1. Rustic Pillars Basic, Powdered Sugar/Granite Finishes
Julie Perry, The Scented Flame
Items Needed:
Wax
Steric Acid
Mold
Wick Pin
Basic Tools

2. Basic Rustic Pillars Teaspoons: Push and maneuver wax,
make hills and valleys.
Spoons: Easier to use to push and
maneuver wax than teaspoons in
taller molds, can use it to cut into pliable wax to control where you want
to put color.
Fork: Used to make grass or stitches. Insert into pliable wax (on sides) and
pull upward.
Dull knife: Can use it to pry wax off mold, same uses as spoon, can cut out pliable wax and cut solid color. Silicone pastry/butter brush: Great for powder sugar or sugar look, texturizing and granite rock surface.

3. Basic Rustic
Step one:
Add 3 heaping tablespoons of steric acid to wax and melt.
Step two:
While wax is melting, pick out color and prep molds.
Step three:
While the pitcher of wax above isn’t completely melted, it is warm enough for me to work with. The key to rustics is the steric, but also pouring at a cool temperature. In this instance, I’m making mandarin coconut, so my wax is colored orange. I’m making six 3x3s. Three of those I will rely on the lines made from rustics to be shreds of coconut. The other three, I tried another technique (a powdered sugar/granite look) covered later.

4. Basic Rustic Step four:
Most people like the rough surface of rustics, where air bubbles form holes in the surface. I’m one who doesn’t, so what I do to get a smooth surface is pour down the side of the mold and let wax gradually cover the surface. I will rotate the mold slowly to cover the surface. Once the bottom (which becomes the top) is covered, I will swirl the wax in the mold both clockwise and counter clockwise.
Swirling wax – I swirl clockwise and
counterclockwise as well
as rock the mold back
and forth. This creates
interesting lines from time to time.

5. Basic Rustic
Cool wax will develop air bubbles. Zap with the heat gun or keep swirling, then zap. Air bubbles on wall look kind of like acne. I’ll either zap them with my heat gun or press with a finger to break them. Air bubbles not on the initial surface can sometimes find a way of growing inside the candle, pushing outward toward the surface, which could develop a visible air bubble on the outer layer on the candle Once your mold is coated, you may have to return wax to heat to melt it. .
NOTE: If you leave wax in the mold after you have coated the surface, you will need to make sure it either does not form a skin or hardens enough so that when you fill the mold with wax it wouldn’t given in. I say this, because I’ve found the skin doesn’t just adhere perfectly to the wall of the mold and 9 out of 10 times, I have to re-melt to get ride of air bubbles that are growing under the surface.

6. Basic Rustic
Step five:
Fill the mold. Ideally you do not want your wax to be so hot that it will melt the coat you’ve already left. Sometimes that happens and you can get a different look. I’ve read where the wait should be 30 seconds, but most of the time anything splashed on my molds just melts off. I will wait up a couple of minutes if necessary. It depends if I’ve left any wax in the mold or if I poured everything out.
In this instance, the fill color happened to melt away most of the coating.
Typically when I see that happen I grab an ice pack that I keep in my freezer
and wrap it around the mold until the skin that forms starts to stay.

7. Basic Rustic
Step 6:
Let cool. Don’t forget to poke relief holes. When my wax starts to pucker, or form a dip at the top, I’ll start making the holes and then keep them open. When I pour layers, I will go as deep as I can until I meet resistance.
Step 6:
Remove, level & wick.

8. Powdered Sugar/Granite Rustic
Additional Items needed:
Brush (silicone pastry brush)
Heat Gun
Step 1:
Dip brush into wax (this instance plain wax) and I tapped it against the wick pin and sometimes the mold to get wax all over. Future suggestion, if going with plain wax, use some Lustre Crystals (or something similar) to get more white out of the wax. I don’t use white pigment, so I can’t comment how it would behave.

9. Powdered Sugar/Granite Rustic
After mold is splashed to your liking:
Step 2:
Pour wax into the mold and swirl to coat. Keep wax fairly cool or it will melt the splashing you took time to do. In this case I did not leave any wax to cool inside. I let this sit for about a minute. Using a cup, I ladled in some wax and swirled it around the mold. I wanted to be sure the wax I was
adding would not melt the initial coat. I kept ladling until halfway full. From that point, I filled the rest of the mold. My wax was close to 145 degrees, slightly cooler. Let cool. Poke relief holes, fill and remove when candle is done.

10. Powdered Sugar/Granite Rustic
Step 3:
This was what came out. Since my scent is powdered sugar, it isn’t white enough for my liking and there are holes that will be covered or filled with the next step. At this point, you can stop or if you like - let’s rough up the surface a little bit.
Step 4:
This was what came out. Since my scent is powdered sugar, it isn’t white enough for my liking and there are holes that will be covered or filled with the next step. At this point, if you like what you have, leave it. If not, let’s rough up the surface a little bit.

11. Powdered Sugar/Granite Rustic
Step 3:
Pretty much anything put onto a candle that isn’t part of a surface makes it a little more delicate and there’s the likelihood that it could all rub off. Using the lowest level on my heat gun, I waved it around the candle, pressing from time to time and then zapped the top. I call it sealing.
Suggestion: This technique probably needs more stark contrasts between colors. One thing you could do is get one of those metal poached egg plates and put it on the stove on low heat if you want to splash a variety of colors into your mold. This prevents a lot of reheating.

12. Powdered Sugar/Granite Rustic
Step 4:
Now, looks like a powdered sugar coating. Wick, level, light and enjoy.
Alternative: The final feel could be likened to a piece of granite rock, which I’ll attempt at some point with a sandstone fragrance I have somewhere in my stash. I’m thinking variances in grays, black and midnight blue perhaps for a granite color, maybe touches of white.