Hanging tea lights or votive candles for an event or just to decorate your patio is a beautiful way to softly light and decorate an area. These methods will produce some lovely hanging candle holders with a little bit of time investment. As with all hanging candles, be sure they do not hang from flammable objects and that they are secure.
Glass
This method requires plenty of craft or utility wire, and some glass candle holders or old jars. These jars or holders can be colored or clear, large or small, and whatever shape you like best. Cut a length of wire based on the size of your holder. For large or medium holders 21 inches of wire is enough, while 18 inches of wire will hang a small holder. Fold the length of wire in half, pinching it tightly. Bend the folded end into a hook shape. A few inches below the hook, twist the two pieces of wire around each other about three times, to make a clothes-hanger-like "neck."
About four inches down from the twisted neck section, bend each untwisted part of the wire by 90 degrees. These go on either side of your glass holder, directly across from each other. Then bend each end of loose wire (past the 90-degree angles) into a half-circle, shaping it around the jar to get the size you need to hold the votive securely. Make a little hook on each end of these half-circles, and hook each end to the 90-degree bend on the other wire. Close the hooks tightly with pliers into loops, so they stay put.
Metal
Begin this project the same way as the glass holders, but cut a longer piece of wire. The long wire piece should be two feet in length for small hanging holders and three feet or more for larger ones. Bend the wire in half and make a hook at the middle, twisting to create a "neck" for the hanger a few inches down. Again, bend each loose end of the wire 90 degrees after another few inches below the twist.
Begin shaping the wire into a deep coil, starting with one side, then doing the same with the other side. It may be helpful to find a round glass or jar to model the coil on. Make small hooks at the end of each wire coil, and hook them together in the same fashion as above. This leaves an open-bottomed spiral for the body of the holder.
Cut several separate short lengths of wire to make a base for the holder. They should vary from two inches to six inches; make a pair of each length. Make hooks on each end of each short piece, and hook these pieces from side to side on the bottom circle. These pieces should be parallel to each other with the largest piece in the middle and the smallest at the sides.
Use the left over six-inch piece to form a votive circle to hold candles in place. To do this, bend the wire with pliers around a votive candle, and bend the remainder of the wire downward to hook onto the holder's bottom. Finally, set either a metal craft circle or a folded piece of aluminum foil inside to keep the candles from dripping through the wire.
Add-Ons
To add more color, embellishment, or style, use the same tools plus some cute accents. Jingle bells, braided ribbons, buttons, glass beads, beach glass, driftwood, or pretty stones all can add character and style to your hanging candle holders. Either add on new pieces of wire, or leave extra wire hanging off the ends of your holder to make spirals, whether beaded or plain. Just wrap the extra wire around a pencil, chopstick, or other small round object to form it into a curlicue. String beads on as you go, or make random kinks to hold beads on the wire. You can also make little wire wrappings to hold wood, stones and other objects without holes in them; then just twist these onto the holder anywhere you like. Feel free to keep it simple by just adding two matching beads or charms on above the holder in the beginning of the process.
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