An alternative to adding color might be to leave the candle a natural color and blend dried herbs or flowers, or beads or trinkets into the candle wax in such a way that they are visible, through the wax, at the sides of the candles, for interest.

Cathleen- I made my first candles last week. I purchased 6" wicks on Amazon that had a litle metal base on them and I hot glued those into a teacup. I melted the old candles down in an old mr. coffee carafe, which I placed in a pan of water and simmered until the wax melted. I had a couple pieces of a pink and purple candle (someone told me you can use small pieces of crayon?) and melted those in for color. When the wax reached the right temp, I added a half ounce of scent - about $2.79 a for 2-ounce bottle - mail order. Stir well and pour into the teacup. When it cools, there will be a big dent in the center, so save a little wax to reheat and add to fill the hole. I ended up making about a dozen candles in vintage teacups and saucers for sale in a craft boutique. Check online for specific directions and sources. Good luck. -Sprout

"i cleft grafted callery pear tree cuttings onto OHxF333 rootstock yesterday. " Thats something I never thought I'd hear on a fruit forum. lol. Care to explain why you would take a perfectly productive pear rootstock and graft a callery pear to it? I suspect a zip tie would provide very tight support to the graft but would definitely need to be clipped off after the graft calluses over. They have no elasticity and would girdle the wood certainly. You could take electrical tape and wind it on backward very tightly. Foil is not good enough. You will need to do something to protect the wood from drying out and to keep the cleft from getting water in it. There are a lot better options than candle wax. Buy some pruning sealer or even buy a wax toilet flange gasket to seal the exposed wood on the graft.

I'd be really worried heating it would ruin the red portion of the holder??? Suggestion? Does it move at all if you gently put a tip of a knife inbetween the candle and holder? Believe it or not, most all pop out of my holders that way. I guess, If I heated it, I'd try to hold the bowl part over an open flame (obviously it can handle that as it's meant to hold one) a bit, until it moved? Maybe.