Master Class: Expert Tips to Make Your Own Candles and Tea
A pair of pro artisans (and Airbnb Experience hosts) breaks down their signature techniques so you can try them at home.
By Grant Rindner
If reading about the creatives we’ve profiled here recently — the mosaic artist in Rome, the New York City hatmaker, and the ceramicists in Bhuj, India, for instance — inspired you to want to create something of your own, you’re in luck. Here’s everything you to know to make a citrusy chamomile tea blend and a glass-jar candle at home.
DIY Candle-Making
Eager to spend more time with her daughter, Baltimorean Letta Moore quit her real estate marketing job in 2014 and opened KSM Candle Co. (There was another motivator for Moore, a fan of The Walking Dead: “I thought to myself, if there’s ever a zombie apocalypse, these marketing skills aren’t going to be useful! I need to master all the things I know how to do with my hands.”) Moore is a polymath maker who also knits and crafts metal jewelry, but she says KSM’s biggest draw is its soy candles. (KSM stands for “knits, soy, and metal.”)
Also popular is the candle-making workshop she offers through Airbnb.“People started asking me, ‘How do you make these candles?’ So I decided to start teaching,” she says. “At the time, there was nothing happening in the realm of candle-making in Baltimore.” Participants choose from 20 fragrances, learning how to mix and blend scents along the way. At the end, they take their customized candles home; here, Moore offers a simple “recipe” so readers can do the same.
How to make a Quick and Easy Candle
“Ultimately, there are no rules when it comes to putting together scents,” Letta says. “I try to encourage people to use their own preferences, experiment with different scents that are appealing to them, and just go with that.”
What you’ll need:
• Candle wax
• Candle wick (find wicks and wax at candlescience.com)
• Glass jar
• Microwave-safe glass measuring cup
• Glue
• Popsicle sticks or clothespins
• Fragrance oil of choice (Moore says lavender and vanilla are crowd-pleasers)
Instructions
1. Place wax in the microwave-safe measuring cup. (Once you’ve used your container for wax, don’t use it for food.)
2. Microwave for 30-second intervals until wax is completely melted and in liquid form, resembling apple juice. Be sure to use oven mitts!
3. While the wax melts, prepare your jar for pouring:
a. Apply a small amount of glue to the bottom of your wick and place the wick into the center of your jar. Press down.
b. Use Popsicle sticks or a clothespin to hold your wick in place. Make sure it’s straight and centered in the jar.
4. Once the wax is melted, remove it from the microwave and give it a good stir. (If it’s still cloudy, continue to heat until transparent.)
5. Add the fragrance oil and stir for 2 minutes.
6. Pour the wax slowly into the jar.
7. Allow your candle to solidify at room temperature on a solid, even surface. Wait until your candle is completely solid before trimming your wick to ¼ inch. Enjoy!
Maker intel: Soot is a major irritant for many candle owners, and it can hurt air quality in the home. “When the flame is too big inside of your jar, that’s where the smoke that turns into soot lives,” Moore explains. She recommends keeping your wick trimmed to about a quarter inch to reduce the size of the flame.
DIY Tea Blending
When Claire Boyer was growing up in Texas, the only tea at her disposal, she says, was Lipton. Later, she acquired a taste and a passion for the brewed beverage and worked her way up the ladder at Steven Smith Teamaker, a Portland, Oregon, shop and tea blending–packing facility established by the titular tea legend (and Tazo founder). Today, she’s head of education, and in 2017 she launched an Airbnb Experience to show guests the ropes of tea blending.
A self-described “anti-snobbery tea enthusiast,” Boyer gears her workshop toward beginners and casual aficionados. Participants assess up to 12 different ingredients (including rooibos, mint, and lemon myrtle) and learn palate-tuning techniques. A key part of Boyer’s mission is encouraging her trainees not to get bogged down in the guidelines that many assume govern the process. “Often I get questions like, ‘What’s the rule on this?’” Boyer says. “But it’s such a personal beverage! There are suggestions — for example, if it’s black tea, we suggest brewing with hotter water. But tea can really be however you like it.”
How to Make: Citrusy Chamomile
“This is an all-herbal, caffeine-free blend,” Claire says. “Chamomile, as the base, provides fruity apple and honey notes. The lemon myrtle gives a bright pop of citrus, and green rooibos provides a subtle piney note and helps to connect everything in the blend.”
What you’ll need:
3 parts chamomile blossoms (find them, and other tea staples, at mountainroseherbs.com)
1 part green rooibos
1.5 parts dried orange peel
0.5 parts lemon myrtle leaves
Scale up accordingly for larger batches (you can use a measuring cup for hefty quantities).
Instructions
1. Combine the ingredients.
2. Use 2 teaspoons of the blend for an 8-to-10-oz. cup of tea.
3. Steep for 5 minutes using water just off the boil.
4. Store the remainder of the blend in a sealed container. Keep it away from heat and light, and be sure to use it within 18 months.
About the author: Grant Rindner is the editorial assistant for Airbnb Magazine. He also writes about music for Dazed, Complex, Billboard, and Pigeons & Planes.
