July 16th 2013: Learning to Make Candles in Quincy

Today after work, I had an appointment with Stambry's Crescent Moon Company in the city of Quincy to learn how to make candles. Before that, I decided to have dinner at Fuji 1546, a Japanese restaurant in town.

The decor was pretty simplistic, but thankfully the food I got with my groupon was actually pretty satisfying. I tried the Dobin Mushi (a japanese bouillabaisse, cooked with chicken, shrimp, and served in a tea pot with a lime wedge), the Little Shrimp Gift Maki (spicy salmon, cucumber and romaine lettuce rolled together, topped with seared amaebi (sweet shrimp) , bacon, & seasonal black tobiko), and the Maki Me Hungry (tuna and mango topped with taro and red crab drizzled with unagi sauce).

Dobin Mushi

Little Shrimp Gift Maki (left),
Maki Me Hungry (right)

Although the soup was a little bland, made good with the lemon, the fish in it was fresh and interesting in the tea pot. Both maki were pretty good as well, although it preferred the sweet shrimp more.

I finished my meal pretty quickly, and still had some time, so I decided to go sightseeing in town for a bit, visiting the very first Dunkin' Donuts store at 543 Southern Artery and the St. John the Baptist Church.

Dunkin' Donuts

St. John the Baptist Church

finally at the candle making place, I found out that there were actually much more people today than there were when I was making soap here.

Once again, laid out on the table in front of me were all the tools and materials I needed for the day.

After going through all the necessary instructions, our instructor told us that we would be making 4 candles today, 1 large container candle, a smaller one, and 2 votive candles.

Large jar

Smaller container

Votive candle holder

Just like in soap making, we had to weigh out the ingredients, namely soy wax for the container candles, and pillar wax for the votive candles, and steric acid and scent.

Wax

Steric Acid

We also had to heat the mixture of steric acid and wax to make it melt, using an aluminum foil container containing water to do so in order to prevent direct heating and burning of the wax.

While waiting for the wax to melt, we obtained dye shaving by using a knife and scraping them off a color block.

Melting the Wax

Shaving the Block

Red Dye Shavings

For the container candle wax, once the temperature is around 150F and everything has melted, add the shavings and stir till the shavings are dissolved.

Adding the dye

Dye dissolved

When the mixture has cooled to 140F, add the fragrance.

At 130F, pour the wax into the container which has been prewarmed using a blow dryer to minimize the formation of air pockets, then stick in the wick using an ice cream stick with a hole  through which the wick can stick through to steady the wick.

From here the candle is left to harden on its own. This process was repeated for the smaller container candle, with less material used of course. Instead of strawberry scent, I used mango this time, and a combination of peach and yellow for dye instead of red.

Hanging the wick

Warming the glass

2nd Candle ready

For the small votive candles, as they are harder than the container ones as they will be taken out of the containers, the pillar wax used is harder, hence it melts at a higher temperature. After melting all the wax and adding the dye (lilac), it has to cool down to 150F before adding the fragrance (honeysuckle) and pouring it into the moulds.

Votive Candles

Puring the wax into the mould

After completing all the candles, we left them to dry for about half an hour.

Before

After

Taking the candles back to my car, I decided there was still time to use my other groupon at Kama Lounge, a pretty upscale place in town, which is in the same establishment as Bistro Chi right next door, which I have been to in the past.

I ordered the Hudson Valley Foie Gras (Pan Seared, Port Pear Puree, Candied Almonds), the Duck Confit (Soy Marinade, Raspberry Preserves, Spinach, Crostini) and the Stuffed Squash Blossoms (Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, Tomato Sauce, and Fresh Herbs).

Duck Confit

Hudson Valley Foie Gras

Stuffed Squash Blossoms

The duck was pretty good, especially with the jam, while the foie gras was simply mouthwatering. The only disappointment was the squash, which looked more like mozzarella sticks with not much squash in it at all. It was still palatable though, and I finished everything before leaving for home for the night, happy that I learnt to make candles, something that I can give people.