Tallbabydoll

I'm thinking that you might have had an airpocket (a gap in the wax) near the side and the melted wax found it and even if you had a smooth finish it may have been thin. The melted wax hit that thin layer and melted it, causing it to leak out the side. I always tap the mold after I pour the overpour, and push down on the top chunks to make sure I get out any air trapped inside. Also like Donita pointed out, it's important to use chunks and overpour that have the same MP so it burns evenly. HTH

I think Satin covered it pretty well. Your testing to make sure that your candle is as close to perfectly made as possible. You want your scented candles to smell wonderful without being lit (cold throw) and fill an average sized room with scent but not overpowering. You want to make sure that your wick is the correct size for that candle size and wax/fo formulation. Adding to what Satin said to include making sure that the wick isn't to small and being drowned, or tunneling (burning fast straight down the middle of the candle). Just because a wick works for x size candle with this fo (fragrance oil) doesn't mean that it's going to work with that same size with a different fo. So each fo needs to be tested to make sure it burn correctly. Also there can be slight differences in each batch of wax or fo some periodic testing is needed once you do find the perfect combo.

If you intend to sell or give your candles away it's not only important to do this for your own reputation, but for the safty of those who burn your candles, and the reputation of all home candlemakers. People who purchase a poorly made homemade candle are leery of ever purchasing one again, so it's important to all chandlers that other chandlers push for perfection.

HTH

Great idea, and good luck with your presentation.

I'd add: Do not move while while wax is liquid (or something to that nature.

Do not place near heat source.

Do not freeze (candle will crack). (Since all these home tip books are telling people to freeze their candles to make them last longer.)

If blowing out candle, blow gently or put finger in front of lips. Failure to do either could result in wax splattering and could potentially burn face. (This happened to my bf.)

Make sure there is a minimum of a 12" clearence above burning candles. I'm not sure that's even enough to be honest. But I've seen people burn them on lower shelves, near ceiling, etc.

Well if you read the description I think she is completely honest and up front about all that. She basically poured all her heart and soul into getting her business started, now it will be time for someone to pick it up where she is leaving off.

Personally, I think having a unique image, a well ranked site, gorgeous graphics and custom labels, very good candles, is worth more than just a truckload of supplies and then having to come up with all those things on your own, but I can see from all the different answers there are a lot of different perspectives to it.

But I have appreciated all the helpful advice...a lot to think about!!!

Laura

It looks to me like your mind has already been made up, and that it's worth the price to you. Isn't that all that really matters in the long run?

It may not be worth it to me, jane, or john, but that doesn't really matter.

IMHO you can't buy or sell knowledge, or talent, both of which come with time and practice. I think in this case it's especially true with the food candles. For ex. Bruce could sell me his dipping equipment and show me how he makes a carved candle......Doing this in no way insures that I will ever be able to produce a carved candle anywhere near the quality of his, even using his equipment, formula, and me trying to duplicate his techniques. Again, talent can't be sold.

As for the price of web designing, personally it's not worth it to me. There's web designers all over, even some of the members on the board who'd charge much less, and label designers too. Also you could buy software and design them yourself, which is the way I'd prefer to do things. When I get to that point, I wan't my style to be my own. If someone hires your services at an agreed rate, thats one thing. But to say that something is worth X amount of dollars because of the amount of time you spent on it, well it probably wont be worth it to another. If we could charge for candles based on the amount of time, effort, and wasted supplies we used to get our candles to be of high quality, well no one would buy them. They'd be way to expensive. Plus the seller needs to keep in mind that the site did generate them income. The buyer needs to keep in mind the limited amount of time the site has been established, and how much income that site has/will generate, and if you want to/can continue to produce the item the site is best known for, at the same quality.

