Candle mould - Ded Moroz, Father Frost

01 · POUR AT 70-75 °C, NOT 65

The correction that runs through the whole range

Beeswax melts between 62 and 65 °C and is poured at around 70-75. At 65 it arrives already setting, and the detail is lost exactly where people look: the folds of the coat and the beard.

Above 85 °C the wax darkens, so the window is narrow and worth measuring. The rest of the supplier's procedure is right: clean mould, centred wick, full cooling without moving it and unmoulding without hurry. The mould has a slit: before pouring, close it with rubber bands so the wax does not escape through the join.

02 · SIX FIGURES PER KILO

And here is the sum that matters

At 160 g a piece you get a little over six figures per kilo of wax: with our 1 kg block, about €2.38 of wax per candle. With your own cappings wax, the cost is whatever you put on it.

The comparison inside the range says something useful: this mould costs more than the Easter egg one and gives a figure of half the wax. What you pay for here is not size, it is detail — folds, cap and beard are surface the mould has to reproduce and release without dragging.

03 · A 3x11 WICK AND SIXTEEN CM

Which is a tall figure

The supplier recommends a 3x11 flat wick. On a tall candle the wick has to hold the flame from top to bottom: if it is short of section, it opens a narrow well, drowns and leaves the figure unburnt on the outside.

The wick is separate, and our range has flat-braid wick on the roll and centring devices to hold it straight while it cools.

04 · IT PAYS BACK IN WAX, NOT MOULD

Worth being clear about before buying

The mould is a cost that spreads: a hundred pours put it under €0.75 a figure, and the silicone stands many more. The wax, by contrast, is spent whole on every piece.

So the useful question is not what the mould costs, but how much cappings wax you have sitting idle. That is where this mould gives the money back: turning a by-product of the harvest into a Christmas article with a margin.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

Pour at 70-75 °C, and reckon on six figures per kilo.