Cheese Candle!!!

Once upon a time there was a bell. It married another bell and they had a baby bell. Which then turned into cheese. I'm not sure where I was going with that.

Oh yes, Babybel cheese is covered in wax, and wax makes candles, therefore Babybel cheese should be a candle. At least that the conclusion my roommate and I came to upon purchasing a Costco sized bag of cheese.

We spent the better part of our seven months living together compiling a jar of said Babybel wax.

Once that jar was full, we smashed the wax down and shoved more wax into it, until it was really full and we were sick of Babybels.

Then she got married and I moved and we nearly forgot about the cheese candle endeavor we'd set out on back in April.

Nearly.

A friend who was helping me move found the jar stuffed with Babybel wax and asked what it was about. It is thanks to him that I got around to doing this in a timely(ish) manner.

First I had to figure out how to melt the wax. Now for someone who doesn't know how to make a candle, looking up “how to make a candle” would make sense. I didn't do that.

I had this candle warmer which didn't melt the wax satisfactorily fast enough. I started this whole process an hour before I needed to be to work, so everything needed to be done fairly speedily.

It was so slow that I tested it by putting my hand flat on it. It was hot. I burnt my hand a bit. Still it wasn't hot enough or fast enough.

I switched everything to a pot on the stove, and boy did it start melting quickly.

It also started to smell interesting. I realized I'd failed to look up the toxicity of melting the Babybel wax (it's not). I didn't actually look it up at that point either, I figured it was too late to change anything anyway.

Secondly, while that questionably smelling substance turned from solid to liquid. I made a wick by braiding some cotton fabric together.

Once it was all melted and looking suspiciously like raspberry syrup, it was time to put it in it's final container.

Though I do have a confession at this point. I had a bit of wax from an old candle that I mixed into the Babybel wax. Thus, it is not a fully cheese candle. However, it doesn't smell quite as toxic anymore.

As you can see here my sinks are definitely a color. Also, I put the candle in a little glass jar (this was the final selection after trying several others. Yes, I spent a good deal of time pouring the wax out of the pot into a jar, out of the jar back into the pot, and into another jar. It was great fun). I used a random straw I had lying around to hold the wick in place.

Why did I coat the wick in wax? I don't know. It seemed like the thing to do. It adds to the overall cheesiness of the project. And now I was late for work.

When I got home though, I was met surprisingly with a pretty nice looking little candle. I trimmed the wick and it was finished.

I'm not sure yet if I'm brave enough to try actually burning it or not. Maybe I'll leave that to a voting poll. Anyhow, it somehow wasn't the total disaster I was told it might be.

Ironically, this is the moment I realized that I didn’t paint the top of my bookshelf. I only came to the realization because I saw the top of the bookshelf for the first time in the picture.