OlyEric

I have made the decision to give up on my local shop for now. Not sure if I started going there at a bad time, but I have asked 3 times to order me cases of wax, and every time I check in, it has not been ordered. Dunno if there is transition or too busy or ???? I am out of wax and storms are coming through and I don't even have enough tealights or votives made to make it through a weekend without power. Anyway, I hate to complain, I would rather create! So, I need to find another distributor of Cal Wax Pillar blend #5 or a recommendation on a readily available blended wax that has the same properties of the #5. I know I will need to start over with my wick testing, etc...but I would rather do that than not know when I will have wax to work with. I prefer to use square braid and have had awesome success with it in the #5. A dependable supplier is more important to me than the time it takes to learn a new wax and wick system. West Coast preferred to save on shipping costs to Olympia, WA. Reputable, consistent, friendly, and lots of options....that is what I am looking for in a new supplier....shoot me your recommendations please!

For Christmas my fiance' wanted me to help her pour her first candle. She has been watching me play the last couple weeks having fun making these. (Votives are only in the tealight holders for the pic) I set her up with a mold and managed the wax temp and the specifics for her and let her mix color, pour, and make her vision. We did the second pour after dinner and setup the cooling box for overnight. Christmas morning she pulled her candle mold from the cooling box while I made biscuits and gravy. She made me close my eyes as she pulled it from the mold. She said that this was her best Christmas ever and that me sharing how to do this was the best present she ever received. Thank you and Merry Christmas to this awesome community.

Thanks a ton Scented! It's consuming pretty well and is doing much better than I had expected. I expect it to blow or drown, but since it's my first, I am happy with the smiles it has generated and the lessons it taught.

My first two pillars. I thought I would share how these turned out. This is my first pillar experience with nothing more than the knowledge I have picked up on these boards. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. Feedback is a gift Vitals below the pics if interested. I was really experimenting with how different temps affect the surface and was very pleasantly surprised by the results. I'm going to build a photobox in the future so I can better capture surface textures when I share. Both candles: 1 lb CalWax #5 1 dye block 1 tsp Poly AC no fragrance 2/0 cotton square braid The purple I let the presto get it to 200 and maintained in the pour pot at 185, added the dye and Poly, poured @ 180. The sea foam I held at 175, added dye and Poly at 170, and poured at 165. Both air cooled on the counter and I poked around in them about the 25 min mark and let them finish cooling in the oven. 2nd pour on both were 10 over the initial pour. The lit pic is the 3rd 3-4 hour burn on this pillar. It lives in my living room in my small apartment. It was apparent after the first burn that my surface was not level. Made adjustment for the next two burns. I am fairly pleased at how it burns and my fiance's reaction made me smile. I was thinking I want to see how a number 1SB burns so I poured a couple yesterday at a bit lower temps. I just finished the second pour on those before sitting down to geek out for a bit. If they turn out, I will share more pics.

Chefmom, that is exactly the type feedback I was looking for....I appreciate your input! Can't wait to see more from others

I have been pouring without FO as I am new and want the fewest variables as I learn and get better at producing small pillars and votives. I live in a state where Marijuana is legal and have a couple of questions that I have had and that some friends have had....Especially Colorado friends.... What Candle FO's are good for masking or reducing smoke odors from herb? I can see this type of FO becoming popular as the regulations about the "smell" of burning marijuana are starting to come out quickly. Second question is for those of you who have worked with the Nag Champa FO's (I know there are a lot of you who HATE that smell) Who has the best, strongest and truest to life, Nag Champa FO that will work in Palm? This one was asked by a friend that regularly burns candles and incense all the time. I also am curious about this personally. If any of you know what the "Super Hit" incense FO is that is often found as a sample in the Nag Champa incense boxes, I would be interested in that as well. Happy Day to you!

Yeah, Pam.... I decided to wick up a 3" round mold and pour it with a couple votives....I poured way too hot and got a bad sink hole even with relief holes. Going to remelt this afternoon and try to pour at 160 instead of 180 and see if I can get my first pillar this week. Hope everybody had a great long weekend!

First - I like to write about positive, happy things. I apologize that my first pour posting will not be filled with formulas and notes (which I did take) but more with sharing some emotions with some that may "get" me. I am not yet allowed to post in the OT yet, but please mods, move if this is inappropriate for this topic area. I also see feedback as a gift. I will stick to formula and questions if that is more appropriate if requested. After the morning cup, I headed down to the garage to melt some wax. Swept up, set up, and looked at 3 daunting boxes of wax...Decided to just start with the one with the smallest amount in it, pillar blend #5. I heated up a pound of it while cleaning out the pour pot. Set down a 6 votive mold, a hex votive, and 10 tealights, shot the votives with Pam, checked my presto and oh wow, 220 on the thermo. Adjusted temp, did the checklist....Molds, wick pins, tealight wick tabs, color block...ok, let's do this.... Stirred, checked temps, poured, set tea light wicks, watched....... While I watched the wax set up, I glanced at my wall clock and noticed the temp was 52 in the garage....Guess we will truly see how much I need to adjust my environment.... I cleaned up, unplugged, organized, and watched.... I grabbed two of the tea lights that looked nice and close to set up and brought them up for my fiance' to examine. The smile on her face said it all and I set to burn one....very nice.... A couple hours later after helping do chores, I went down and turned over my octo-votive and it popped right out. A little push and pull on the pin and it was free. Slapped a tabbed wick in and set in a holder. Pulled one of the 6 standards from the mold and pulled the pin and quickly wicked.... Up they came to a big "oooohhh and ahhh" so needless to say, I had a big smile on my face. Long road ahead, but the first step was a very fun, beautiful one that brought a smile to a couple's face. I will need to build a photo box for future, but here is my first pour results.

