True Bayberry Candles - A Colonial Tradition

Hello friends,


Each year, I try my hand at a new craft for my holiday gifting to selected friends and family.  This year, inspired by a request from my friend, June, I decided to make true bayberry candles.  June's family has a beach home in New England and she has a nice stand of bayberry bushes.  Knowing my penchant for artisan crafting and historical techniques June has been asking me to give bayberry wax a try.

Bayberry is also known as wax myrtle, wax berry, or candle berry.  The bayberry bushes grow in many places around the globe and do well in sandy and marshy areas of Northeast near the Atlantic Ocean and Great Lake beaches.



The American bayberry grows 3–8 ft. The foliage is evergreen, shiny leaves.  The bayberry leaves, berries and bark have a balsamic aroma. The small berries grow in clusters and are covered with a crust of a greenish-white waxy substance . Herbalists use tinctures of the herb for various medicinal purposes.

In colonial times, ordinary candles were often made from rancid oils, fats and tallows which produced an unsightly smoky flame and unpleasant odor.  The bayberries were gathered and boiled to release the wax.  The wax was collected and used for fine quality candles.   The boiled berries and waters were utilized for remedies but the wax was highly prized.  The scarce berries and extraction process added value to the wax and established the traditions that grew up around its use to dispel the darkest days of the year with the beauty of the light.

Bayberry wax candles were cherished for their fine quality.  They produced a bright light, minimal smoke and a delicate pleasant aroma.  Real bayberry wax has a very faint herbal aroma. It doesn't carry the scent enough to call a fragrance. Many chandlers add fragrance, but I chose to leave the candles natural to maintain a product true to its roots. The labor intensive process, yielding  about a pound of wax for every 5 pounds of berries, precluded the wax from being used for everyday.  The bayberry candles were reserved for gifting and special occasions.



June sent me a huge box of bayberries that filled a big bucket.   I have never seen them before, they do feel waxy and I could smell the aroma when I opened the box.

I filled a large enamel pot with berries, covered them with water and set them to boil.  Once the water came to a boil I covered the pot and allowed it to cool.



  The wax rose to the top which allowed me to easily remove it once it cooled.  The bayberry wax is very brittle, it is almost like glass.  I placed the wax into my candle wax pot and melted it again so I could filter it to clean it again and remove any of the tiny particles.  I poured it through layers of cheesecloth.

The wax is a grayish green color and doesn't retain a lot of the fragrance of the berry.  In order to have a usable wax for dipping, it is necessary to add another wax as the bayberry wax alone would shatter.  You can use paraffin, soy or beeswax.  I chose my Amish beeswax because beeswax is better for dipping candles.  Beeswax has more viscosity when melted so it creates a thicker layer with each dip making the process a little quicker as well as producing a quality candle. If you don't have access to fresh bayberries, you can purchase bayberry wax ready to use.






I tied a large heavy nut to the bottom of the candle wicking as a weight to aid in the dipped candle remaining straight.  Then the wicking was hung from skewers using binder clips to keep a separation between the candles.

The dipping technique consists of simply dipping the weighted wicking into the melting pitcher allowing each layer to cool before the next dip.  The process is repeated until the candle is at the desired thickness.  There is a learning curve, my first attempts yielded candles that were rather lumpy and uneven but I got better with practice.




Once completed, I cut off the weight and rolled the bottom of the candle on a hot pan to form a tapered end so it would be an easier fit for the candle holder.

I did have to add more beeswax to keep enough wax in the melting pitcher so I could have enough depth to continue dipping.  As a result, my later batches have a higher ratio of bees wax to bayberry wax so they lack the darker green color but still have true bayberry wax content.  All in all, I only got a few candles that were suitable for gifting but certainly was an interesting process that garnered a great appreciation of the old time craft of chandlers.  And finally, a sense of satisfaction as I take in the sight of the end results hanging to cool!









