Planning Homemade Holiday Gifts? Get Started With These 2 Classes

If it is your holiday tradition -- or it was last year's vow -- to give homemade Christmas gifts to friends and family, upcoming classes on how to make eco-friendly candles and those nifty, good-smelling soaps can get you started.

Palo Alto Adult School is holding on Nov. 2 an Eco-Friendly Holiday Candle class, where participants will learn how to make candles using natural waxes, like soy and beeswax. 

The class is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Palo Alto High School at 50 Embaracadero Road, Room 106. 

Topics will also include the basics of candle safety, equipment, materials and the different types of candle-making techniques. 

Each student will make and take home a container candle, a rolled beeswax candle, votive candles, plus a handout on how to make candles at home.

The class is $40, plus a $20 materials fee that will be collected in cash at the session. Registration details can be found here.

Meanwhile in Mountain View, Opal'z, a company that teaches DIY soap, perfume and candles, is holding a Cold-Process Soap-Making Class Nov. 2 at 10 a.m. for ages 16 and up.   

Participants will learn to make from scratch natural soap -- the kind you see at specialty stores and farmer’s markets -- using vegetable oils, essential oils and botanicals.

The $50 class is two hours, and crafters will create one cold-process batch of soap that then takes four to six weeks to cure before it can be used, and will leave with sample bars and how-to instructional handouts, according to Opal'z.  

An Advanced Cold-Process Soap Class, planned Nov. 10, teaches color swirling and layering. 

Registration and advance payment is required, and details are here.