Pressed Flower Candles – preserving a summer past

Summer. It seems like a long time ago doesn’t it? It never ceases to amaze me how we the human species long for a season, only to have it a short while before we long for the next and then berate ourselves for wishing our lives away. In today’s post I will be showing you a quick and inexpensive craft combining the hygge we crave for our homes at this time of year, with a nod to a summer past. A perfect craft to ease us into our new year. Today we are making pressed flower candles.

Way back in summer I gathered a selection of flowers from our wildflower garden in the hope of using them for a variety of crafts and displays. The flowers I selected offered colour and form and I also dried a few leaves and grasses in with my mix. You’ll remember my innovative pressing machines which I left well alone to work their magic until the quiet days between Christmas and New Year, when I set about determining which dried flowers, I would use for my pressed flower candles craft.

I chose the smaller delicate variety for my pressed flower candles, saving the larger ones for crafts still to come. Start by gathering your supplies. You will need inexpensive candles – I bought cheap white stubbies from a well-known supermarket – craft glue, an old teaspoon and a tea light. And of course, a selection of your pretty dried flora.

To begin, light your tea light and place it somewhere close by and safe. As mine slowly melted, I chose to add a drop or two of ylang ylang essential oil – this is the one I buy – to the melted wax evoking memories of warm summer days. Ylang ylang is also said to offer emotional and spiritual balance. Who doesn’t need a dose of that in the darker months?

Place the pressed flowers, leaves and grasses where you would like them. Then take a tiny amount of craft glue and add it to the reverse of the flower to hold it carefully in place.

Your teaspoon should be an old one since you won’t be stirring your tea with it again after your pressed flower candles are complete. Carefully hold the teaspoon over the naked tealight flame to warm up; you don’t want the spoon too hot or you’ll burn the flower and overly melt the candle. Next gently press over the flower onto the candle, using the back of the spoon in a rocking motion. The candle will soften ever so slightly and the delicate flora will embed itself giving you your pressed flower candle. I found overlapping the choices, gave the most pleasing results. As the teaspoon cools, simply warm again and continue to press over all the foliage until there are no raised bits protruding.

I chose stubby candles with small flowers and in the interest of safety fully intended to stop the candle burning before the flame became close to the dried flowers. My candle however developed a well as it melted, meaning the flame and flower are not in any contact. Please make sure you take all necessary safety precautions when you burn your pressed flower candles.  

I am sure tall church candles with longer grasses and perhaps lavender stems might look particularly effective. I didn’t try this since I have another craft coming soon using my pressed lavender.

My pressed flower candles never made it to the present drawer although I feel sure they would make delightful gifts and could be wrapped in all sorts of wonderful ways. Instead mine are glowing softly in my own home, lighting up the windows as dusk falls. No judging those dirty windows now. It’s lovely to think that in a matter of a few short months the wildflower garden will again be full of this year’s beauties. I shall look forward to that time and try not wish away these cosier of our months. So, will you be making a few pressed flower candles for yourself or perhaps as a gift? Do let me know; until next week x