The Sea Cow Diaries: Candle Holder Inspiration!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Candle Holder Inspiration!

Hi everyone!

In blacksmithing, the new assignment is to make a candle holder. These holders are based loosely on this poem:

A Base,
A Handle,
And a place for the Candle.

My teacher explained this in a really cool story--and I really need to write all of these awesome blacksmithing stories down!--but I'll share it with you all. Back during the colonial times in the US, courting was still the main way to meet a guy and marry him. The daughter would go to her father and request time with a certain male, and the father would give her a specialized candle holder with a candle in it. The two would meet and spend time together, but as soon as the candle melted down to a certain point, the meeting would have to end and the girl would go back. It's been said to me that if the father liked the male, he would place a cork high into the candle holder. If the father disliked the male, he'd place the cork low.

Now, who's confused? Here's a visual, thanks to appleseedprimatives.com!

I did edit it, but there's a visual that's hard to beat! Thanks, guys!(:

For my assignment, though, I needed something just a bit different. We can't break our piece of metal apart (1/4, 4ft rod), but we can shape it however we'd like. The teacher won't help us that much, which is understandable--it's time that we came out of our shells! Even so, research never hurt!(;

I started Googling some candle holders that are obviously blacksmithed. I can't have anything too difficult--my chandelier is still needing some TLC ASAP--but I would like to have something that is still pretty. Maybe not overly simplistic, but also not overly difficult. It's an easy assignment, but for people like me who'd prefer to have a box and sleep in it, it's difficult. With some helpful pictures, though, I think I might just have an idea!

Some of my favourites: