Equipment continued:

You will always need a few old butter knives and spoons, also get
a fairly large tupperware type container to put all sorts of tools
and goodies in that you will start collecting as you go along. This
is where you will put things like your candlemaking dye and
wick in. Many people will tell you that you need a double boiler
of some kind to melt your wax in, this is true and false. I
sometimes use a double boiler for dinner candles but mostly
I put my pots directly on to slow to medium heat, which is
why I am particularly fond of solid plates as they are far
easier to use when you need to control the heat at which
you are melting the wax.

Using direct heat to your pots speeds up the process of melting
wax. This is important if you are going to make quite a few
candles simply because the entire process from start to finish
can take more than a half a day to complete, depending on
what type of candles you are going to make of course.

Make sure you have a few cloths and especially paper towel
or toiletpaper handy when you are going to make candles.
Often the rim around the hot plates get a little full with
molten wax, this happens when you put new wax into
the pot and small little pieces fall offand onto the
hotplate. I will cover more in my next post.