The Legend of Bayberry 

Tradition holds that you gift a true bayberry candle to your friends with this little poem:

"This Bayberry candle comes from a friend. So on this holiday burn it down to the end. Because a Bayberry candle burned to its socket, brings good luck, good health and wealth to your pocket."




The ritual developed around the bayberry candles for either Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve.  A bayberry candle is lit and it is to be timed to stay lit until after midnight.  This will bring a year of prosperity and good fortune to the household. You should not extinguish the candle; it should be allowed to burn out on its own. If the candle burned down to the socket, abundance would bless everyone participating in the ritual

Legend has it that the Bay Tree gave shelter to the holy family during a storm. It was rewarded in that lightning is never to strike it. Sweethearts who are separated at Christmas should light bayberry candles and the tradition says they will be united by way of the gentle scent.  



The final presentation of the candles - wrapped with simple raffia, satin or velvet ribbon, torn jingle bell calico fabric adorned with tiny bells, denim and cording, candle wicking and mulberry papers and feathers.





I hope my family and friends enjoy their handmade gift this year along with wishes for good luck and fortune!

Thanks for visiting,

Bonnie


21 comments:

  1. Very shortly this web page will be famous amid all blog
    viewers, due to it's pleasant posts

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! This blog looks just like my old one! It's on a completely
    different subject but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Great choice of colors!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you a bunch for sharing this with all of us you really recognize what
    you're talking approximately! Bookmarked.
    Please also consult with my website =). We will have a link exchange contract among
    us

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm not sure where you're getting your information, but good topic.
    I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more.
    Thanks for great information I was looking for this info for my mission.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My brother suggested I might like this web site. He was entirely right.
    This post truly made my day. You cann't imagine just how
    much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fabulous, what a web site it is! This blog provides valuable information to us, keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Keep on working, great job!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi, i think that i saw you visited my site so i came to “return the favor”.I'm
    attempting to find things to improve my web site!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow that was odd. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but after I clicked submit
    my comment didn't appear. Grrrr... well I'm not writing all that over again. Anyways, just wanted to
    say fantastic blog!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Helpful info. Lucky me I discovered your web site accidentally,
    and I am stunned why this twist of fate didn't happened in advance!
    I bookmarked it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. An impressive share! I've just forwarded this onto a co-worker who has
    been doing a little homework on this. And he actually bought me dinner because I stumbled upon it
    for him... lol. So let me reword this.... Thanks for the meal!!
    But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this subject here on your web page.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Highly descriptive blog, I liked that bit. Will there be
    a part 2?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hey there! Do you use Twitter? I'd like to follow you if that would be ok.
    I'm definitely enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I constantly emailed this weblog post page to all my friends, because if
    like to read it next my links will too.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hello, everything is going fine here and ofcourse every one is sharing information, that's really
    fine, keep up writing.

    ReplyDelete
  16. It's a pity you don't have a donate button! I'd without a
    doubt donate to this fantastic blog! I suppose for now i'll settle for bookmarking and adding your
    RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to fresh updates and will
    talk about this site with my Facebook group. Chat soon!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi there, I discovered your site by the use of Google while searching for a related topic, your site
    got here up, it seems good. I've bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.

    Hello there, just changed into alert to your blog through Google, and found that it's truly
    informative. I am going to be careful for brussels.
    I'll appreciate in the event you continue this in future. Many other people might be benefited out of your writing.
    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  18. It's the best time to make some plans for the future and
    it's time to be happy. I've learn this post and if I could I
    want to counsel you few fascinating issues or tips.

    Perhaps you can write subsequent articles relating to this article.
    I want to learn even more issues about it!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Howdy! I could have sworn I've visited this website before but after going through some of the articles I realized it's new to me.
    Regardless, I'm definitely delighted I came across it and I'll be bookmarking it and checking back often!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for finally talking about >"True Bayberry Candles - A Colonial Tradition" <Loved it!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Amazing! Its genuinely remarkable article, I have got much clear idea regarding from this paragraph.

    ReplyDelete