Beautiful, fine bone china cups and saucers used to be the only thing to be seen drinking tea from, as a result there are plentiful supplies of incomplete tea sets, single cups and lonely saucers to be found. Sarah uses leftover pieces to make candle holders. A chip in the base of the cup can be overlooked for this purpose.
If you don’t fancy using hot wax, stick the saucer and the teacup together with instant glue and pop in a tealight candle. The fine bone china glows when the candle is alight. You can also buy candle-making kits, but a couple of coloured candles or the ends of several others are an economical way of getting the wax you need. The candle wax will not mix so well with your porridge, so it’s better to find an old pan and use it just for candle making!
YOU WILL NEED:
bone china cup and saucer | instant
adhesive | two long, coloured candles
| old saucepans | a couple of clothes pegs
1 Glue the cup to the centre of the saucer and leave to dry.
2 Melt the candles gently in a small old saucepan sat inside another filled with water. The wax is flammable, so it’s important it does not overheat during this process, so do use this method. Remove the wicks carefully from the molten wax – Sarah fishes hers out with one of the wooden clothes pegs.
3 Pinch two pegs together with wick in the middle and place them over the teacup so the end of the wick nearly touches the bottom. Then gradually pour some wax carefully into the cup until it is about three-quarters full and leave to set.
4 As it sets it will form a depression around the wick, so melt the wax again and fill in the surface so that it is level and leave it to set. Repeat until the cup is nearly full and
the surface is flat.
Candle caution: As usual, wherever candles are involved, a sensible approach has to be taken. Never leave a candle burning when there are no adults in the room.
More vintage craft ideas and supplies can be found at www.vintagelifestyle.co.uk and in Sarah’s blog at borninthechapel.blog.co.uk.
Candles by Sarah Moore.
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