Asher

Thank you for your replies. I'm just glad to know that the wax "ring" is normal. I also use pins with a convex base. At first, I wondered if wax would actually get caught beneath the base, but to my surprise this didn't happen. It just settled into that tiny sliver of space between base and the mold wall. I guess it wouldn't matter if wax got beneath the base since it would just be punched out when the pin came loose. I'll definitely tip them or move them around after the pour to "burp" them :smiley2: P.S. I also had ordered some liquid dye from Peaks. Having never used liquid dye before I was quite amazed at how concentrated that stuff is. I used 5 drops in a pound and came out with the darkest candles I've ever made.

You had to go and ruin my fun Pesky wicks anyway...who needs 'em? So, I'm guessing the Jell-o candle project should also be scrapped, since the gelatin would probably clog up the wicks worse than concentrated vanilla frangrance oil. I guess I'll just have to go back to using boring stearic acid and boring fragrance oils. Where's the fun?

....and they seemed to come out relatively fine, except that the bottom of the candles are a bit uneven in places. I ordered the wick pins from Peaks and they cover about 98% of the mold bottom, which means the wax seeps into the space left by the 2%. It's like I need a tiny sander to smooth out the resulting bumps. Also, I get some air bubbles near the base of the wick pin. I couldn't actually see them, but the surface markings were dead giveaways that bubbles had been in the area. Could I remedy this by simply moving the wick pin around after pouring? I have no problem getting the wick to stay in the candle after removing it from the mold, since the wick tab (or whatever you call that metal contraption at the base of the wick) is high enough that it can be pressed into the wax securely. I just need advice on leveling the bottom (or avoiding the need to level it in the first place). I removed one from its mold this morning and set it on the counter, and the darn thing was rocking back and forth a bit since it was so uneven.

That is too funny. Love the photos. Boy, and I thought I was creative Nice to know that butter is a decent candle fuel. If I were to dissolve a few tablespoons in some wax I wonder what effect it would have on the surface. Maybe it would have none. Maybe it would just rise to the surface and not even mix with the wax. I wish I had the chemistry background that Alan has, but 2 years of general chem and 1 year of organic chem back in college have been forgotten. Who knew I could have used them for creative candlemaking? Well, I may still try to dissolve crystals in the wax (i.e. drink mix crystals). Has that been done? Something tells me there is already a thread about it

I bet the candle would burn quite well, though....no need to worry about your wick size. Heck, you wouldn't even need a wick So, vanilla extract doesn't work? I'm quite surprised someone else actually thought of using it. How about butter? Anyone ever tried to add butter just to see what impact it made? It wouldn't be used for fragrance, obviously, but it might do something crazy to the color and surface texture....or it could just cause a big mess. See how my mind works? I get bored with doing things the normal way. However, I'm smart enough to know that adding anything water-based to hot wax is a good way to get a bunch of hot liquid projectiles flying around the kitchen. Have you tried adding hot cocoa mix to wax? Now I'm just getting strange...but isn't this how people come up with some really neat effects? If I do a hot chocolate candle I'll report my results. Same goes with the butter candle. You think I'm kidding, don't you? :smiley2: I won't do an entire batch, of course...just a test votive.

Isn't oil flammable as well?

Hi there...I can't tell exactly what's happening, but it looks kind of like the problem I've had with some container candles, namely, that certain areas of the wax seem to pull away from the glass. It gives a similar look...certainly not a desired one. Unfortunately, I have no ideas about this either

Seeking a cheaper alternative to the official "snowflake oil" I actually made a "vegetable oil" votive recently. The resulting mottling was quite disappointing. Granted, I didn't add any fragrance oil (which generally produces its own mottling), but I did use a liberal amount of VO. Apparently, I used too much, since the votive was sweating beads of VO after I removed it from the mold. I'll have to go to plan B, which is mineral oil (as someone had suggested). If that doesn't work I'll just have to overpay for a tiny bottle of "snowflake oil" again. I like being creative, so I may just poke around the kitchen for some unusual additives. I wonder if vanilla extract will work as a fragrance oil

I usually get that when the wick is too long. Also, some wicks produce more "soot" than others, so it will require some researching to figure out which wicks will work best for your application and wax type. There are so many variables to consider...unfortunately, you'll probably have to just do trial and error until you find a combo that works well. That answer probably produced more questions for you :embarasse

Is that Yaley "creme wax" for containers that you're speaking of? I bought some of this 4 years ago and it was sitting in the original wrapping until a few months back. It may not be what you're talking about, but the Yaley kind is just a special blend for containers. It's a much softer wax that reminds me of a harder Crisco and it seems to work nicely with pastel colors. I experimented with it and got a somewhat reasonable container candle. This is the only "creme" wax I know of. They do spell it "creme", instead of "cream", so I wonder if it is the Yaley brand you have.

Hmmm...I guess it would be worth the $20 to get one then, huh?

This may be a very amateur-ish question, but what do you use a heating gun for? I've never used one and don't even know what they look like.

