HOW TO MAKE GEL CANDLES

Honestly this is super easy.

Our Craftiviti gel wax comes in sachets of 100ml packs.
These packs are quick squeeze packaging - just uncap and squeeze the gel out.
You can choose between the many colors available such as red, yellow, purple, blue, green and white.

First, pick a really awesome-looking glass container.
You can recycle a used jar or get a tiny cup like we did.
Next, glue a wick to the bottom of the jar. You can do so with blue tag, super glue or a hot glue gun.

With a little finger muscle, squeeze the gel out of the packet into the jar. It comes out in clumps but don't you worry, it'll smoothen out with a little bit of fire. 

The best thing about gel wax is that it is see through which means you can embed just about anything into your candles. Here we embedded some tiny shells into the candle. We could put more but we only had three shells. So if you have more, go wild!

You could also embed clay miniature objects, legos, dried leafs or flowers, pebbles or marbles. 

Also, get more than one color of gel wax and layer them up. Gorgeous!

Next, LIGHT IT UP. Unlike other candles such as paraffin wax or beeswax, there is no waiting or cooling time. Just light it up immediately!
You'll notice that gel wax burns very strong and long.
And gradually the wax surface tends to melt into a nice shiny top.

Just a note to self, gel wax is paraffin based and is not a natural wax like soy wax or palm wax. Gel wax tends to last longer, retains scents well and is not so picky with the wicks. It also creates beautiful transparent liquid candles.

 For further enquiries, write to us at enquiry@craftiviti.com or visit our outlet to have a look. 

Visit our website: www.craftiviti.com

AIR DRY CLAY BY CRAFTIVITI

Craftiviti Ultra Light Air Dry Clay comes in 24 brilliant colors to choose from. 

Each pack weight 20g and retails for only RM3. 

With its size, choice of colors and not to mention its affordable price, it's a great beginners clay especially for those who have never tried working with clay. 

We find learning to work the basics with this clay allows you to grow your skill before moving on to more expensive and technically complicated clays like polymer clays. 

Our Ultra Light Air Dry Clay is a lot like paper clay except it is feather light and unlike paperclay which dries hard, the Air Dry Clay has a slight bounce and flexibility when dry. 

Here are some of its characteristics:

• Very light
• Easy to mold and sculpt
• Odour-free
• Non-toxic
• Does not leave residue on fingers
• No baking required
• Dries with minimum shrinkage
• Dries with no cracks
• Great for amateurs, kids and beginner sculptors
• Comes in 24 brilliant colors 
• Comes in a zip lock bag for easy storage 

Available in 24 amazing colours:

• White
• Black
• Brown
• Flesh
• Mud Grey
• Primary Blue
• Dark Blue
• Light Blue
• Leaf Green
• Green Apple
• Lemon Green
• Light Green
• Purple
• Lavender
• Bright Orange
• Neon Yellow
• Yogurt Yellow
• Yellow Gold
• Bright Yellow
• Red Hot Red
• Soft Red
• Hot Pink
• Baby Pink
• Bubblegum Pink

See photos below for some tests we did on it.

Crack free during molding and very pliable

When spread, pressed, rubbed and pulled, it does not leave any residue on this skin.

Wonderfully stretchable and slightly flexible when dry.

Rolls and shapes easily. Here we tried to make our version of some sort of berry. 

Tadaaaa! The options and opportunities are endless with what you can do with this clay!

Craftiviti Ultra Light Air Dry Clay also comes in 500g packs available in 6 colors for only RM35. 

 For further enquiries, write to us at enquiry@craftiviti.com or visit our outlet to have a look. 

Visit our website: www.craftiviti.com

HELLO GESSO - WHAT IT IS AND WHY WE USE IT

Confused of what gesso is all about? You don't need to wreck your brains out to know what it is. Let me break it down for you.

What is gesso?

Pronounced as 'Jesso', Gesso is a thinner version of acrylic paint. It is used as a primer, to make your painting surface slightly textured so that it can accept your acrylic paint.

Gesso is also useful to protect the fibers of your canvas so that it won’t crack if rolled.

Originally it only comes in white but nowadays gesso comes in a wide variety of colours. You can also colour them using watercolour or acrylic paint or even using KoolAid!

There are different grades of gesso, artist grade and student grade. Artist grade is more expensive, thicker and has more pigment to it compared to student grade.

Student grade is cheaper and has more filler than pigment.

How to use gesso?

In applying gesso, you will need a wide, flat brush. The size of your brush depends on how big your surface is.

You can follow these steps to gesso a canvas for acrylic painting

1.  Stir your gesso tub or shake it before using it.

2.  Dilute it with water for the first coat. Some suggest that you add a little bit of acrylic medium to prevent cracking but it’s optional.

3. Wait for it to dry to apply the second coat. For the second coat, apply it thinly and you don’t need to add water to it. Add another layer if you want a more absorbent surface.

4. In order to get an even coverage, make sure you turn the canvas 90 degrees between each coat while you gesso it.

5.  For the final coat, use the pure undiluted gesso.

6.  You can use a decorator’s brush to gesso your canvas for the final coating. Try to work from top to bottom, in parallel strokes.

