One way we’ve kept the flame in our relationship burning is through “crafts.” Creating beautiful and yet useful stuff together has been a great way to memorialize special occasions and create meaningful, time-honored traditions. Our first such crafty couple-invention was our anniversary candle. Our candle recipe is listed below, but the two most important ingredients in any of our couple-crafts are (1) using materials that have meaning to us as a couple and (2) incorporating the finished product into our lives in a creative and symbolic way—to remind us we can, and should, intentionally create our lives together.
An anniversary candle incorporates easily into a couple’s life because, obviously, they light it every year on their anniversary. But, for the 
sake of creativity, we decided to stretch the premise just a bit. On our first anniversary, we allowed the candle to burn for exactly one minute; on our second, exactly two minutes; and so on.
It has also become our tradition to write shared poems during the candle burning time. We each start a poem, beginning with, you guessed it, the first line. We then trade our books back and forth, line for line, until we have two completed poems.
Our Materials:
– 1 heirloom wine glass—the set had been in the family for years, but this one had a small crack in it (perfect for re-purposing).
– 1 – 1 1⁄2 cups (or about 8-12 ounces) of wax—we used beeswax as well as some old, almost-spent candles we had collected from around the home.
– 2 or 3 crayons—we chose “Blue-With-Shimmering-Silver-Glitter” (one of our favorite Crayola colors) and a few other shades of blue (blue also went well with our décor at the time).
– 1 empty coffee can and 1 saucepan—a saucepan large enough to fit the coffee can comfortably. We bent the can so that rather than having a round opening, it was shaped more like a funnel.
– 3 canning jar ring lids—not the flat lid part, just the ring.
– 1 candle wick—as long as the height of the candle plus enough extra to tie one end around a butter knife. – 1 butter knife—just a butter knife, that’s all.
– 1 wooden paint stir stick—thank you Sherwin Williams.
Our Process:
First, we washed and thoroughly dried the coffee can (we let it air dry for an hour or so).
We cut the wick to about six inches long. We dropped the wick into the glass until it touched the bottom but didn’t bend. We tied the other end of the wick to the butter knife (butter knives are usually good because they lay flat and stay put) and set the knife with wick attached across the top of the glass.
This little process keeps the wick standing straight up and center in the glass and, of course, from falling completely down into the wax when the wax gets poured.
We placed the canning jar rings on the bottom of the saucepan, the coffee can on top of the rings, and the wax (but not the crayons) into the coffee can. Placing the coffee can on top of the canning jar rings creates enough space between the pan and coffee can to prevent the wax from being too close to the burner. It also prevents the coffee can from creating the vacuum-lock- of-death with the pan when the water is heated up.
Next, we filled the saucepan about 1⁄2 full with water, being very careful not to get any water in the coffee can. We put the burner on medium heat and after about 10 or 15 minutes, the water began to boil, and the wax began to melt (hooray!). We waited for the wax to melt completely before adding our crayon colors. Note: if crayons are added first, the color clouds the wax, making it difficult to see if the wax has liquefied completely.
Once the wax melted and crayons added, we used the stir stick to blend.
Next, we dipped the wick (still tied to the knife) into the wax and set it back into the glass to cool and become hard. This only takes a minute or so. At this point, we poured the wax slowly into the glass, making sure the wick stayed in the center. We left enough wax in the pan to “top-off” the candle. We simply waited for a couple of hours, reheated the left over wax and once it was completely melted we poured it onto the top of our cooled candle. This filled in the “dip” that was created in the top of our candle as it cooled.
We let the candle dry for a day or two and voila!– an anniversary tradition inspired, created, and cherished by we 2. We hope we have inspired you to create your own loving traditions.
In Kindness,
~JnK