Hiya, Magi:

For whatever reason, the Vanishing Candle (a la P&L's Vanishing Wand) remains one of my faves. The nasty part has always been building the sh*** out of waxed paper -- time consuming, awkward, and I never liked having a silk compressed and unavailable until the vanish. I think I've hit on a neat method of streamlining the whole process.

For my method, you'll need a few feet of PVC pipe -- with the writing dissolved or sanded off -- waxed paper, some tea lights, and a glue stick.

Cut most of the PVC into 1-1/2" segments, reserving a 10" length. Using a hammer and a solid surface, pound several of the resulting small tubes into the tealights, centered on the wicks. Remove the tealight surrounding the tube and discard. If there's a metal tab on the end of the wick, trim it off. You should now have a PVC tube with a wax plug in one end, and a wick sticking out of that plug.

The next step requires a wax-plugged tube, an unmodified tube, and the 10" length of PVC. Unroll the wax paper, and lay down a 1" x 4"-5" strip of glue on the left side, pressing the wax plugged tube into the glue (the wick should be pointing left). Lay the 10" piece of PVC next to this plug, and roll numerous layers of paper around the whole thing, then cut the paper free from the main roll. Glue the resulting flap down on the tube you've just rolled, and remove the 10" form. Glue a hollow PVC tube in the bottom of the wax paper tube.

Before performing, poke a silk (white, of course!)into the sh*** using your wand, and cap the tube with a round, white sticker. Pre-burn the wick for easy lighting on stage.

Sincerely,
Leland Edward Stone

>>>>>>>>Addendum: Just got back from Michael's, where they sell a nice glossy wrapping paper that's more opaque than waxed paper. I'm cutting the 30" wide roll into two halves, yielding 120" of 15" wide material -- probably enough for 20 candles, about $0.17 per sh***.