I don't mean for my words to offend anyone. Opinions were asked for, therefore I am stating mine. I do not know either the buyer or the seller. This is my unbiased opinion based solely on what I find valuable. I personally would rather use templates and software to build my own site and labels and put my money into supplies. JMHO

All packages are automatically insured up to $100 with UPS so you know the supplier is getting their $ back, that is if you can provide proof that you sent it back (hopefully you kept the receipt). I'd use up my credit and start ordering from a new supplier. Why would you want to continue with a supplier that obviously doesn't value you as a customer. However, I would not advice sueing them. Burden of proof will be on you, you have to prove how the supplier was negligent and caused your loss of sale, which I honestly don't see happening. It was really UPS's fault. I don't know what the value of your order was, but you have to consider court costs and minus those from profit of the sale, your time, etc...I doubt it's worth it after all that. JMHO

LOL 3 of us posting at the same time.

When this has happened to me, it was because I didn't heat the molds. The cold molds caused the bottom to get the white. Heated molds, no problem.

You shouldn't need to add any fo, unless you leave the wax melted on the heat for an extended period of time.

Your very welcome. When I tried to make a rustic, it took me many tries to succeed. Thanks to Scented I finally had one turn out. I just reread the instructions from Alan, (who I would trust much further than myself) and his instruction counterdict my advice. So don't listen to me, I just found that when I didn't do these things, it finally turned out. Good Luck!

There's directions under Techniques and Ideas to get u started. I'm not that experienced at this technique myself to give any pointers. Only dont use a water bath, fridge, etc to cool faster, let it cool on its own. Also don't use mold release, it made the "frosting" stick to the inside of the mold when I did. HTH

You could also heat the cutter enough to just put an outline, then use carving tools to carve out the rest. You wouldn't have to go all the way through that way. Then paint if you wish or whatever you choose. Since the wax would be thinner there, the shape would glow brighter giving it it's own distinction.

For me it also depends on the fo, and the kind of scent. I generally go with 1oz pp on most scents. But I do like my sweet scents stronger, and my florals weaker. I have yet to come acrossed a person that liked a really strong floral. For example I was warned to start with .5oz on lavender, and did, it was way to strong for me, but I am not a fan of floral scents. So I gave the rest of these votives to my mother. She also said they were to strong, based soley on cold throw, she wouldn't even burn them. So I remelted them and added a half pound of wax, still had a great cold throw and a strong hot throw, but was burnable for a couple of hours in a large room. I now use .25 oz of this fo.

Keep in mind that thanks to candle nose, your nose is not the best judge of strength.

Those are just signs of an fo overload for the wax, which may not have occured, but doesn't neccessairly mean that the fo was evenly disbursed throughout the wax.

How long did you let this candle cure before lighting. Meaning, how long between pouring and burning?

Did you use a zinc wick, those are known for mushrooming. There's also a scientific explination that I don't know well enough to explain. Robin does very well explaining this, maybe she'll stumble upon this thread.

Sorry I cant be of more help.

How do you think I could temporarily attach the inner mold to the bottom of the trashcan? plumbers caulk putty?

Very unique idea, I'm just wondering why do you need an inner mold with these. The wax will cool on the sides and bottom first, and you just pour out the wax when your walls are the thickness you desire. Inner molds are used to hold things in place against an outter wall. Maybe I missed something in the pics.

I was thinking along the same lines as Satin, Candle Nose. I was also wondering if maybe the fo wasn't completely blended with the wax and ended up floating, therefore making the candle stronger on top? Was there any sweating on the top of the candle, or mottle, something to indicate that this might have happened?

I can't chose my top 3 so here are my fave's...

Peaks

ICS

Pourette-Very true scents w/ great throw

NG

Alabaster-Great Selection and good oils (LOVE Bozoka Bubble Gum)

Scents for Soy

Aztec

I've only heard great things about Just Scents, and plan to order some from them.

