A Flicker of Doubt (Book 4 in the Candlemaking Mysteries) by Tim Myers Read Free Book Online Page A

wax
straight into it?”
    I shook my head. “The wick goes in first.
Tie one end to this dowel stick. You can use a pencil if you don’t
have one of these handy. Now run the other end through the hole in
the base of the mold.” She tied the wick off, ran it through the
tin mold, then I handed her a ball of mold seal.
    “ And this seal is for what
purpose?” she asked.
    “ It keeps the wax from
running out the bottom. Get it tight. Is your wick directly in the
center of your mold?”
    “ I think so,” she said as
she handed it to me to check.
    I glanced at it, then handed it back to her
and said, “It looks good to me.”
    “ What if it’s not in the
middle?” she asked.
    “ It’ll be hard to change it
after the wax is poured,” I said with a grin, forgetting for a
moment her lack of a sense of humor. I added quickly, “To get an
even burn, you need the wick to be centered in the wax. Let’s check
that temperature again “
    The thermometer read one hundred ninety
degrees. “That’s good enough.”
    “ You said two hundred
earlier,” she protested.
    “ It’s not an exact science,
there has to be some feel involved.”
    She reached for the pot, but I stopped her
and said, “First let’s run some warm water over this jug before we
add the wax to it”
    “ We don’t pour directly into
the mold?”
    “ I suppose you could, but it
makes more sense to transfer the wax into something that’s designed
for pouring. The water warms the sides so the wax doesn’t cool too
quickly. Dry it off, that’s good. Now be careful, that wax will bum
you. Okay, that’s enough.”
    She took the small jug now holding the wax
and said, “Any other advice before I begin?”
    “ Pour it in slowly and try
not to spill any. Fill it about ninety percent full.” I watched
over her shoulder, and when she’d poured enough in, I said, ‘That’s
good. Okay, stop.”
    “ That’s it?” she asked as
she studied the results. “Why didn’t we fill it completely to the
top?”
    “ That will come later. Now
we have two options. We can let it cool overnight or we can rush
the next step by giving it a water bath.”
    She frowned at the candle mold, then said,
“You know I like to take things in their own time.”
    I didn’t say a word, and in a few seconds
she continued, “Oh, let’s skip ahead, I must confess I’m eager to
see how I’ve done.”
    I knew from some of our past conversations
that Eve didn’t believe in water baths. She was very conservative
when it came to her candlemaking, but I’d been doing some reading
and a little experimenting on thy own, and I was ready to try it
with Mrs. Jorgenson.
    “ Okay, get ready to put your
mold in the sink. Don’t forget to use the oven mitts, it’s hot. Let
me add some water to the sink first” The water came just about to
the level of the wax inside, with the rim of the mold keeping the
candle itself dry. I added a weight on top to hold the mold down,
then Mrs. Jorgenson said, “What do we do in the
meantime?”
    “ Why don’t we pour another
candle? Would you like to make one with a few additions this
time?’
    She frowned, then nodded slightly. “I
suppose some color would be nice. Let me see, a pleasant lavender
scent would add quite a bit to it, too. Perhaps a shell or two as
well?”
    “ That’s the spirit. We’ve
got baskets of things you can put in your candle. Choose whatever
you like and I’ll get started on another batch of wax.”
    By the time she finished pouring her second
candle, her first attempt had probably cooled enough for the next
step. I anchored her scented, colored, shelled candle in one of the
other sinks after filling it to the needed depth, then looked at
her first effort
    She asked, “Is it ready?’
    “ Not quite. Take this
wicking needle and poke some holes all around the wick.”
    “ Won’t that make it ugly?”
she asked.
    “ Remember,
this is going to be the bottom of the candle. This lets the air pockets out If we don’t