How to Fix a Decorative Candle

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How to Fix a Decorative Candle
Image Credit: neirfy/iStock/GettyImages

Things You'll Need

  • Decorative candle and the piece that is broken

  • Matches

  • Toothpicks

  • Like-colored taper candle (optional)

Decorative candles represent a unique art form that can be utilized as a candle, or saved, unburned as a wax figurine. Often highly sculpted, decorative candles can sometimes come with expensive price tags. Detailed candles are often cracked along narrow pieces bringing potential ruin to a treasured piece. With perseverance and a few matches, you can repair your candle. Not every break will be seamlessly or flawlessly fixed, but most of the repairs can be done well enough to be unnoticed.

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Fixing a Clean Break

Step 1: Examine and Evaluate

Examine the broken candle and the piece that has broken from the candle. Sometimes a candle breaks evenly and the pieces fit back together like a puzzle; this is a clean break. Blow or brush with your fingers any loose wax particles from the break sites.

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Step 2: Fix Wax With Wax

Light a match and very carefully hold the exposed wax of the broken piece in the flame until the wax appears to melt.

Step 3: Press and Hold

Push the broken piece onto the break site and hold it there until the wax hardens.

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Fixing a Jagged Break

Step 1: Remove Small Wax Particles

Blow or lightly brush with your fingers any small wax particles from the break sites.

Step 2: Break a Toothpick

Break a toothpick into a 2-inch piece for insertion into the center of the broken candle part. For example: if you have a decorative kitten candle whose paw has broken, you will stick the toothpick into the center of the jagged end of the paw, and then into the candle at the site of the break.

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Step 3: Use Hot Wax to Fix the Candle

Light a match and hold it to the jagged side of the broken piece of candle until the wax melts and then push the toothpick into the center of the piece. Blow out the match and discard. Light another match and hold it against the break site on the candle until the wax melts. Blow out the match and discard.

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Step 4: Making the Repair With a Broken Toothpick

Push the toothpick that is stuck into the center of the broken piece into the center of the break site on the decorative candle, pushing the wax of the broken piece into the wax of the break site. If there is a noticeable gap, stop pushing the broken piece into the decorative candle when the piece is in its appropriate place. Hold the candle piece and the candle together until the wax hardens.

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Step 5: Patch and Blend

To fill in any noticeable gaps, you can drip the wax of a like-colored taper into the crack, allowing each layer to harden and then drip additional wax onto the layers until sufficient bulk has been formed to fill in the crack or chunk that is missing. This must be done in layers.

Warning

Use caution with burning matches to avoid burns. Always place a blown-out match under running tap water momentarily to saturate the match head before placing it into the trash to avoid any accidental combustion.

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