Another technique for altering the surface of a candle is cutting into it, or carving. This can be as simple or as complicated as you desire. For a marbleized effect, just take a vegetable peeler and peel away some of the outer layer of a white candle overdipped in a color, revealing the white beneath. Or, dip several layers of color on one candle and then cut notches into the candle to reveal each layer.

Red and Green Marbleized Candle

• Dip a white candle into red wax once.

• Dip the same candle into white wax three times.

• Dip the candle into green wax three times.

• Dip the candle into red wax once more.

Allow the candle to cool slightly between dippings. While the candle is still warm, make small indentations in it with your thumbs all around its surface. With a vegetable peeler (it should be good and sharp) begin to peel or shave off the candle, just as you would peel a potato. Work evenly up and down the sides of the candle, or around it if you are making a ball-shaped candle. Continue carving until you have reached the effect you like, exposing some of the underlayers of color. (This may take quite a bit of carving/shaving.)

Once you are satisfied with the result, re-dip the candle in clear wax at l85° Fahrenheit and watch carefully as the rough edges melt off. As the candle is immersed in the hot wax, more of the underlayers will show. When you've got the look you like, remove the candle from the hot wax and plunge it into cold water to achieve a shiny surface.

You can use this “dip and carve” technique on a candle of any shape. It is especially nice on balls and pillars. Tapers are too slender to benefit by this method, but they can be carved as well.

Carving Tools

You can carve candles with your fingernails, a nail, knives, palette knives, chopsticks, a linoleum cutter, various kitchen implements (a cake tester is great!), or a special carving tool — anything that will cut or shave away bits of the candle's surface to reveal some of the color(s) underneath. Razor blades should be used carefully so as not to cut too deeply into the candle and weaken it, especially with tapers.

Carving with Heat

You can achieve some interesting effects by carving with a heated, sharp-pointed object, such as a nail or an ice pick. Using a candle flame as your heat source, heat the nail's point and begin to make lines, swirls, or any other pattern you like in the wax as it melts around the heated point. Don't dig in too deeply and work slowly at first. You can always go back and make the indentations deeper. Once you are used to this technique, you can quite successfully draw designs — such as vines and flowers as well as spirals and swirls — into the candle's surface.

You can also use other kitchen tools — spoons, forks, knives, etc. — for heat carving. A spoon, for example, when heated will make round indentations, or you can use it to create smooth channels up and down, or around, the candle. A fork can be used to add texture as can a serrated knife-edge. Also, you can use your fingers to pinch up little raised shapes in the soft wax around the heated tool.