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Dawn
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Has anyone made a Paschal candle for home use? If so, could you share your experience - how you made it and when, and any online resources you used (for materials or instructions)? Thank you so much! 
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Dawn, mum to 3 boys 
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MaryM
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Are you talking from scratch of just decorating an existing pillar candle?
Funny thing is I've made pillar candles and we've decorated store purchased candles as Paschal candles, but I haven't combined the two at the same time. Maybe this is the year.
I can certainly point you in the direction for resources to actually mold a candle if that's the point you are wanting to start from.
And now is the perfect time to make one - then you can have it in time to be blessed at Candlemas.
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Dawn
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MaryM wrote:
| Are you talking from scratch of just decorating an existing pillar candle? |
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Mary, I was thinking of decorating an existing candle, but was wondering where to find a good quality product. I'd love to hear about how you made your own candles, though!
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Cay Gibson
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Dawn,
After wrapping Christmas gifts, I headed to the trash can to throw away the long cardboard wrapping paper rolls (of course the girls claimed two of them to use as swords  ).
Right before I pitched them I thought, "Hey, we could use these to make a Paschal Candle this Easter."
I know it isn't the same as using a real candle and I hope we can at least make one of those. But the tall rolls will make a good project if I forget everything else.
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Dawn
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Cay, this is brilliant!  Do you know, I just unwrapped the last of an extra long roll of tin foil last night and could not bear to throw it away in case it could be used for a craft? How perfect!! 
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momwise
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Dawn,
I've made several of them. I used The Year and Our Children as my source. There's an article about it at domestic-church.com.
A couple of things are outdated. One of course, is that there are no photos. Another is that when Mrs. Newland was writing her instructions, oil paints were what she had access to and I did use those the 1st year.
However acrylics work just fine. They are cheap and we have access to a huge collection of colors.
I painted wheat and grapes on ours, embellished the bottom and top with gold ribbon and painted the numbers. I painted the Alpha and Omega above and below the cross. I used the cloves for incense.
If you have rubber stamps for any images you might want on there you can stamp tissue paper and emboss it, then warm the wax and attach the stamped pictures.
I bought pillar candles at the religious goods store and some years have used plain white candles from the craft store. This year I have a bunch of beeswax so I'll probably try to make some candles if I can get the right size mold. MaryM, maybe a Candlemas candle-making day would be in order...hint,hint  .
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Dawn,
I remember growing up and decorating our paschal candle with loose different-colored sequins (gold, silver, red, green and blue) stuck thru the hole with straight sewing pins (the plain kind with silver heads). We made a cross with an alpha above it and an omega below. Simple, but it was really pretty. And the pins never came out.
(Did I explain this well enough? )
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Dawn
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mary theresa wrote:
Dawn,
I remember growing up and decorating our paschal candle with loose different-colored sequins (gold, silver, red, green and blue) stuck thru the hole with straight sewing pins (the plain kind with silver heads). We made a cross with an alpha above it and an omega below. Simple, but it was really pretty. And the pins never came out.
(Did I explain this well enough? ) |
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Mary Theresa, yes you definitely did! I love this idea, too. We made sequined ornaments at Christmas and still have all the supplies. All I would need is the pillar candle.
Did the wax accept the needles fairly easily?
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JennGM
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A few rambling thoughts....
I bought a paschal candle and stand from Our Father's House but she only has the candle right now. This is a plain pillar candle (beeswax), and it has a clear sticker with the cross and Alpha and Omega on it. There are no numbers, so it can be used from year to year. The stand is beautiful and quite reasonable--my dh was impressed. I hope she can carry them again.
If you get a pillar candle, Hearthsong has some great candle pens and decorative waxes that would work perfectly for decorating the candle.
A somewhat pricey alternative, but a priest gave us one of these candles, and these are given to all the newly Catholics after the Easter Vigil at our parish. Evening Praise matches most closely our needs, and if you click on the image, you'll see the color alternatives.
My sister's cousin-in-law lives in Germany, and their parish gives miniature paschal votive candles in plastic votive holders every year to all the parishioners, and she's shared a few with my sister. We haven't been able to find a store that carries them, though.
Williams Sonoma used to sell beeswax pillars, but I see they are discontinued. They are made from an American company, and I unsucessfully tried to find this company through their description to buy direct. Can anyone have better luck than I?
As an aside, Martin Hellriegel was a wonderful priest who really helped bring Liturgical renewal in America. He was really wonderful in teaching the laity how to worship at Mass, explaining the "Stations of the Church", the liturgy, the Mystical Body, the Liturgical Year. Here's an example of his influence at WFF and here.
But it comes back to candles, really! See this connection, N.H. candles glow worldwide mentions his influence on their company.
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momwise wrote:
Dawn,
I've made several of them. I used The Year and Our Children as my source. There's an article about it at domestic-church.com.
A couple of things are outdated. One of course, is that there are no photos. Another is that when Mrs. Newland was writing her instructions, oil paints were what she had access to and I did use those the 1st year.
However acrylics work just fine. They are cheap and we have access to a huge collection of colors.
.......
I bought pillar candles at the religious goods store and some years have used plain white candles from the craft store. This year I have a bunch of beeswax so I'll probably try to make some candles if I can get the right size mold. MaryM, maybe a Candlemas candle-making day would be in order...hint,hint . |
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Wouldn't Candlemas be the perfect day for it? I thought of doing it before Candlemas so your candles could be blessed. What a great wintertime project to make candles for the year to present at Candlemas to have blessed -- like the Advent Wreath candles, altar candles, paschal candles....whatever you would use throughout the year.
