apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Way cool.

Nicely done.

A tealight in a bigger thing like a big clemintine or orange might work better.

I'd be nervous about the olive oil, open flame, such a truly lousy (soft, mushy) and potentially leaky container.

Thanks! Now I get it@ I bet it smells lovely, too!

Um, is it just me or was somebody smoking A LOT of pot when they came up with this?!?

Beautiful.

now i know what to do with my gift box of clementines. cool

Maybe it could a predinner "event" to (1) keep the company entertained (2)provide dinner lighting (3) cover up the pot smell.

What is acting as the wick? The white bit of the orange itself?

I'm inspired to try it! Nifty!

I just made one! It burns a surprisingly long time. I might even use them on my dinner table. Since we'll all be sitting there they will be supervised. I put mine on a little plate too.

That is so bad-ass!

Love it! I'm going to try but am going to use a mini cookie cutter to do a flower shape. Thanks!

Ok - I'm back. Two clementines later (I ripped the first one) and it's so cute! Alana in Canada - yes, when you take off the peel one side will have a some extra pith and that's the wick. It has a lovely burnt orange smell. The only problem is getting the bottom half to sit flat. Thanks for the tip!

I agree with Mark Eidsness, I think there must have been some doooobie doooobie doooo involved in thinking up this creation....

With that said..... heh heh... cooooool.....

I'm a little nervous about this one, too...

Could a little voltive candle be place inside instead of the whole olive oil thing?

I tried making it but it didnt work :(

it finally worked when i used a lighter to light the wick. took a couple of seconds.

i also did this with an orange and a little candle--just as cute!

My family was SO impressed by this at Christmas. I think even my nephews thought I was cool for about half a nanosecond. I found the key thing was to make sure the wick is pretty short (otherwise the flame burns too high/large and singes the edge of the cut-out shape).

I made this for my family while I was in NY. It burned a long time. (on a plate) I split it carefully and used the white part the remains on the bottom half, in between the segments, as the wick.
Like Laurita's, ours burned the top segment of the star cutout. It was a fun surprise for everyone. Will do it again. Thanks AT.

Ahhh - can someone tell me how you get the "wick" to light? Do you have to let the orange stem dry out for a while?
Thanks!

I appreciate the time that was taken with the pictures, but they were excessive and it would have been nice if there had been written directions. I'm picking up some oranges tomorrow to try it. Hope it smells as good as I think it will.

So happy to find this ~ went looking for it a couple of weeks ago...couldn't locate it, made a pathetic attempt...I admit it was absolutely lovely before it began smoking. Will try it the correct way now!

Bluesky at Instructables wrote up directions for making these candles (and gives credit to AT!):

http://www.instructables.com/id/Tangerine-Satsuma-Clementine-Candle/

There's some good discussion for improvements; Bluesky even suggests floating a bunch these in a bowl of water! Now that's gotta be awesome. I have a pair of candles still going strong after 1.5 hours.

Aw! Very cool...

...but I'm even more impressed by a teacher making visits to students' homes. If you're THAT kind of teacher, WHY are you doing anything else?!

I don't know about in this case, but in certain countries teachers are required to visit student homes to see them in "their environment" and make observations, and talk to the parents (instead of parents coming to school to talk to the teacher).

does it have to be olive oil, or will cheaper reg vegetable oil do the trick?

so beautiful - i'll definitely try this. but the slideshow needs a lot of work. way too many pictures makes it confusing - what's important and what isn't?

i just tried this, it worked after a few tries, but the "wick" part didn't want to stay lit. It smelled a bit acrid to me, not sure if it was the oil (olive oil) or what, but it wasn't a pleasant smell. looked cook though, briefly.

I'd call it an oil lamp rather than a candle, and no more dangerous than any other open flame. Lovely idea.

Did this several times over the holidays. Each time it worked great and impressed / confused everyone.
I learned:
* keep the oil high and the wick low
* the clementine will absorb a good amount of the oil
* the clementine will shrink over time
* cut the star big or it will catch on fire

So fun!

I tried this over the holidays and LOVED it! Wrote it up over here http://glitterandonions.blogspot.com/2009/01/clementine-votives.html Thanks for the great idea!

I know this is a way, WAY late post but I have to comment: I live in an old building with bad insulation and unsuccessful heat. It's also got an old electric system so it doesn't take much to overload it.

It's cold and rainy tonight and has been for a week and I think my neighbors are using an electric heater because three times now, the power has gone out. I've given up going outside to reset the breaker so I wanted to use candles in case it happens AGAIN. I didn't have any, so I made one of these. It's a nice little warm glow to wait for the light with.