DIY – Fall Candles
Would you like to make these DIY fall candles? If you are just a little bit handy and comfortable using power tools this is an easy project. We chose to use Buckthorn for our wood. Unfortunately we are overrun with this invasive bush. The Buckthorn literally takes over once it gets established in an area. Handling the bush can be a painful experience as the branches have large thorns on them, thus the name. The good news is, Buckthorn is actually a very pretty wood and easy to work with.
We used the trunk of the Buckthorn bush for our project. Any log with a diameter of 3 inches or more would work just fine.
You can see that we used a miter box to get a clean flat cut along the trunk at various lengths for our candles.
Once the log has been cut into the desired lengths we drilled a hole in one end to hold the tea light candle. Be sure to measure the diameter of the tea light so you use a drill bit that is large enough so the tea light will fit in the hole you are drilling. In the picture below you can see we used a 1 and a half inch wood bit. You can also see why your log should be at least 3 inches in diameter.
We used the ever handy and versatile duct tape to use as a guide for drilling. The tape was put on the drill bit at the depth of the tea light so we would not drill too deep into the log.
Once you have drilled the hole for the tea light your log should look like the picture below.
We did not use any kind of finish on the log such as varnish. It probably is more important to protect the wood if you use a soft lighter colored wood like pine.
That is all there is to this project. Try various lengths for groupings of candles to suit your taste!
