The Tea Light Candle Experiment

 

I’d read about making Tealight candle holders from felt but never seen any instructions.

“How hard can it be” I thought

I was searching around for small gifts for my work colleagues and the tea light candle holders seemed to be a good idea. Nicely packaged up with one of the little battery lights it would be a festive little “thankyou” to my work team.

The trick of course is to make the felt thin enough for the light to shine through but stable enough to hold its shape.

The example I saw used Styrofoam balls to mold them over so my first stop was Spotlight to buy a Styrofoam ball. Who knew styrofoam balls come in a multitude of sizes? Which size would I need? Maybe the first step should be to get the little battery operated Tea Light candles to see what size I needed. Off I went in search of those.

Five stores later. I came up empty handed and then resorted to a google search. Plenty available on line but the postage was more than the product. More searching in town shops and I found some!

Back to spotlight I went and bought two sizes of Styrofoam balls as I wasn’t quite sure of the amount of shrinkage to allow.

The project started to feel like Goldilocks and the Three Tea Lights – some were too big, some were too thick and other collapsed because they were too thin.

Not an easy job getting wispy wool roving to stay on a Styrofoam ball. I tried to cut “artistic” holes in the too thick one – they just ended up looking like it had been attacked by hungry moths!

But how to display it. The holder itself was too fragile to sit on its own. A strong wind would blow it away and moving it too much would weaken the already fragile structure.

Then inspiration struck – maybe he Styrofoam ball wasn’t the answer, maybe I should use a resist instead. I tried a circle but that didn’t quite work so I tried a Christmas tree shape. Bingo!!! It worked and I was able to cover any really thin wool with a few stuck on sequins.

It needed some kind of vessel to hold it and display it. More Goldilocks – some were too high, some were too low or not big enough. By this stage I was willing to abandon the project and buy everyone a box of chocolates.

I tried several containers to hold it and came up with a shallow bowl shaped inside a couple of aluminum pie cases left over from my husband’s take-away lunch.

The Christmas tree shaped over the resist worked but was still very fragile and the container made from thicker wool held it quite comfortably. I decided to give the tree and the base a good squirt with spray starch which worked a treat to give them both a little bit of stiffness.

I glued some sequins and stars on the outside and it looked quite pretty, the light shone through and it sat happily in the base.

But I still wanted to make the dome shape using the Styrofoam ball. At 2am inspiration struck. Years ago in Finland I’d bought a very coarse brown wool batt. It has sat in my stash for years and I’d never found a use for it.

Back to work I went with the Styrofoam ball and laid very fine pieces of the wool bat over the top. I wet it with a spray bottle and then soaped my hands and smoothed the wool before rubbing it very gently with painter’s plastic.  Then I left it to dry and the next day patched out the holes with another fine layer of batt. It took about three fine layers to get a dome shape that would hold up and several coats of spray starch before it was stable enough.

Finally I had one that wasn’t too thick, held together and sat happily over the little tea light candle.

So what was I going to do with a candle holder made from ugly brown wool?

With the addition of a little bamboo and some stick on holly I had a Christmas Pudding Tea light holder.

If you want to try it here are some instructions:

The styrofoam ball is 30 cm around. Cover the Styrofoam with painter’s plastic and place in a mug to act as a holder while you add the wool. Place a fine layer of wool over the Styrofoam and wet it down with a spray bottle. Soap your hands and smooth the wool and then rub it gently with a layer of painter’s plastic. Allow it to dry and then repeat patching the holes each time. Finally, when you have it well covered rub it gently all over with tulle (well soaped) to felt it. Once dry spray with spray starch or stiffener.

Decorate with some white wool or bamboo, a couple of holly leaves and a “cherry” made from a ball of red wool.

 

The resist for the Christmas tree is 12 cm at the base and 15 cm high I used two fine layers of wool each side of the resists and cut along the base for the Christmas tree. Once I removed the resist I shaped it over a container with a long nozzle and allowed it to dry before giving it a good spray with spray starch

 

The resist for the base of the Christmas pudding has a diameter of 16cm diameter

The resist for the base of the Christmas tree has a diameter of 14 cm. I used two layers of wool on each side of the resist and when it started to shrink cut a small hole on one side. (which became the bottom) before I felted it some more so the two sides joined together. (ie the base consisted of four layers of wool).

I placed the circle of wool into a container to shape it. Once dry I sprayed it with spray starch.

Have a Merry Christmas Everyone!