A Fabulous And Unique Handmade Candles Gift Idea

At Christmas, I made a cute oyster shell ornament for my tree. However, some of my oyster shells were too big to hang onto the tree. I kept them to one side and used them to make some handmade candles.

It’s incredible how glamorous an oyster shell can look once spray-painted gold. The big shells look even more fabulous, spray painted and used as candles on the table.

How To Make Handmade Candles With Oyster Shells

These oyster shell candles would be a lovely handmade gift for friends. Whether as a housewarming, dinner party or even a birthday gift. They are unique gifts for a minimal cost. The only price is for the wax and gift wrap. If you repurposed old candles, you could make them for almost nothing.

They are presented in a DIY nautical-themed gift box to make the gift even more special and keep with the handmade candles’ seaside theme.

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What You Need to Make The Handmade Candles

• Large oyster shells – Ask your local fishmonger or restaurant. If that’s not possible, I bet someone is selling them on eBay!
• Gold Spray Paint
• Candle wax flakes and candle wicks– or old candles
• Blue candle wax dye (optional)
• Old cardboard gift box large enough to fit the candles in.
• Nautical themed gift wrap
• Old saucepan and glass jug

How to Make Handmade Candles in Oyster Shells

Step 1:The first thing I did was to spray paint the outside of the oyster shells gold.

Step 2: Next, I worked out roughly how much wax I needed to fill and make the handmade oyster shell candles. To do this, I filled each shell with water and then tipped this into a jug and measured the amount of liquid.

Step 3: To melt the wax to make the handmade candles, you will need a “Bain Marie.”   You don’t want to melt the wax directly as it is a fire risk.

To make your own “Bain Marie”, put the wax in a pyrex jug/bowl and then place this bowl over simmering water in a saucepan. This is the same method you would use to melt chocolate on a stove.

As soon as all the wax has melted (it will clear), add a few drops of dye if you want to colour your candles. To keep with a seaside theme, I dyed my wax blue. You can also add a fragrance oil at this point if you want smelly candles.

Step 4: Carefully pour the molten wax into the oyster shells. Place a wick in each shell and use two wooden skewers to hold it upright as the wax cools and sets.

Step 5: Leave the handmade candles a good couple of hours for the wax to harden. Once the wax has set, cut the wicks down to size.

Step 6: Finally, as these candles are a gift, I made a lovely presentation box for them. I covered a cardboard box with nautical map wrapping paper and laid the oyster shell candles on top of shredded tissue paper.

These handmade candles would look fabulous as a centrepiece on the dinner table. Even though I have made these as a gift, I will keep some myself the next time I cook a special dinner. These other unique candle container ideas make a lovely homemade gift.

They are also a great craft to make and sell and fairs.

If you liked this post, you should check out my scallop shell trinket dishes. Or these map seashell gift ideas.
You may like my repurposed denim fish pillow with the seaside theme.

For more tabletop light decorations, check out these stylish air dry clay candles and cute mini Chinese paper lantern tea light jars.