I was going to do my first melt and pour this afternoon, but this storm, rain, and cold, has me holding off from trying. I will be pouring in my little garage, and the winds are just too bad today. I already dread figuring out "proper cooling" techniques in my garage as a 70 degree garage is a very rare thing up here. I think this week my average garage temp peaked at 56. So instead, I have been doing what IT people do and crunching data and figuring out color recipes I want to try, etc... Ok, so maybe a little SimCity5 to keep my creative juices flowing.... Not very fulfilling in itself, but keeps the mind moving.

Thanks for all the perspective And....a question: I have been searching and cannot formulate the proper search terms to find where anybody is getting the jumbo tealight molds and clear cups. I don't want to post a direct link, but what I want is to reproduce similar to the 6 hour Jumbo Tealights (searched on Amazon) Product Dimensions: 2.4 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches ; 1.6 ounces. I have also seen the dimensions listed as 2.5" diameter, 3/4" high....World Market or Ikea I believe. Since I do not have a seller's permit (yet), I cannot purchase directly from wholesalers, so any help in acquiring would be greatly appreciated. Have an awesome day!

After another day thinking and reading lots of the Archive here, I can see progression from novice chandler to more experienced and how the tea light, beautiful as it can be as a medium for creative expression, fails to compare to the number of ways to express through larger medium such as jars, pillars, 'canes, and votives. Node11 - Exactly the perspective I am taking... I have managed to convince myself that the fish I catch from my kayak are "less expensive" and always better then market bought; I'm sure I can do the same for candles since we burn so many in our little apartment.

One of my favorite things is lighting up my wall sconces with tea lights, turning off all the apartment lights, and watching a good movie or just relaxing watching the flickering shadows... Tea lights to me are a staple and I have had years of burning bad ones that soot and smoke up my walls and just have a utilitarian feel to them when I buy and burn them. The boring tin cups and lack of colors mean I don't keep my sconces loaded as I really do not want to see tin or necessarily bare uncolored or white wax when they are not lit. When I can pour some nice dark greens and purples, I will feel like keeping it ready for a burn whenever the feeling is right, not just when I feel like digging out the ladder and the bag of badly made tea lights. I really want to make well burning, beautiful tea lights and I ran into an interesting conundrum while searching this site. It seems that most posts here utilize tea lights as an afterthought or for "using up leftover wax"... I hope to produce quality tea lights that can be used safely and with consistency. My larger wall hanging will take 8 tea lights and I at one time had one that took upwards of 20. I know a lot of peeps look from a business perspective and I could see where they may not be "profitable" to make as a staple, but is the almighty dollar such a driver in this craft now that the little things are not worth doing anymore? Am I over-thinking a tea light candle?

Thanks for the kind words, I have never been called inspirational but pray I can continue to make people smile. I am currently suffering from idea overload and my brain is full of wax...I think Sharyl's tutorial on the photo embedded hurricanes was the tipping point. Yeah, I gotta try that as I would love to make 'canes for my 3 boys. They live about 12 hrs South of me and I don't get to see them enough. Having their smiling faces in a flickering 'cane would make my work area... Maybe some puzzle piece embeds around the picture for my autistic middle son...hmm....

Seeing beautiful pillars like those are so inspiring...

First post for me after lurking here for a very long time. I learned to dip tapers over 20 years ago and loved doing it, but I was young and other things took over my free time. This year I beat my cancer and decided that I needed to get back to something that gives me joy and provides an outlet for energy I have. A local woman moving out of the area sold me all her gear and I am a few days away from beginning the journey. I have a few things still to pick up and an inventory to do of all the gear, but I am close... I checked in with my local supplier today and picked up some color blocks and drips and made an introduction. Oh yeah, I still need to clean everything.... Once I get an inventory together and know what I have to play with, I am going to try to formulate my strategy based on what I have read here over the last few months for my first pour. I am patient, methodical, and a little OCD, so I know I have the aptitude for pillars and just pray I have the creativity to make what I envision. I have no grandiose ideas of selling anything anytime soon if ever, but I want to create the best burning candles for my home use and for close friends while just enjoying the craft. I burn a ton of tealights and votives so that is where I will be starting. I would love to be able to make my own candles for my upcoming wedding 05/2014, but not sure if I can test enough while learning in that short of a time. We shall see. Outside of my love of the flickering flame, I am a USMC veteran, love to fish out of my kayak, work in the IT field, and love to cook. I look forward to hopefully developing new relationships, sharing my successes and failures, and hopefully contribute to this community in a way that continues to share the joy of candle making with others that may have the same questions I am sure to have as I learn. Semper Illuminatur!