Everybody knows playing with Black Flame Candles leads to nothing but trouble, especially if you’re a virgin, it’s the 31st of October, there’s a full moon out, and you find yourself smack dab in the middle of Salem, Massachusets in the Sanderson Museum of Witchcraft with a spellbook open in front of you and the phrase ‘Solaten omnes saculorem tuba nriirum est‘ rolling off your lips.
Made from the fat of a hanged man, the Black Flame Candle has the power to raise the spirits of the dead for as long as the flame remained lit – which, for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie (really, is there anyone here who hasn’t seen it yet???) is just one short night.
As the name implies, the candle, when lit, burns with a black flame, gives off NO light and is full of dark magic.
But what if you’re not a virgin (no judgment), it’s not Halloween, it’s not a full moon, you’re not in Salem and you’re not chanting anything except “Damn, it’s dark in here…sure wish I had some light…”?
Well, in that case, this DIY project is perfect for you!
Today we’ll be making an electric version of the famous Black Flame Candle from Hocus Pocus and I promise, the only thing this candle will raise when lit is the amount of light in the room.
And as always, before we get too far into this adventure, yes, this post contains affiliate links. To read my full disclosure policy, please go here.
SUPPLIES
For this project you will need:
- Electric wax candle (I used this one from Amazon.com)
- Tissue paper
- Regular white printer paper
- Tape
- Iron
- Access to a printer
- Candle graphic
- Glue stick
- Hairdryer or heat gun
- Glue stick
- Scissors or an Exacto knife
- Wax candle in the same color as your electric candle
- Lighter or matches
- Gold paint
- Black paint
- Small paint brush
Start by first preparing your graphic. For this project I went online and tried to find the best possible photos I could of the actual black flame candle in the movie. Unfortunately, there aren’t a ton of pictures that show the whole candle, but I did what I could with what I found.
Hmm, it’s cream colored with some brown squiggles. Yeah, I got this.
Because I couldn’t see the entire candle, I decided to take a bit of artistic license with the project and come up with my own designs. I pulled a bunch of runes and appropriately magical looking characters up online and photoshopped them along with some old Salem Witch Trial woodcuts into a single image sized to fit my candle.
You can download the finished file here or make your own. If you decide to use my file, just know that it is already scaled to fit the 6″ tall 3″ diameter pillar candles described above. Make sure your printer is set to landscape, the image is centered and you have turned OFF the “scale media to fit” option.
Once you’re happy with your graphic, it’s time to print it out on your tissue paper. Because tissue paper is so thin, you can’t just run it through your printer without it scrunching up and really mucking the insides of your printer. In order to be able to print on it, you’ll have to first cut out a piece about 1/2″ (I speak from a place of experience…trust me on this) smaller on all sides than your printer paper.
If you have any large creases or folds in your tissue paper, gently run a warm iron (not hot!) over it to flatten them out. The smoother your tissue paper is, the easier it will be to print.
Once you’ve flattened your paper out, lay it down on top of your printer paper and tape around all the edges.
Depending on how competent you are as a taping master, you may have to run the iron over your paper again (I strongly suggest a second pass with the iron). Once that’s done, go ahead and carefully run the whole thing through the printer as you would a normal piece of paper.
When it comes out of the printer, give it a moment or two to dry. Now is a good time to check to make sure it’s the right size for your candle as well.
Speaking of my candle, let’s take a quick break here and I’ll tell you all about the one I picked and why. First off, it’s electric, which means I’m not going to accidentally burn down my house if I forget to turn it off.
Secondly, it comes with a remote and as we all know, sloth is my all-time favorite sin which means my fat ass can stay on the couch and I can just punch a button to make this thing come on. Woohoo!
Third, it flickers and the little candle flame wiggles and I’ll be honest, this thing looks really…real! I have had it on my desk at work and have had other people come up and ask me how I’ve managed to get our boss to let me have a real candle (they’re a big no-no in our office.) When I show them it’s not real, they’re pretty blown away by how good it looks!
