Floating Candle

Growing up my mom use to have these glass swans on the dining room table. They were filled with colored water and a small wick. I remember quite of few friends of the family had these same glass swans. They must have been very popular back in the day. My mom would always fill hers with blue water except for Christmas. Christmas she would fill it with red water to match the red Christmas decorations she put up every year. The elegance of the invisible floating candle flame was so pretty as it lit up the colorful water and glistened off of the glass vase.

I had been thinking about those swans lately and thought how beautiful the candles were. While I can’t find the swans, I can recreate the candle effect which is what I loved about the swans. The combination of fire and water working together to create a wonderful look.

Putting Together The Candle Holder

Supplies

• 2 Glass Vases 9″ cylinders
• Water
• Food Coloring
• Oil
• 2 Floating Candle Wicks   (buy  or  make)
• Bag of glass rocks *optional

Let’s Get Started

Clean the vases. I used soap and water.

Add decorations to the bottom of the vase. Here I am using a few of the glass rocks from Dollar Tree.

You can use other decorations such as flowers, small figurines anything that can handle being soaked in water for a long period of time. I tried tiny ornaments but the paint soaked off. It made a real mess.

Water

In a pitcher add water and food coloring.

Food coloring packages come in Red, Yellow, and Blue. Some stores sell packages with Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue. Either chose a color from the package or mix the dye to create other colors like orange, purple or blue-green. Play with the dye and see what color you like.

For this project, I wanted a purple color. I used 2 drops of red and 2 drops of blue.

Carefully fill the vase with water. Take care to avoid dislodging the decorations at the bottom. Make sure to leave enough room for the oil and the floating wick. I left about a 1″ from the top edge of the vase.

*Important- The wick and flame needs to sit below the top edge of the vase.

Oil

Carefully pour in the oil. You need about 1/2″ layer of oil on top. Olive oil burns cleaner than other oils but it is on the expensive side. I used plain ol’ vegetable oil.

If you want to have a scent place a few drops of scented oil to the vegetable oil. It is best to place it on top of the vegetable oil before adding the floating wick.

Floating Wick

Place the floating wick on top of the oil.

*Make sure you have enough wick to hang in the oil below the float but not too much that it hangs in the water.

The invisible floating wicks are sold here.

If you can’t find the floating wicks or they are sold out, you can also make your own following my article here.

Completed Candle

Here it is the floating candle all finished.

Whether the candles have decorations or plain it still makes a beautiful statement for any table or mantle. They are very easy to change with the seasons or the decor.

These also beautiful with clear water.

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Here is a downloadable PDF

How to Make A Beautiful Invisible Floating Candle