Hi there, I have had lots of problems with mushrooming, but I figured something out this weekend. Trimming the wick to 1/4" before lighting is fine, but once some of the wax is burned away at the wick's base (about 20 to 30 minutes later) I had to trim it again. The votive was lit for about 6 hours after that and only started to form a small mushroom after about 5 hours. Once you get a full wax pool you should be fine with a 1/4" wick. The mushrooming should be minimal for several hours. I did use 34-40 SP zinc wicks. They are smaller than the 44's, so the behavior may be a bit different.

Sometimes that silly metal core doesn't get consumed so I'll have this thin wire protruding above the flame, and the black gook will form on it. I figured mushrooming was common with the zinc cores, since I didn't see how a cotton wick could produce a big black thing like that (or can it?). Time to try the LX series. Thank you all for your replies P.S. Does anyone want 242 zinc core wicks?

I was told that "mushrooming" occurs when the wick is too large for the candle. So, I went from these 44-28-18 zinc core wicks to the 34-40 SP zinc core for votives. Things were going well for the first 30 minutes, and then the mushrooming started :embarasse In fact, another 30 minutes and the "mushroom" was actually bigger than I got on the 44's. If the 44's were too big, why do the smaller 34-40's cause more mushrooming? I'm guessing wax type plays into the whole thing, too. Just when I thought I had the problem licked Is it just zinc core wicks that develop mushrooming? Does anyone want 242 leftover 34-40 SP zinc-core wicks?

Whew! So many choices. I also heard of one located somewhere in Tennessee. I wish we had one locally so I could just drive over and pick things up. It's hard to order samplers from different places when you have a minimum of $6 to pay for shipping. Oh, well...that's just part of it I suppose

Thank you, Lisa! I'm glad to hear this. I had never heard of them before a few weeks ago, but I was not at all disappointed with my experience. There are so many companies out there that you just have to find one and try them out.

I appreciate it! I will check out that site, and I'll see how their prices compare. Lone Star Supply also has CD, HTP and ECO wicks on their site as well. So many choices! I'll have to get wick pins, too. Then I won't need free-standing wicks, and I won't have to attempt to manually center the darn things...which gets tough with dark colors. Only after the candle sets do I know if I got anywhere near the center. That is one big reason I make mostly lighter candles (By the way, I couldn't resist the cheap price for 250 of the 34-40 wicks. I have to hope they burn okay 'cause I'm stuck with 'em for a while. Next time I'll sample some first )

Lone Star Supply has wick sampler sets that contain 5 of each LX wick, from LX-8 to LX-30. I suppose I could do something like that. Honestly, I've never really liked the zinc core wicks. As for the wick pins, where do you get yours? I found something on candlechem.com where you get 12 votive molds and 12 centering pins for under $18. Is this decent?

Wow...so many numbers and letters to learn with all of these products. Are the LX wicks free-standing? I haven't yet tried wick pins, so I have to manually set the wick in the mold after the first pour. I was told zinc core is the best for votives, but I know I've seen votives with wicks that resembles tiny rope...and those seems to burn the best. Do you use LX-8 or LX-10 or another size? Thanks!

this 4761...is that IGI or AstorLite or something like that? I think the one-pour votive wax I got 4 years ago was IGI. I wonder if it's the same one:cry2:

Hi there...I love it when people decide to get creative with votives. Do you have a general rule for when you pour the second layer? I tried some tricolor votives (shown below), and the congealing between layers was less than desirable. It's difficult for me to know when the bottom layer is ready to receive the top pour....I either seem to wait too long or not long enough. In the photo below the front one looks okay, but you can see a nasty white line in the one on the right. I have wanted to try diagonal layers, but I never had a good way to tip the molds. I guess I'll need to go get some rice then

http://www.earlyamericancandlesupplies.com/ Any experience with this company? I found some wicks that were half the price of what I had paid on another site. While I was there, I also decided to order one of their scents. Anyway, I have yet to actually try the wicks, but they are 34-40 SP votive wicks. As for the scent, I wanted to pick up one I had gotten from Lone Star Candle Supply so I could compare. They are $1 more per ounce than Lone Star, but the eucalyptus almost burned my nose. They would appear to be more concentrated I placed my order on Friday afternoon and it arrived yesterday (Tuesday). I didn't have any problems whatsoever. There are just so many candle supply companies that you almost have to sample them all to find the best 5 or 6. By the way, I've heard great things about Wick Your Wax (WYW), but on my first trip to their website it was loading so slowly that I gave up.

I once bought some one-pour votive wax that wasn't supposed to shrink...and of course it still did. However, it didn't shrink enough for me to do a second pour. Compression molding, huh? I guess there wouldn't be any shrinking with such a procedure then. I'll assume this is not available to the homemade candlemaker, unless we had the money to buy the proper machinery. So, does this mean there is no melting or pouring involved? Is it just a matter of packing stuff together?

Packed granules....hmmm, I think that might be what I'm seeing in some of these store votives. Now that I think of it, those tea-lite candles almost look like they're made up of tiny styrofoam particles that are tightly packed together.