As if I don’t collect enough things two items I can never say no to when I see them staring back at me from the thrift store shelves are cute cocktail glasses and kitschy nudity. When the two are combined like in the case of these vintage Playboy glasses my heart goes pitter patter and I make a mad dash to the check out. I liked the irony that as I checked out I realized I was buying glasses with naked ladies and baby clothes, but I digress. These glasses are especially fun because they are the type that when a hot or cold liquid is poured in the glass their clothing disappears! Instead of adding the glasses to my never ending collection of cocktail glasses that I never use I thought I would make them into a set of Come-Hither Candles. Want to try your hand at a set? Well grab some kitschy cocktail glasses, yours don’t have to have naked ladies, and play along with these easy to follow instructions.
More often than not when I score some nudie glasses or other fun goodies I set them up on a shelf for people to admire and most times gather dust. With this latest purchase ($5 for all 4 glasses – naughty nurse, raunchy in the rain, coy cutie and lewd librarian as I’ve named them) I decided to take a more utilitarian route and make the glasses functional. Sadly these glasses are not great to drink from because they are not dishwasher safe and you have to be careful the decals do not come off after too many washings. I had to learn the hard way.
First gather your supplies…
Blocks of Wax
Glasses
Wicks with metal tabs
Pens, swizzle sticks, paint brushes
Scent
Melt pot
Cooking pot to act as a double boiler
Stove
Scissors
Fill your cooking pot with a few inches of water and bring to a boil. In the center of the boiling water you should have your candle melting pot filled with a couple of blocks of wax. As the water boils it will heat and melt your wax to make it liquid and easy to pour. Dip the metal tab of your wick into the heated wax and attach to the center bottom of your candle.
Using items you have lying around like pens or swizzle sticks from the bar wrap the excess top part of the wick around something and lay it across the top of your glass. This will help keep your wick straight and centered.
While your wax is in a liquid state add the fragrance of your choice, I opted for vanilla but the craft store has a bazillion scents. Once your molten wax is scented using your melting pot pour the wax into the glasses. Be careful not to splash the wax and fill about 3 inches from the top of the glass. Allow to cool and harden completely which is about 6 hours.
Once the wax has cooled and hardened you might notice a dip in your wax right around the wick. No worries, it happens to the best of us. Heat up one block of wax in your make shift Dutch oven and gently fill in the valley and thinly cover the top of your candle.
Next use scissors to trim your wick to the desired length which is about to the top of the glass.
All that’s left to do is spark these babies up to set any mood, give them away as gifts this holiday season or do what I am doing and take them to sell at your local craft bazaar. 
Not to sounds like the Schooner Tuna ad from Mr. Mom, but times are tough and there is some belt tightening going on this holiday season. I will be posting several how-to projects that would make perfect holiday gifts over the next few weeks. Most are a double whammy and also incorporate in some form of up-cycling like these glasses. Keep an eye peeled and in the meantime I’d love to know if you make your own version of these candles and what other handmade lovelies you are thinking about whipping up as holiday gifts this year.
This is such a great project.
Perfect gift, simple, utilitarian, kinky.
kinky, I like that better than Come-hither I’m totally changing the name of this post. Glad you like 🙂
What a great kinky gift!!!
Are you going to sell at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar?
Blue Genie is the exact place I will be selling them. We’ll see if anyone likes Kinky Candles besides us, maybe Etsy if they don’t sell there. The nice thing about them is if they don’t sell I would totally put them around my house.
I will totally buy them at Blue Genie! (This is the problem I had last year with selling stuff at Blue Genie…everytime I’d go to restock, I’d buy something!)
I’m so happy I could contribute the Kink!
And I’m feeling like a supergenius because I just figured out how to put your banner on my blog.
I have passed up glasses like this several times because I’ve thought “what will I do with them?” and now I know!
I would love to go to the Blue Genie show. Our friend founded Blue Genie studios and I am dying to get over there and see all their fantastic sculptures. It’s on the To Do list for 2009! Austin, here we come!
Who’s your friend at Blue Genie? I know all the dudes pretty dang well, esp Kevin.
i keep wax from candles that don’t burn correctly. this would be the perfect way to use that up!!
Wow, the things you make!
What a great idea! I also have a substantial stash of vintage glassware and had cut myself off from buying. You’ve just helped me create a whole new product line for my upcoming booth at Atomic Holiday Bazaar, one that supports my addiction to vintage cocktail glasses. Thanks, as always, for the clever inspiration! You never cease to amaze me.
Kim I hope they sell like hot cakes for you. A lot of the things I sell (esp the Crafty Curios) are just so I can rationalize the shopping and spending 🙂
These are awesome! What a great project.
What a great idea for Christmas gifts especially with everyone tightening their belts financially
yay! I love these and I’m totally giving them as gifts this year. Thanks for the tutorial!
I’m doing something similar but not with kinky lady glasses. I have the shells of three coffee candles that I’m going to melt down and make candles with some funky empty jelly jars I saved when my husband finished the last (most) of the jelly.
You said that you bought baby clothes and naked lady glasses on the same thrifting trip. That got me to wondering, does that mean that naked
I hope they are selling well….