I'm glad you mentioned about the acrylics paint, Gwen. That's my only regret about Newland's book -- where are the pictures?????
There was a TOR friar that lived at the Monastery at Franciscan University that would paint these marvellous resuurection scenes on the gigantic paschal candle. They were works of art -- Jesus coming out of the tomb, etc.
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JennGM
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I find I repeat myself on these boards. I just did a search and found some old threads about Candlemas that talks about Paschal candles. There is also some information in Easter Vigil Notebooks, and here.
I had a wonderful link and printed it out, can't find the link nor the printout. It had detailed directions on making your own paschal candle. I didn't like posting the link becuase I think it was a female liberal, but can't find it now!
Another source for lovely pillar candles are Monastery Greetings.
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MaryM
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Dawn wrote:
Did the wax accept the needles fairly easily? |
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I would imagine that it would with a shorter size pin - if needed the pins could be heated then they would go in very nicely and as the wax cooled, seal. You can also heat the wax with a blow dryer to soften it.
JennGM wrote:
| Wouldn't Candlemas be the perfect day for it? I thought of doing it before Candlemas so your candles could be blessed. |
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I would vote for pre-Candlemas also so that they could be blessed.
Gwen, has your acrylic paint stayed on the wax without peeling? I had worried about that and got some of the candle painting medium to add to the paint before we did ours.
And I think the look that would be achieved from the wax applique (applying pieces of wax sheets like the Heathsong link) would be beautiful. That is what I was thinking of doing this year.
Some companies selling ivory colored beeswax candles:
The Beeswax Candle Company
Beelite Candles and Wax
Candle Bee Farm
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JennGM
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JennGM wrote:
| I had a wonderful link and printed it out, can't find the link nor the printout. It had detailed directions on making your own paschal candle. I didn't like posting the link becuase I think it was a female liberal, but can't find it now! |
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Oh, I found it! Decorating the Paschal Candle
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I've got beeswax in my bonnet, and just wanted to put out the other links on making a Pascahl candle that I know. Besides Gwen's great article at Domestic Church, there are also directions to Making Beeswax Candles.
Catholic Culture has some other instructions:
Gwen already mentioned Year and Our Children's instructions
Ethel Marbach's version
Helen McLoughlin
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Yes! We made one the year we created our Easter Vigil notebooks, and the wonderful Lara (a member of these boards) actually sent me the pieces of Frankincense to stick on the candle. We brought fire home from the Church's Paschal candle after Mass that night. (I asked my pastor sheepishly for a bit of the flame, and he loved the idea.) It was such a singular experience to bring the light of Christ home to our house!
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alicegunther wrote:
| (I asked my pastor sheepishly for a bit of the flame, and he loved the idea.) It was such a singular experience to bring the light of Christ home to our house! |
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I never shared our experience with this last Easter. Because of these forum discussions I wanted to do this. My family watched in embarrassment as I asked the altar server after mass to help me by reaching the flame (those candles are so tall!) with her lighter stick (don't know the proper name  ). We light a candle I had in a jar. I proceeded to protect the small flame through the reception for the newly baptized and confirmed, walking back to the car, and on the drive home. Oh, it was exciting and I was so looking forward to lighting our Paschal candle. Then, only 5 blocks from the house, my husband went over a bump in the road. The jar was resting on my lap and I hadn't anticipated the bump - wax splashed up on the wick and extinquished the candle  . No one said a word for quite some time they all knew I was a bit upset. Here I was so frustrated on what was a lovely night. Took awhile for me to get over it and now they joke with me about it. So, we shall try again this year.
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We made one in 2002 using the inspiration at Domestic Church and modifying the directions a bit. I'm tickled to figure out that the article was written by Momwise - nice to 'meet' you! And a very belated thank you for the great article!
My husband had the idea to use melted crayons instead of paint for the design. He carved out the image and numbers for the year - he did a lamb and a cross with the year, similar to the article illustration. Then he filled in the areas with melted crayon - you just hold the crayon next to a flame over the carved image and let the crayon drip onto your candle. The crayon will fill in the carved design and the neat part is you just scrape off any stray drips or overflow around the edges. By using white crayon the lamb shows up really well on the ivory colored pillar candle. We also put the cloves in. We took it to the Easter Vigil and had it blessed before Mass, and then lit it with the Easter fire and held it during Mass instead of one of the little candles they give you. It is a wonderful project, and if you use crayon you don't need to purchase any special materials. It still looks very nice, too. Thanks again, Gwen!
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That is so great, Alice and Mary, that you got the original fire, but Mary, what a disappointment!
Mrs.K, that crayon idea is FABULOUS!!!!
And Gwen, I had your article printed out for years...didn't make the connection that it was YOU! Fabulous job.
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momwise
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Mrs.K wrote:
We made one in 2002 using the inspiration at Domestic Church and modifying the directions a bit. I'm tickled to figure out that the article was written by Momwise - nice to 'meet' you! And a very belated thank you for the great article!
My husband had the idea to use melted crayons instead of paint for the design. |
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Hi Mrs. K...it is so nice to "meet" you too!! I'm so glad the article helped you to have your own Paschal candle. I think your dh's idea to use melted crayons is fantastic. I can't wait to try it.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
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momwise
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JennGM wrote:
| And Gwen, I had your article printed out for years |
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Wow...that's an honor.
It's funny, I have such a unique name and there happens to be another Catholic Gwen online with whom I've been confused. Then when people actually see my whole name they're probably saying, "Oh, that's why she calls herself 'momwise,' I thought she just thought highly of her own intelligence."
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Paschal candle