I think using a straight fo would make them look like you sprayed them with oil. All splatchy. I have never used DPG so I dont know what that'd do. I'd suggest the linen/body spray base like WSP carries. A former boss used to spray the stores fake roses with rose scented room freshener all the time, worked great, and didn't effect the look of the roses at all. HTH

This looks exactly like what my attempt at a rustic looked like my first few tries. Most of the "frosting" kept sticking to the inside of the mold, but the finish on my candle was pitted just like this. I used pillar wax, 1.5 lbs wax, 3 TBS steric, 2 oz fo, 1/4 tsp vybar (probably could have omited that, but I didn't want it to sweat) poured at 145 into a chilled mold. HTH

These decorators don't investigate the safety of their suggestions. I was watching one show where they overlaped pine branches down the middle of the table, then placed votives in holders inbetween the branches and lit them. Alot of them were tucked in with braches all around, including sticking over the top. Then I saw another show where the "decorator" turned wine glasses upside down and placed votives ontop, without a holder, and lit them up. Ya'll know whats gonna happen if someone does this.

That says it all, right there. People don't care. I had someone explain to me once that she would NEVER purchase candles from my website, because she could buy them at Walmart, and get more for the same price.

Ditto here, my ex boss said this to me. When I tried to explain the quality difference, he said that he could burn 2 of those to get the same scent throw, and still have 2 left (it was a 4 pack for $10) and still have to left so they'd still last longer in the long run. I couldn't even argue this and didn't care to.:undecided

Personally I am not a fan of ball candles, but I really like the red one.

Well to be honest, I don't like the chunks around the outside. Maybe if there were fewer of them, but the way it is looks like to much IMO. Also the angel looks like it's sitting on top, and I'm wondering if it's going to drown the wicks when it melts. I've made chunky top pillars that this happened to. Otherwise I like the idea, maybe put the angel in so it's more embedded? I think that'd be pretty.

Dayglow, I really like your tilted layer. I like the color combo and the way it turned out over all. On the otherhand, I do not care for the marble color combo. I realize your trying your hand at a new technique and see no point on critiquing (sp?) the result. If you like it thats all that matters in the long run. If you were asking for opinions on the color combo, or the pattern that'd be a different story. As many people have already pointed out, the wicks are a problem that need some serious attention. If you are in need of advice on how to correct them, feel free to ask. Many here, including myself would be more than willing to try to help.

As for the uncalled for rude comments made on this thread, I really do not see how most of what was said pertain to the issue. The point of posting pics in the "Candle Gallery" is the candle, not what is in the background. I saw a printer and some papers, so what? I did not see any pringles can, trash can, or unmade bed. I had no trouble seeing the candles, but I wasn't looking for things to pick at either. I could understand the comments about the background if the pics were going into a brochure etc. Even if that were the case, the way it was said was just plain rude. This site is not about photography or housekeeping. It's about candles, which she is very new at, so cut her some slack.

As for Satins number of posts, what on earth does that have to do with anything? If you knew her at all you'd know that she doesn't say things just to "stroke egos". She does not say that she likes something if she doesn't. She always gives her honest opinion, and there have been times that it has offended people by her doing so, and paid the price.

I find it strange that someones first post (at least under that name) on this board is to agree with the person who started all this.

I agree that letting someones negative comments stop you from doing anything is just plain silly. But I understand being offended when they state their "opinions" in such a way. The whole point was to start turmoil, and they were successful.

Ok I'm ready for the attacks on me now. :rolleyes2

First off, Welcome to CT and you have a very nice looking rustic there.:highfive:

The weight doesn't change between liquid and solid, the volume is what changes. You can do it one of 2 ways depending on if your scale has the tare feature. If so as Yooper suggested tare out the weight of your pourpot so that there's 8 oz of wax and scent as usual. Or if it doesn't have the tare, just weight the empty pourpot to find out how much it weighs empty, then place wax in it and subtract the weight of the pour pot. Say the pot weights 22oz, you'll need it to weight 30oz to have 8oz of wax. HTH