• Home
  • About Megan
    • Student Gallery
  • Writing
  • Video Training
  • Knitting Fork Projects
  • Categories
    • Baby Crafts
    • Baking
    • Book Review
    • Camping
    • Cooking
    • Crafts
    • Etsy
    • Gardening
    • Guest Blogger
    • Holiday
    • Kid Crafts
    • Knitting Fork
    • Needle Felting
    • News
    • Photography
    • Recipe
    • Sewing
    • Teaching
    • Travel
  • Sponsorship Info
  • Contact
  • March 25, 2023
Gardening Recipes
 
Craft Projects Photography

Movie Inspired Craft: Snail Shell Candles

August 1, 2011 By radmegan 13 Comments

I love a good movie. Some movies have scenes so inspiring, tragic, or just so well-staged, that they are tattooed into my eyeballs forever after seeing them. The English Patient came out when I was in High School. I’ve seen it dozens of times since then, and one scene in particular has always haunted me. Today’s craft, making snail shell candles, is inspired by that very scene.

To refresh your memory, the scene is below:



To make a path of burning snail shell candles which will lead your lover to a barn where you wait in the shadows, you will need the following: 
– Escargot shells
– Braided candle wick thread 
– Standard wick tabs (the metal base)
– Pliers
– Hot Glue Gun & Hot Glue Sticks
– 1 pound block bees wax
– Double boiler, or metal bowl and saucer of boiling water
– Empty egg cartons
– Funnel
– Paper towels or napkins
– Barn
– Lover
After picking up a container of escargot snail shells (and meats!) at my local grocery store, I picked out the prettiest, and most colorful snail shells, and placed them in my empty egg carton. I cut lengths of braided wick (each, about 2 1/4 inches long) and pulled each length of wick through the hole in the wick tab. Using the pliers, I pinched the metal tube at the top of the wick tab together so that the braided wick would stay attached to the metal base. 

I made sure I was working on a surface that would be easy to clean up, and wouldn’t get damaged by any spilled wax (If you are not sure how well your surface will clean up, put a sheet of aluminum foil, or wax paper under your egg carton of snail shells.)
Next, I inserted the wicks into each shell. Using my hot glue gun, I secured each wick tab in place with a bead of glue. 
When all of the wicks were glued into the shells, I melted my bees wax on the stove, using a double boiler.
I used my plastic funnel to help pour the hot liquid wax into each shell. As the shells filled with wax, I tried to keep their wick strings in the center of each shell opening, so that they would burn evenly. I also rotated each snail shell as the wax cooled, so that I could fill the shell with as much wax as possible. I wanted these to be able to burn for as long as possible.
To keep the shells from tipping as the wax cooled, I folded napkins between some of the rows of the egg carton. This added extra support, and soaked up any spilled wax. 
Then, I just waited for the wax to dry. When a few of my candles developed bubbles in the wax, I re-melted and re-pored the wax- which patched up any and all visible bubbles. 
I couldn’t wait to light my snail shell candles. As soon as it was dark enough, I took a few outside, and lit them. The effect was as beautiful, romantic, and haunting as I had seen it in the English Patient. 
In addition to leading your lover to a barn via burning snail shell candles, I would encourage you to use this craft in the following scenarios:

– Aisle-runner for a beach-wedding (dreamy!)

– Mood-lighting to seduce handsome malacologists (snail scientist)

– Dramatic warning to garden snails/beautiful lighting for an evening garden party

– etc. etc!

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post, I have a few other movie scene-inspired crafts I’m thinking about whipping up and sharing with you here! 






FacebookTwitterGoogle+PinterestShare

Related posts:

The Craftcation Conference: An Inspiring DIY and Indie Business Whirlwind! Available Now: The Art of Craft Photography Needle-Felted Peeps: Pattern Now Available Like a Candle in the Tin… Mod Podge Gingerbread Man Wreath magazine+cupcakes+copyPom-Pom Cupcakes for Kids Craft 123

Filed Under: Crafts Tagged With: candles, DIY, escargot, illuminated, movie inspired, original radmegan craft, radmegan


Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /webroot/r/a/radme001/primary/www/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php on line 399

Comments

  1. jek-a-go-go says

    August 1, 2011 at 9:38 am

    oh my mawd, you are so rad it’s stupid. this. is. the bomb!

