A makeshift double-boiler-- the can is sitting on a smaller can to help the wax avoid direct heat.
We all went down to the creek in the freezing wind and collected sticks for the drying rack. Our sacrifice in the name of science.
She received a nice lot of encouragement from the organizers and judges of the little homeschool fair she has been participating in since 3rd grade. They helped her decide to go on to the regional fair and also gave her tips on how to continue her experiments. This is going to require quite a bit of extra work from her in the coming weeks-- and goes beyond Mama's experience, too! I am simply the form-filler-outer and sounding board at this point.
Thankfully, one of the judges is a chemist, and was able to point Triss in a relevant direction toward discovering what makes a candle burn quickly. The whole candlemaking endeavor was her effort to craft and burn candles that were identical except for wick size-- thus eliminating all variables but one. And for you science buffs, wick size does effect the burn rate, but it is not the only thing. So she is back to the drawing board, with helpful hints from Mr. Chemist.