Okay, now that I’m done waxing poetic over my candle (groaaaannnnn! I’m here all week – tip your waitress!) let’s get back to our DIY.
After the graphic you just printed has had a chance to dry, use your scissors to cut around your design as close to the edge of the printing as possible (I found it’s much easier to cut out if you leave it taped to your printer paper. The thicker printer paper gives the tissue paper stability as you’re turning sharp corners or cutting details.)
To give my candle the appearance of being extra old, I wadded up my tissue paper and then smoothed it out before moving onto the next step. This is entirely optional.
Use your glue stick to dab on a few dabs of glue on the back of your design and gently press it onto your candle. You don’t need to coat the whole piece, this is just to hold it in place for the next step.
Hold your hairdryer or your heat gun a few inches away from your candle and turn it onto the highest setting. Using a sweeping motion, go over your image with the hot air. As it melts, the wax will seep into the tissue paper and adhere it to the candle. You’ll be able to watch the tissue paper literally disappear like magic as the wax turns it translucent.
Be careful as you’re melting your wax that you don’t hold the heat in one spot too long. The idea is to melt the wax just enough that it is absorbed in the tissue paper. Too long and you run the risk of melting the side of your candle off. This is especially true if you’re using a heat gun. Too long and you’ll end up with a melted puddle of waxy tissue paper.
Do this step right and you should be left with a candle that looks as though the printed image is a natural part of the wax!
Depending on the type of candle you use, you may or may not have a dip where it’s been ‘lit’ before. As mine did have this dip, I carefully trimmed off the excess tissue paper where it extended up over the edge as flush to the wax as possible using my Exacto knife.
To create the drips down the side of the candle, either light your spare candle or use your hairdryer (or heat gun) to heat up the wax and hold it over your tissue paper coated candle and let it drip down the sides. This is the artistic part! Feel free to add as many or as few drips as you want.
To create the ‘Black Flame,’ carefully paint the faux flame of your candle first with the gold paint, making sure you cover the entire flame. Once it’s dry, paint just the center with black, feathering out the edges so it looks like the image in the film.
Oh sure, it looks cool now but wait until you see it in the dark!!!
Crinkling up my tissue paper left it wrinlked and gave the candle an aged look.
And here is what it looks like illuminated and flickering!
Want your own Black Flame Candle but don’t have the time/inclination to make it yourself? I’ve got you covered! I’ve put them up in my Etsy shop where you can purchase one and let me do the hard work for you!
If you’re looking for more graphics for different styles of candles, I did another set of spooky candles in an earlier post here.
And for more fun dark arts and crafts projects that flicker and glow, how about our Easy recycled bat lantern?
Happy haunting!
Nice!
No idea if you’ve seen it already – it would be an utter faff to replicate in a simple candle, but black fire is an actual thing. Basically lots of physics and chemistry involved – and a low pressure sodium lamp off eBay.
Oh my unholy heart be still! I don’t know what’s more awesome…learning about the real black flame or watching her literally set a pickle on fire to show how sodium glows yellow. What an awesome video! I’m a science junkie and this is right up my alley. Not sure I’d be able to pull the actual black flame off and get it to a point where I could sell them on Etsy without incurring a lawsuit or two for someone setting themselves on fire, but I definitely feel smarter now having watched that. Thank you so much for sharing.
Now, I’m gonna go find some pickles. I have some experimenting to do.
🙂
I absolutely love this. Did a dry run using a real candle first as I was certain I’d over melt the candle and surprise I did. But since it was a cheap solid candle it looks aged and imperfect which is actually pretty great. I’ll have to be more careful with the electric candle but I’m very happy with the results of the test. Thanks for providing the instructions and design that you used / created. It is still absolutely amazing that Disney doesn’t sell these at the spirit Halloween shops. They have lots of thinks that say they lit the black flame candle but no good representation of the candle. I can’t be the only one that would have bought it prior to finding your page.
I appreciate your comments! I actually do have some that I made for sale on my etsy page. You can find them at http://www.etsy.com/shop/shopthedead
Happy haunting!