carved candles we actually developed two carving processes whereby we can put just about any design into a candle.  In one process we have a carved core that is translucent.  The design lights up on all four sides at once when lit.  This is like stained glass with light shinning through it but with just one different design pane on each side of the candle.  This also can be envisioned as a light shining on a house at night.  The other method is just the opposite, which we call inlaid.  In the inlaid method the candle is carved on the surface to create the design and then it is filled with a very opaque wax, usually black.  Everything around the design lights up and the design stays dark.  It's like the sun or moon lighting up a tree from behind, so the tree looks black and what's behind it is lit up.  Another way of thinking of it is a picture drawn in charcoal. 

Candle Burning Tip:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANDLES:

Candles can be traced back as early as biblical times. For many years they were the main source of light for peoples' homes. Many early Greek and Roman candles were made of flax thread coated with wax and pitch, while in other countries candles were made of palm oil, coconut oil, beeswax and olive oil. In England bayberry wax was refined for use in making candles. The earliest dipped candles were made of tallow. Not until the early 1800's was paraffin made to replace tallow as the main ingredient for candle making. Electricity has since replaced the candle as an important source of light, but the candle is still important today for its role in decoration on festive occasions, for the calm and sanctity it evokes in religious ceremonies, and for the general mood of warmth, relaxation, and even romance it creates in our homes. While candles were used in the past as a source of light, they are now used as a source of home decor, fragrance and just to set a pleasant relaxing mood. Many people use candles every day as a way to pamper themselves and add a special touch to their homes .Candles come in all shapes, sizes and types. From paraffin and gel to beeswax and soy, candles can be found in quite an assortment of materials. If used properly, a quality made candle can enhance your environment and provide a source of pleasure, set a romantic mood, light up your dinner table or even help remove offensive odors from your home.

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