(no subject)

[elessa]

in the livingroom i have beautiful wall sconce made of wrought iron with curves that remind me of vines. it holds five candles.

tonight was lights out at 8:00 p.m. for "earth hour".

i decided to participate by turning off lights. i like the glow of candles so i lit a few, including three on the sconce. i have never burned candles on the sconce before.

an hour goes by. i step into the livingroom to be greeted with a slight disaster. it would seem that the design of the sconce is flawed. wax dripped from the top candle directly onto the one below to an explosive effect.

covered with wax splashes are the wall, carpet, footlocker and armchair back, back cushion, seat cushion, and arm, as well as the large packing boxes i had folded and am storing behind the chair and footlocker on their sides.

i spent half an hour with papertowels, foil and an iron. once daylight comes i can further assess the damage beyond the grease marks on the wall, stiff carpet fibers, and dark marks on the armchair fabric.

i wish i had walked into the room a few minutes sooner.

ah well. at least there wasn't a fire.

Comments

[muzadi.livejournal.com]

Had a similar issue, but in the last big blackout up here. My iron-wrought sconces were less impressive functionally than in appearance, apparently.

[elessa.livejournal.com]

assessing the damages this morning i was soaking the topmost cradle on the sconce in boiling water in order to pry off the melted candle. of the five cradles, the topmost is directly above the bottom cradle. the others are offset. even with fifteen inches between them the heat cone melted the upper candle resulting in what must have been a waxfall into the lower one. wax hitting flame caused a wax explosion. the upper candle was pretty much only a pool of wax in the cradle. the lower candle was half melted with the sputters of wax reaching above and below it.

the third candle which was on the other side of the sconce was barely melted at all. which is how it should have been considering these were thirty hour votives.

whomever designed the sconce didn't think through functionality.

[donnaricci.livejournal.com]

paper bags... brown paper bags. Tear them up and put that over them and then iron. It will soak up the wax

[elessa.livejournal.com]

i used paper towels with foil and an iron to soak up the wax last night. problem is where the wax was on the wall, it being painted with a cheapass paint, there is now two dessert plate size grease stains where the wax was.

not to mention the scorch mark from the uppermost candle blackening the wall.

[elessa.livejournal.com]

ack! sums it up pretty well.