Hand dipping beeswax candles is an art that pretty much hasn’t changed since its conception. At Golden Hill Candles we use this technique for our tapered candles and love the way it activates our senses through smell and touch and seeing the candles take shape. Each candle is a unique piece that has been created by hands. This is what makes each candle so special and we hope you love using them in your home as much as we love making them.

Making candles by hand dipping them is a method that has been used for many thousands of years. Some of the earliest examples of candles can be found in Egypt and different parts of Asia where people used reeds or rice paper as cores with either animal fat or wax from plants or insects as the fuel. These early light sources functioned essentially more like a torch. The Romans are credited with developing the first candles with wicks. They used either tallow or beeswax to create their candles. Beeswax candles made their way to Europe in the middle ages but were only really available to the wealthy and churches for religious ceremonies as it was an expensive resource.The method for creating wicked candles remained solely the hand dipping practice until the 15th century when molds became a popular method as well. The amazing thing about hand dipped candles is that this technique is relatively simple and has not changed much since it began.

Dipping candles is a process whereby layers of wax are consecutively built up on each other until the candle reaches the desired size. A cotton wick is threaded onto a frame and then the frame is lowered into a pot of melted wax. Once the candles have been dipped enough times and are the correct diameter at the base the candles are cut off of the frame in pairs, the bottoms are cleaned up by hand and then the pair is dipped one last time to give the bottoms a smooth finished look.