12.08.2014

Handmade Wooden Candle Sticks

I made some candlesticks recently.


I've been thinking about items I'd like to make to sell and these were my first candlestick prototypes, which was pretty instructive.

I started with an aged, scrap piece of douglas fir which I picked up for a song at a recycled building materials yard here in the city.

I used 3/4 inch copper sleeving (cut in half) to hold the candle and to act as a burn barrier for when the candle burns down very low (which seems to happen to me all the time). I played around with how high the copper should protrude. I then switched to 3/4 inch end caps, which looked more finished as they have a bottom.
  
Remember, the easiest, no-measure way to find the center of something for drilling is to draw an X from corner to corner.

This part of my process was very fast. I cross-cut a bunch of pieces, marked them and then drilled them on the drill press. After that I sanded the top end grain.

It was the painting process that took forever :/ which I will be rethinking for my next round.



I tried a variety of technique for painting. Some of these guys I painted freehand with no primer -I scribed a line with a razor as the guide line. Some I painted with tape and no primer and some I taped and sprayed. The whole point of using the recycled wood is to get a product that has patina so there was no other sanding involved except for the tops.



Theses are looking pretty Scandinavian, folk arty -especially against the christmas greenery. 
In this setting, they read a little differently. For sure the dark blue and black are less seasonal. I like them just as well without a candle in them.

All in all this was an enjoyable exercise. Next round I'm going to burn the graphics on.

Cheers and I'm always open to feedback, so do tell. 

6 comments:

Shannon8footsix said...

fun!
i have my head in the sand until dec 15... assuming I can handle 10 days of Christmas!

Shannon8footsix said...

could you make 3/4 inch disks, with a dowel up the centre, the spin each disk a bit on the central axis. they could be plain or painted, thick and thin, and changeable? I love what you made, but that is the imagine that you planted into my brain when I saw them!
peace!
S

Shannon8footsix said...

(by discs I mean slices of the square, not circles)

Alana said...

I am partial to the triangle designs, the black and yellow, in particular. Crosses are to flag-like for my taste. I would like to see the triangles in gold paint, white and black. That's it. I would also like the wood grain to be featured a bit more, too. I don't like the copper protruding from the top. Flush is cleaner, simpler. Different heights would be cool, too. Good luck with this.

caitlin said...

Thanks for your input Alana. I think the yellow triangle is my favorite. I'm not a huge fan of gold -I feel it is overused by glam stylists these days but I do think white and black would be bueno. I completely agree that a flush top would be nicer but more challenging technically -especially because my antiquated drill press doesn't have a depth stop. I deliberately left it raised so that I didn't face the challenge of having to perfect the flushness (cheater). Yes, more heights too. Thanks again for chiming in ;)

caitlin said...

Good for you! 10 days is just about right. Slicing up the chunk is a cool idea, and maybe left completely unpainted so as to not look like a toddler toy. I will try that.

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