Overdipping for Decorating

Wax for overdipping can be just regular wax that you made your candle with or you can add stearic acid or microcrystallines to it to make it harder.  You can also just use a high melt wax.  With the process of overdipping, you can do a number of decorative things. You can overdip a plain white candle to color it, you can revive old candles that have discolored or faded, you can create striped candles by overdipping in 2 different colors or you can overdip to protect embedded objects on the surface of the candles. To set up your overdipping station, you will want to have a double boiler going in which you will place your dipping container.  Fill it with enough wax to cover the whole candle when submerged but leave enough space at he top so that the wax doesn't overflow when displaced by the candle.  Make sure the wax is at about 20 degrees above its melting point.  Use pliers to hold your candle by the wick.  Make sure the candles are warm before they are overdipped, otherwise, your layers will not adhere.  Have a bucket of cool water nearby to submerge the freshly dipped candle.  This will give it a nice glossy hard finish. 

Striping a candle - Place strips of masking tape around the candle where you want it to remain the base color.  Then dip the candle in colored wax, plunge it into cool water and allow it to dry.  Remove the tape.  You can also create horizontal stripes by dipping half the candle in one color, flipping it over and dipping the other half plus an inch or 2 in another color.  The part that got dipped in both colors will be a mix of the two colors so you will have a candle with 3 different color bands.