Thread: Candle Tray Advice?

Hey all,
I found an adorable small metal tray at a charity shop and I've decided I'd like to work on a balancing dance for an upcoming show. I have a small amount of experience with sword but wondered if anyone had any advice as to what type of candle holders to use, how to attach them (if at all) head wrap or not, etc.......
I appreciate the help!

Are you balancing live fire or led candles? For led candles, I don't bother fun tacking anything to the tray. Though they look more real inside a glass container. And that I would funtack.

I've got brass candle sticks, and they have felt on the bottom, so I don't need to really attach them to the tray. But fun tack/poster putty is they way to go if needed.

I also recommend covering the bottom of the tray with surf board "sticky" wax. Trays are flat. Our heads are not. ,m::

My tray balances easily with no head scarf IF I am wearing my wig - it seems to give just enough cushion to my pointy little head, LOL.

I also use the poster putty stuff, the LED candles, and glass candleholders. I am looking for a brass coffee/teapot to put in the center to give the tray some height. I often put flowers on the tray amongst the candles too.

Good luck!

Height makes things harder to balance, as the center of gravity moves up or something like that! :)

When I do live flame, I arrange 6-8 tealights in a circle at the outer edge of the tray, and then do a ring of 4 more substantial candles (about 3 inches tall) closer to the center and one slightly taller on in the middle. This works well for keeping my tray balanced, but I also use a solid brass tray that has a 24" diameter, so it's harder to unbalance than a smaller tray. Also, for my smaller trays I would hot glue a piece of velvet or felt to the bottom to help it stick better to my head. I took a hammer to my big tray and made a little divot that allows it to really sit on my head.

I stick each of the candles on FIRMLY with a lot of melted candle wax. The last thing I need is stuff shifting and throwing my balance off.

I would be interested in hearing from people who balance tall skinny candles - tapers? - how do you get them to stay upright and in place?

After I hennaed my (thin and straight) hair, it has become close to impossible to balance things on my bare head - it was OK before. I use head wraps of some sort, a simple, color-matched cotton scarf works well for me. But, make sure that the head cover is secure, it is no fun when the whole installation starts moving around ;-)

I have a 12" tray. I lightly hammered the bottom in the center to give myself a balancing point. I use LED lights in glass votive holders. I am trying to find plastic coloured votive holders. Possibly after Christmas.

I do stick them down with double sided tape. I find this is enough to keep them in place without adding bulk / making them look odd.

As for levels, I try to use some thing in the center to lift the candle there up. generally an old fashioned champagne glass works!

{{{HUGS}}}

Thanks everyone, this has given me a good starting point. I've gotten clearance to use real flame but we'll see how my confidence is ;)

oh, crap. THat's what wrong with me.

I henna/indigo-ed my hair last weekend, bye bye gray. Practicing with sword the last 2 days, and it just does not want to stay as well as it usually does. Guess I need wax on the sword too now.

Originally Posted by steffib

After I hennaed my (thin and straight) hair, it has become close to impossible to balance things on my bare head - it was OK before. I use head wraps of some sort, a simple, color-matched cotton scarf works well for me. But, make sure that the head cover is secure, it is no fun when the whole installation starts moving around ;-)

Is it just us, we don't stick our candles to the tray when performing
We balance the lot, tray and candles etc, the only aid we use is a bit of hairspray. What happens if you place the tray on the floor and only want to balance the candles?

You know what one of my teachers told me, use shabaz candles in the tray or fun tac led ones. I also have a bit of soft side sticky velcro on the bottom of my tray and sprtiz a bit of hairspray top of my head. It works. I know the velcro is cheating but I use a small enough piece so I know center of balance when placing the candles on the tray

Alrana

I find the heavier the tray (within reason of course) the easier it is to balance. You can sometimes find real silver trays at auction or garage sales especially if the stuff is older like from the 50's and 60's when it was the thing to have a silver tea service.

This is more performance and common sense oriented.

You might want to be extremely careful of the height of the candles themselves in the tray (use shorter ones). The reason behind this is, we're in the season when there are a lot of low hanging decorations (for Christmas or New Year's celebrations) and if you don't know about them, you might start a fire where you didn't intend to (the decorations instead of just your candles are burning!!!).

See what you can do (or ask!!) about checking the place you're doing the candle tray to see what complications you might run into.