Candle making has been around for ages. Ever since fire was invented, candles have been around in one form or the other. Whether it is as plain torches to animal fat candles, these illuminating sticks have been lighting up our homes since time immemorial. Though today candles play a more ambient role in providing mood lighting and as devices used to aid in relaxation, during colonial times, candles were used as the main source of lighting during the night time hours.
The importance of candles in colonial times is related to the number of household tasks women of the time had to do. For example, the things we take for granted like preparing food, washing clothes and dishes, keeping the house clean and basically all general household maintenance work required many hours of work. Today we have washing machines, microwave ovens, pre-cooked meals and prepared foodstuff from groceries, that we do not realize how hard it is to maintain a household back in the colonial era. Back then, work didn't end when the sun came down, it went on all throughout the night, and so the importance of candles back then cannot be stressed fully. So what were the colonial candle making techniques of people back then?
Colonial candle making did not use the now ubiquitous paraffin wax, but rather, they used animal fats, rendering them into a substance called Tallow. Tallow behaved pretty much like wax in that they can be melted and dipped to make fat tapered candles. However, unlike wax of today, tallow was soft resulting in their relatively short lifespan, they don't burn brightly and worst of all, they smell bad. A far cry from the scented candles we see everywhere today, but it did the job and lighting the house was much more important than the bad smell. As you can imagine, colonial households kept large amounts of tallow candle stocks, especially during the winter.
Colonial candle making is similar to today's methods, but with the main difference being the materials used. Candles were melted, dipped, placed with a wick then cooled. Back then, there was no use for fancy candles except by the rich, so the majority of colonial candles were the plain tubular tapered ones we see in general supply stores. Aside from tallow candles, those with extra money to spend used beeswax candles, with beeswax candles, the problem of a smelly household was eliminated. This was because beeswax candles exuded a sweet scent that resulted from the bee's diet of honey and flower pollen and nectar. However, these were expensive. Another colonial candle alternative were bayberry candles. These were made from bayberries, were longer lasting, sweet smelling, and widely available. However, with colonial candle making techniques, creating bayberry candles were a time consuming process and the vast amount of berries to produce just one candle didn't make it a feasible alternative to tallow candles.
Today, you can get into colonial candle making, by rolling out bayberry and beeswax candles. These two are as popular today as they were back then, particularly for their scents. Find a bayberry candle today and you can see for yourself how cleanly they burn. Colonial candle making has had a huge impact on today's candle making industry, though not on beeswax candles or bayberry candles, but rather the candle mold. Colonial candle making required a quick, efficient way to produce thousand of candles in a short time, so the mold was invented. So in a way, if you are making candles using a mold, with beeswax and/or bayberries (or if you want true authenticity, tallow), effectively, you are making your own candles in the colonial way!
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