Gel Candles: Creative & Beautiful Candles to Make [Paperback]

Dawn Cusick (Author), Chris Rankin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2001

All you need to do to work with this medium is melt and pour. The excitement is in the embellishing: tint, scent, or imbed something surprising in the gel. Make a Christmas snow globe, wedding and birthday gifts, even glow-in-the-dark candles. Inspiring projects range from fun to funky—like a candle in a martini glass garnished with an olive—to simply beautiful (with gold angels inside).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Relatively new to the candle-making kingdom, gel is a readily available, adaptable substance that can be transformed into all sorts of fascinating candle looks. By melting the jelly-like goop, adding color and perhaps fragrance, and pouring into a heatproof container with a wick, anyone can whip up one-of-a-kind candles. Dawn Cusick's Gel Candles presents a stunning selection of gel candle creations. Sometimes the containers define the style: Moroccan painted glasses, Easter candles in glass eggs, a teacup, an etched bud vase. But more often what makes the candle unique are the items embedded within: beads, wire, seashells, metal charms, marbles, tiny ceramic figures. The transparency of the gel--even when tinted--enables the treasures to shine through.

Overall, the step-by-step directions are adequate, and the author includes numerous safety precautions. Some of the embedded choices, however, appear rather questionable: silk flowers, plastic toys, and paper photocopies all appear in projects, and although the author warns to keep such items away from the wick and to extinguish the flame when it comes within one inch of the container bottom, such warnings seem insufficient, especially for beginners. And the wicks themselves are often short and unanchored, threatening more hazards if they burn too long. With these caveats in mind, Gel Candles is a worthwhile, whimsical idea-filled guide to the subject. --Amy Handy

From Library Journal

Gel, a transparent, oil-based, gelatin-like substance, is the newest medium for candle making. It burns longer than wax and makes a clear or bubbly candle in a glass container. The projects in this book all use common glass containers such as drinking glasses or fishbowls with decorative objects embedded to give interest. For instance, insect-repellent candles have plastic bugs, a fishbowl candle has a ceramic shark, and bubbly candles can be made in champagne glasses. Public libraries already having conventional candle-making books will want to add this for gel crafters.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books (June 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579902162
• ISBN-13: 978-1579902162
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #112,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is Not For Beginners!, May 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Gel Candles: Creative & Beautiful Candles to Make (Paperback)

Let me start by saying that if you are a beginner, please use caution if you purchase this book! In the same manner, if you are a crafter who sells your work, you would be taking a HUGH chance by producing and selling many of the designs that are detailed in this book. This author uses everything from embedded plastic beads to actual paper used to line the glass of one candle. She even suggests the use of paper, photocopies and photographs as EMBEDS, but goes on to caution that one should "be sure to place the wick well away from all paper products." How can ANY gel candle maker suggest paper as an embed to someone and then be able to sleep at night?

One has to wonder how much practice the author has in making gel candles since most of the wicks in the pictures are VERY lopsided and way off centered ( I guess she didn't heed her own words under the heading "Taming Rebellious Wicks.") In many of the candles, only a partial wick is used (about 2" or so) for, according to the author, "safety and aesthetic reasons." HA! The wicks that are pictured all the way to the bottom of the container are not even anchored, which, when dealing with gel is VERY unsafe. Firstly, an anchored wick is less likely to fall over, and secondly, a high-collared, tabbed and anchored wick will extinguish the candle BEFORE it reaches the bottom of the jar and thusly not allow the container bottom to get too heated and possibly ruin the surface it is sitting on, or worse.

It gets more ridiculous AND more dangerous. In the martini example, a REAL olive is used, in the "Sweet Dreams Scented Candle" plastic letter beads are suspended in the candle, in the "Insect-Repellent" candle, very large plastic bugs are used (I think their plastic since they look like it and on the material list "colorful, plastic or ceramic bugs" are called for) and a disgusting variation for this candle even suggests using a "large, interesting bug" ("already dead, of course") as an embed. And in the "Tubular Gel" candles, the author has poured the candle into long (possibly 12" or more) extremely narrow tubes of glass, using an unanchored, short wick, of course! There's more, embedded Christmas ornaments, silk flowers and even a wooden toothpick!

Okay, enough about the dangers of the candles in this book, now I will focus on the LACK of instructions.

Wicks. Although a whole page is devoted to this topic, the information is very vague. Sizes, available coring (or coreless alternatives), and surfaces are not covered other than to mention that zinc wicks are available and not to use paper wicks. No discussion on wick size relevant to the containers diameter, the hazards of using lead wicks (if one can still get their hands on them) and why, or the pros and cons of using a waxed or unwaxed wick. I suppose this most important component of candle making is left to chance for the beginner.

Fragrance. Discussion under this heading is left to a minimum. The author does state that fragrance can cause your candle to ignite. She does mention the words "flash point" but does not explain what this means nor does she explain to the reader what the fragrance oils should and should not contain (so as not to be readily flammable) or what is the minimum degree flash point that a fragrance can have before it is considered dangerous for gel. Additionally, the author does state that the wrong fragrance can cloud your gel or the wrong amount of fragrance can be dangerous, however, she never tells the reader what is the right amount or, at the very least, what percent (according to weight) one might consider using. Nor does she speak of the virtues of fragrance when used sensibly, or of the types that can or can't be used (i.e., perfumes, essential oils, etcetera).

Embeds. Been there!

Dyes. This section is OK, except that the author neglects to mention NOT to use embeds that may have been dyed with toxic paints.

Containers. Ok, but does not warn against containers that are too narrow or containers that are somehow damaged.

Additionally, this book lack in other areas such as: no mention of warning labels and no mention of resources and suppliers, save for The Chemistry Store in the acknowledgements.

I cannot help but to think that because of the sudden popularity in making gel candles and because of the lack of written material on the subject that this book was put out in thoughtless haste so that the author and publisher could cash in on the publics eagerness to be creative. And, because of the fact that (to the best of my knowledge) this is the first "commercially" issued book on this subject, the publisher (and writer) should have exercised foresight and assumed that many beginners would, because of a scarcity of published information on the subject, purchase this title, and as such, they should have given heavy thought to the scope of the book concerning both safety and directions.

As with all books (and to be fair), there is some favorable contents within the pages of this title. It is laid out well and has very nice photographs. And, if you are EXPERIENCED in making gel candles and know to disregard the potentially dangerous examples, it does offer some unique ideas.

Finally, to all you newcomers, safe & enjoyable gelling is possible, with the right directions; therefore, I recommend the book "How To Make & Market Gel Candles That Sell Like Wildfire" by Lynn A. Thomas. This "plain Jane" looking book is bursting with both common sense and ideas and the author also maintains a website with tons of resources.

Suggestion: purchase both books. The latter for the know-how, and the former for a bit of visual inspiration.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is AWESOME!, March 23, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (Jackson Heights, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gel Candles: Creative & Beautiful Candles to Make (Paperback)

This was my second gel candle book purchase, and let me say that this book contains so much more helpful information, that I am returning the first book that I bought. This one blows the other right out of the water!! It offers step by step colored photos for those just beginning to work with gel candles, to photos of the finished projects for the more experienced that want fresh new ideas. I highly recommend this book and believe that is the only one you will need!

5.0 out of 5 stars Creative & Beautiful Candles to Make, July 19, 2005

By 

Ada I. Berrios Rosario "Ada Polo" (Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gel Candles: Creative & Beautiful Candles to Make (Paperback)

This book is fantastic, I really love all the information. Excellent!