Well, actually, i was not, but am getting there. I was feeling sort of sad that Hanukah had just crept up on me, and we were not doing anything special other then lighting candles, but I was going through articles in googlereader, and came across an article on Apartment Therapy for clementine candles. This may not be the sort of thing that puts you in the holiday spirit, but it perked me up thanks to a conversation at dinner on Friday night about what you could use to build your own oil menorah. Beets, potatoes, turnips, and of course CLEMENTINES! were suggested. I decided to try it out, and hopefully use a clementine menorah for next Friday, when the candles need to burn a bit longer than the standard boxed candles typically burn.
My first attempt was very pretty, but the edges of the star shape started to burn. I tried cutting the wick down to create a smaller flame and propping it up so that the hole was more directly over the flame. I even tried a second clementine with a smaller wick, but eventually that ended up being burnt too.
A couple of people wrote comments about this problem, but none gave a good solution, and given that you need to leave the candles (or oil as in this case) to burn until it burns itself out this didn't seem like a very safe way of lighting the 6 candles I wanted for next Friday night.
In the end I think I will just use the bottom half of the clementine. It is pretty and holds the oil well. I will do a test run tonight when I only need one candle.
The results are pictured about with the abandoned attempts in the background. It is still pretty, will do quite nicely, and has a nice cheery orange glow, just the sort of thing you need to get into the holiday mood...
Happy Hanukkah to all who will begin celebrating tonight!
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1 comment:
Woah! I love this idea. how did first night lighting go? Maybe you could still have the magen david cutout and have it not burn if you made it bigger? I was thinking last night that I miss lighting candles with Mr. SD. Send him my love.
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