Valentine's Day Flower Petal Embedded Heart Luminaries: a Perfect Gift

This is my attempt to create a Valentine's Day candle on a heart shaped wax base with three flower petal embedded heart Luminaries and a Tea-light candle inside, all made in wax.

I was fortunate enough to find a heart-shaped bowl in the kitchen, which I will be using as a mold for the base and shells. A pouring can and a vessel to be used as a double boiler made up the necessary equipment.

Also, collected some fresh flower petals from the garden, which I will use to embed in the shells.

Then, the wax - here I used semi-refined paraffin wax for the base and the shells. No additives.

The first step is to make the base

Melt the paraffin wax in a double boiler. Do not add any additives which will make the candle opaque. Though the plain wax looks like white, it is colorless and transparent.

The mold needs a releasing agent. You can use a Silicone spray, if available, otherwise applying a coat of coconut oil mixed with paint thinner will do the same and make it easier to take out the cooled wax cast from the mold.

Pour the melted wax in the mold and allow it to cool. Make relief holes and re-pour if required

Take out cooled wax base from the mold and keep aside.

To make the shells:

Apply mold release in the mold.

Melt the wax in a Double Boiler, and pour a thin layer in the mold. You can rotate the molten wax in the mold. to form a thin layer of equal thickness.

Lay the flower petals over this thin layer. Press the petals lightly with your fingers to make them stick to the wax.

Pour molten wax over the flower petals and slowly rotate the mold with your hand to form a uniform layer completely covering  the petals. pour out the extra wax.

When the shell is cooled, take out from the mold. Make three numbers of these shells.

Assembling the Candle:

Select a Tea-light candle of any color of your choice. Here, I selected a light-red Tea-light. Fix the Tea-light at the center of the base with some molten wax. Alternately, you can place the Tea-light on a hot pan and immediately remove and fix on the base.

Assemble the shells on the base and hold them firmly over the base. With a small spoon, pour little amount of molten wax to the base of the shells. Pour a little wax on the sides of the shells touching each other and let them cool.

Now, you got a "Flower petal embedded Heart shaped Luminaries with a Tea-light " ready.

Light the Tea-light inside and enjoy.

You can see the pictures taken at different angles of the candle, beautifully reflecting the flower embeds.