Beehive candle mold

A beehive candle 85 mm tall and 76 mm across, the classic skep shape: coiled straw bands stacked into a dome, an arched entrance at the foot and a little bee sitting on the front above the door.

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The mold is exactly what our two-part candle mold generator builds for it: two rigid halves with rubber-band grooves, pry pockets and a pour funnel on top. The hive is round, so a seam through its middle releases it cleanly, and the door and the bee face out of the front half. The tool's own seam check finds nothing stuck, and you need no silicone.

Made for beeswax: pour it in pure beeswax and the hive smells of honey before you light it. The zip carries both halves, the beehive master as its own STL, the tool's own print-settings sheet and a recipe file for the generator.

Shown as a 3D render of the printed mold halves pulled apart around the candle they cast, not a photo.

What you need

• About 216 g of pillar wax: the cavity holds 240 ml
• A tabbed, primed wick for a 70 mm beeswax candle, about 110 mm long
• Rubber bands or clamps, and a clip or wick bar across the funnel

How to cast it

1. Print both halves as exported. Clamp-strength settings: 4 walls, 40% gyroid infill, no supports.
2. Drop a tabbed wick into one half so the tab sits on the cavity floor, close the halves and band them along the whole seam.
3. Clip the wick centred across the pour funnel and pour at 65 to 75 C.
4. Once the first pour is firm but still warm, top up the funnel. Wax shrinks, and the second pour fills the dip.
5. Cool fully, open the halves at the pry pockets and trim the wick. Beeswax shrinks more than paraffin, so a second top-up is normal.