If you’re anything like us, you’ll have lots of partly-burned container candles lying around. They might have been failed experiments, nearly finished candles or have been simply tucked away in a drawer for ages. Or, as in our case, perfectly fine but you fancy making something new and don’t have time to pop down the charity shop to buy another teacup.
Here’s the easy way to reuse a tea-cup or similar container. You’ll need two saucepans (one bigger than the other) or, as in our case, a porringer set. These should not subsequently be used for making food with so choose old or cheap ones. Part fill the bottom saucepan with water so that, when you place the smaller saucepan inside, the water just reaches the bottom (you don’t want it overflowing when you turn the heat on). Put your container inside the smaller saucepan and add water to the smaller one so that it reaches half way up the side of the cup – you can speed things up by using warm (not boiling) water from a kettle.
Turn the heat on – now the hob will warm the water in the bigger saucepan which will warm the water in the smaller one but prevent it from getting above 100C. This will gently melt the wax in the container. Once it’s fully melted, you should find you can carefully lift out the cup from the top (that’s why you don’t fill the water to more than half way) and pour the wax into a waste container – an old yoghurt pot for example (just do it gently to make sure the pot doesn’t melt!) – for disposal. If you’re feeling extra-adventurous, you could pick out the wick assembly and keep the wax to reuse in a recycling project.