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    August 1, 2011 at 10:19 am

    OMG I LOVED THAT MOVIE TOO! I totally remember that scene. I want to make these nowwwwwwwww.

    Reply
  3. radmegan says

    August 3, 2011 at 9:59 am

    AWWW Thanks Jekkers!! <3 That is th efunniest compliment I've had in a while :)

    Reply
  4. Calico Kate says

    August 4, 2011 at 9:49 am

    Those are lovely. I make mussel and oyster shell (& vintage Tea cup)candles but hadn’t thought to try snail shells. Lovely idea.
    CKx

    Reply
  5. Coyote says

    August 4, 2011 at 9:59 am

    So gorgeous and innovative!
    I’m definitely going to try this. I’m wondering if using a turkey baster instead of a funnel might make the process a bit easier. Thoughts?

    Reply
  6. mr says

    August 5, 2011 at 12:51 am

    I love the look of these, but I am wondering how long such a candle usually lasts? Do you have any experiences on that?

    Reply
  7. radmegan says

    August 8, 2011 at 4:34 pm

    Calico Kate- Thank you so much! Your mussel and oyster shell candles sound really cute!

    Coyote, a baster might work, but I would imagine that there would be a lot of wax build up that would become hard to remove? Just a guess- but when my craft was done, I had to pop the funnel in the freezer to scrape off all of the wax from the inside of the funnel…

    Mr- thank you so much- they burn for anywhere between 30 -45 minutes, unless you are using VERY large snail shells, and very long wicks. :)

    Thanks again for the comments!

    xoxo
    radmegan

    Reply
  8. Christianne Teixeira says

    August 19, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    This is amazing!!! I love those shells! Thank you so much for sharing your project with us :))

    Reply
  9. Lovely Light says

    September 13, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    This is over the top cool. Lots of effort, but the end result is amazing. Kudos!

    Reply
  10. Anonymous says

    October 3, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    These are so charming. I am going to make them for my daughter’s “Snail” Birthday. Thank you!

    Reply
  11. 1129 says

    October 28, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    thank you, they are beautiful! I reblogged here http://1129designorecchinigioielli.blogspot.com/2011/10/come-fare-la-conchiglia-candela-de-il.html hope you don’t mind best nicoletta

    Reply
  12. Nakis Christos says

    March 23, 2014 at 12:24 pm

    I am producing the giant snail shell. Burning for 24hours.

    Reply
  13. dahlgoran says

    March 16, 2016 at 9:24 am

    Hello Megan! I hope you are well and enjoying life in all its infine diversity and infinite combinations! (yup, a bit of a Trekker, me ;P) :) THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!! for the beautiful inspiration, and for your wonderful page!

    I”ve collected a HUGE box of various snails shells (since I’m depressed I walk much more often through fields, forests and riverbanks, trying to forget the civilised (not so much) world) – and was looking for the most efficient way to clean them and add as some embellishments to the beading projects (totally amateurish, but heck, one has to have a hobby!) – and DING!!! your page jumped at me out of the deep belly of the internet. Bless Internet ;D So I’m now about to merge candle making, beading, gardening and love of nature in one. Ah. Plus taking pics of the whole kaboodle at the end :) May God held you in the palm of His hand, and if u r not a believer, then may all the roads rise to meet you :) Yours is just a GRAND net place :) All the best from my distant Poland and sorry for my English, it’s not my native tongue ;P Have a wonderful day, night, evening… life :) Thank you again. You certainely made MY day :)

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

Follow Me

  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 

Find posts on this blog about…

Instagram

Get posts via email

Welcome!

I'm a crafter, cooker, gardener, and photographer.
Read More...
Learn Craft Photography with Radmegan

Friends

back to top
© Megan Andersen Read. All rights reserved.
Interested in using my photographs? Contact me.
Web design by Hearts and Laserbeams