I’m the unofficial baptismal candle maker for our mission. It’s not an especially difficult thing to do, but over time I have amassed a quantity of materials so I just keep making them. These are not to the extreme frou-frou level of Greek candles (lambathes) which I have described as “the candle itself is wearing a wedding dress”. I try to make a variety of styles from pretty and feminine to some a twenty-something young man wouldn’t be embarrassed to hold. For most of the past couple years the majority of converts have been men, but the tide is turning! (Much to the relief of all of our single, Orthodox young men.)

A handy little trick you may not be aware of is to wad up a handful of netting and rub it up and down the candle. Beeswax develops a dull cast, rather like the bloom on chocolate, which can be removed very easily using this method. See the contrast:

Something else I figured out along the way is a foolproof method to stick things to beeswax. (You can’t use a hot glue gun because it just melts the wax.) Glue dots (and they come in different shapes) work beautifully. If you need them to come off the wax you *can* do it, with some effort, but for the most part they STICK. Of course I use a hot glue gun to attach things to each other (flowers onto ribbons, etc.) The glue dots I use are the permanent rather than the repositionable ones.

Here are the candles I decorated today:

I was looking back at other baptismal candles I’ve decorated, and there were a lot! Here are a few of them, in case anyone needs inspiration (if you could check online for the professional ones, hahaha.)

I’ve also done wedding candles:

And crowns!