7. Wash your brush using water and brush cleaner to get the gesso out from your brush.

Tip: You can sand your gesso using sandpaper (240 grit) in between coats in order to get a super-smooth finish.

 For further enquiries, write to us at enquiry@craftiviti.com or visit our outlet to have a look. 

Visit our website: www.craftiviti.com

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ROLL YOUR OWN CANDLES WITH BEESWAX SHEETS

Beeswax sheets are so easy to roll into candles. And they make pretty long lasting ones too. 

Just grab a sheet of beeswax (ours is the size of 41.5cm x 19.5cm)

It's a pretty big sheet so you can choose to half it or quarter it depending on the size of candle you want to make. 

Next, prepare your wick. Cut to the length of the candle you are making. Make sure you cut a little longer to make way for the burning tip. 

Here we use Wedo wick which works well with natural waxes.

Roll the edge of the beeswax sheet tightly around the wick. Squeeze the wax sheet tightly.

Once you get the wax sheet edges wrapped snugly around the wick, it's super easy from then on. Add pressure and just roll...

And roll...

 and roll somemore until you get the thickness that you want. 

Remember to roll according to the size that your wick can take. 

Roll too little wax sheet and the wick will burn through the wax pretty quick. 

Roll too big, and the wax may drown out the fire.

Keep pressure on while rolling to close the gaps between the sheet. 

Once you are happy with the size, cut the excess sheet away with a pair of scissors. The wax is soft and will cut easy. 

And there you have your finish handrolled beeswax candle. For half a sheet, this candle burned 4 hours long!

For further enquiries on DIY candle making or candle moulds, write to us at enquiry@craftiviti.com

Or visit our outlet to have a look or purchase online here.

HOW TO MAKE TAPER CANDLES AND EGG SHAPE CANDLES

 Why use or make beeswax candle? 

Beewax candle is the oldest kind of candle making material known to men. It has been used since ancient times and in many religious functions because it is the purest form of wax. 

Beewax is all natural wax with almost no chemicals. 

It is environmentally friendly, safe and non-toxic. When it burns, there is little smoke. It also burns very clean and is biodegradable. 

When it comes to making beeswax candles, no essential oils is necessary as the candle has a slight natural honey scent. Of course, if you'd like a different scent, you can always add in the essential oils of your choice. We find vanilla scent goes well with Beeswax. 

Beewax is a lot more expensive than paraffin wax, soy wax or palm wax. And here's why...

It takes thousands of bees to collect 3kg of honey that will produce only 500g of wax

However...beewax has high melting point (in fact it is the highest among all known waxes). This means that beeswax candles also burn 3 to 5 times longer than other waxes with very little drip. 

Making candles is super easy. Here we will show you how to make beewax candles. 

All you need are:

Beewax

Mold Release Spray

Candle wick

Candle mold 

and a little clay

Here we have two types of candle molds. Taper mold is the one that is long and thin, the kind we see at a romantic dinner table. And the other mold is a fat and short egg mold. 

First we place 250g of beeswax into a metal bowl. Next we fill a pot with water and place the  beeswax bowl into the middle of the pot with water. This is called double boiling. 

The wax will melt rather quick s double boiling prevents the wax from burning. 

Next, preparing the mold. 

Spray mold with a Mold Release Agent. This eases the demolding process and avoids the wax from sticking to the sides of the molds.

The egg mold is a 2-part mold that comes with a handy hole to string the wick through. We tied one end of the wick to a chopstick to help keep the wick straight. 

For the other end of the wick, we secured it with some industrial styling clay.

The bottom of the tapered candle mold looks like this. 

Here's what the top of the taper mold looks like. Using a prewaxed wick makes the stringing a lot easier specially for tapered candle molds. 

Once the wax has melted, just pour the wax into the prepared molds. Be careful not to spill as the wax is very hot and the cleaning up can be frustrating. 

See how the chopstick keeps the wick upright in the photo above?

Leakages may happen especially with two part molds like the egg mold here. Just wait for the wax to cool and simply peel it off the table top. Working on a silicon mat or newspaper helps. 

To avoid future leaks, just seal the joining of the mold with clay.

Here we wrapped tissue paper around the joining to stop the leakage. 

Egg mold done. Now we pour the wax into the taper mold which fills up rather quickly.

This is a photo of the top of the tapered candle mold after pouring. The wax cools almost instantly.

Allow candles to cool for 2 to 3 hours. Pop it into the fridge to quicken the process. 

Once the candle cools completely, we removed the bottom of the tapered candle mold. Because of the mold release, the removal is easy. 

By applying a slight pressure to the top of the candle, we are able to remove the entire candle from the long mold. Of course the Mold Release Spray helped a lot too. 

If removal is still difficult, pop the entire thing into the freezer for 5 minutes and the mold should come off easily.

Here we have two complete candles which can be used almost immediately!

Candle molds come in many different sizes and can be used with palm wax, paraffin wax, stearic wax and wax blends. 

Egg shaped candles are just perfect for Easter don't you agree?

For further enquiries on DIY candle making or candle moulds, write to us at enquiry@craftiviti.com

Or visit our outlet to have a look or purchase online here.