Karen B

Just wondering if it changed, and are you having wicking problems. It looks different to me, but I very well could be loosing my mind. (it's not round and flat) I have more additive in my candle area than I'd really care to admitt to, maybe I"m getting confussed in my old age. It looks like I'm having to wick up and IMHO it's more opaque. thanks, Karen B

Emerald Sea Hawaiian Sandalwood Blackberry Sage Let me just say make sure you read all there policies before deciding if you to rely on them for supplies. They mean what they say, you will not get an e-mail back stating when a FO will be back in stock. You have to wait and watch the web site. I've never had a problem with them as far as shipping, but I didn't notice that until recently. They have great FO's though, Karen B

Not that *I* have ever done a bone headed move like that, but....umm....my friend (yes there we go) might have done something similar. She said she used the heat gun mainly on the bottom of the molds. (top of the candle) and tapped the bubbles up. You need to work all the way around the mold tapping as you heat it up. You need to be careful not to over heat the molds or depending on your wax then you can get fingernailing. Karen B

LOL, you need to start taking care of the bills and buying way more stuff. I have so much stuff coming in all the time my DH doesn't know if he's coming or going. Every once in a while he just turns to me and asks do we have the money to pay for it? I just tell him not to worry about it and I think he prefers it that way. Confuse the heck out of the man so he doesn't care. Karen B

Did you use 1.5 oz of FO to 4.5 oz of wax? That is a lot of FO way too much for such little wax. Stick with 1 oz per lb of FO so for 4.5 oz of wax .3 to at most .4 oz of FO. Also can I ask is that how much the supplier told you to use of UV? I'm kind of shocked because I only need to use 1/8 of a tsp per lb of wax. A very, very small amount. Yes sometimes if the wick flame starts to get small and drown out you need to wick up but you can use too much FO and not get a good candle too. HTH, Karen B

The website package you're looking at is just a the website. The homestead shopping cart is a shopping cart. Something that collects all the customers information. (look for something referring to their e-commerce that is the shopping cart) You still need a merchant account with a bank, ProPay or a PayPal account to accept credit card payments. Homestead's shopping cart is more money per month but they do have a real time shipping calculator built into the shopping cart so you don't have to do what I do. mal's E is another shopping cart and you can get one with a real time shipping calculator, but you'll still need some way to take the credit card info and get paid. (merchant account, propay or paypal) Did that make any sense? I know websites are very confusing. I had to kind of jump in with both feet and eventually figured it out threw trial and error. (error, after error....you get the idea) Karen B

I use the paypal shopping cart. It's free and you can take either pay pal payments or if the person doesn't want to it will let them use there visa/credit card. There are other free carts out there and you can look into propay for your payments. I think mal's e is another place some people use, google has a shopping cart, and I think even Homestead has a shopping cart system that takes credit cards but that is more money. I like to keep it simple and Paypal is the easiest to integrate into the Homestead website builder. For shipping I have it set up very easily, I have a scale that is based on how much they spend. (shipping charges go with the shopping cart system) Somehow I got lucky and it's usually very close to right on. (give or take .$0.50) A little trick I do is if someone spends over $100.00 they get free shipping. This works out nice because let's say Jane bought your candles at a craft show and now goes to your web site to order more. What happens is she tells her friends they'll all get in on a big order for the free shipping and you get more customers. (figure out your profit margin and see if it works for you) If you go with Homestead let me know, I'll give you the add'y for the help forum, and I would be happy to help you with any bumps in the road you come across. (If I can help) hth, Karen B

I don't either, (lol) I just know enough key words to make me sound like I know what I'm talking about. (guess I could make a really good lawyer) Yes go for it, the software is easy to use and they have a lot of nice templates to start out with. Good luck! Karen B

I have my website with homestead, I have the next package up so I have a ton of e-mail add'ys and more bandwith than I know what to do with. The software to create your website is very user friendly, the only bad thing is I understand the navigation menu is created using Java and search engines don't like Java. That is an easy fix, at the bottom of your pages it's always a good idea to have a 2nd menu anyway. (when people scroll down to the bottom of the page they don't have to go back up to get the menu) You can do text links at the bottom or do a 2nd menu there using some simple HTML codes. (BTW the above statement was made by a self proclaimed moron who has no idea what she just said) I've had my site with them a few years now, and have no complaints. Homestead has always been very professional and I've never had any issues with my website. Servers are always on line, tons of bandwith and my own e-mails that make me look professional. In the tracking software you can name people. So when my DH is at work and goes to my website it will just show me his name. This is nice for repeat customers you can see what they might be getting interested in. So far I'm a very happy Homestead customer. hth, Karen B

See in my e-mail she made it sound like she was having a party for 800-1000 people. Even at the biggest wedding I've ever been to there was only 250 - 350 people. I didn't even bother with a response she is famous for pulling this kind of crap. She has been around the block a few to many times, I just deleted the whole thing and didn't bother with a response. Karen B

I know the exact FO your talking about. I was one of the few who loved it too. Unfortunatly I don't have a clue for a replacement sorry. This year I just switched to Ky Christmas Past. It is nothing like Genwax sorry, but it is a very nice christmas'y tree type of smell. Karen B

Glad to see someone has it. Karen B

Sorry Di, Call me the moron of the group. I did actually read what you had said but didn't understand how a marketing firm got MY info. I thought in the past I have done everything right. I'm unlisted, on the do not call list, (like that matters) and don't have those free credit card thing's sent to my house. I didn't realize my bank would give out the info on what I purchase to others for solicitation. So of course my mind went to what company had the bad employee that sold there customer list to the highest bidder. Guess I just needed it spelled out for me. Karen B

I hope CS doesn't come here and bash me over the head with a 2x4 but on my bag of Glass Glow from them it says IGI-R2322. All evidence says its an IGI product. The other palm waxes I can't say since I don't have bags of them. Karen B

I preheat my molds and maybe they get a little to hot but I found when I used that wax it likes 165 more than exactly 170. Since you did hear that "popping" sound I would cook the wax. It does sound like you still had some water in that batch. It happens all the time and just let it be for a good 30 minutes then you should be fine. I've tested my presto so I know exactly what the temp should be placed at, but if you aren't to sure just set the temp "thing'y" to beep when it get's to 250 this way you still have a long way to go before 325 which I **think** is the FP of wax. (not sure my kids took all of my good brain cells when I gave birth to them) Good luck, Karen B

Go ahead and try. The FP of wax is over 300 degrees, so set your digital thermometer to beep at 250 this is still way lower than the FP and you can adjust if you need to. I also like the pour temp on my molded candles around 165-168 in preheated molds. If you are pouring to hot you'll get them too. Karen B

Just an FYI for Stella, I was looking at the Gold Canyon catalog today and about freeked when I saw Palm pillars. (I believe it was feathering palm) So the attempt at mass production has already started. From the little I've worked with this wax I don't know how they can "Machine" do it and not have a really horrible candle with tons of air pockets, but.... well I won't go there. Stella really knows what she's talking about with this wax. It is a different beast. Once you get the hang of it, it's not as difficult as it sounds, but Stella has excellent advice for dealing with this wax. Karen B

Thanks sharig, there goes my theory. I thought with either one someone could have sold the customer info. I still can't help but wonder if an employee stole the info before leaving a company. The owners may not even know what is going on. I will definitely have to be more careful before I just "click OK" when that 3 pages of boring BS shows up.

Hey guys I've got one too. I'm just wondering if anyone else that has gotten this purchased FO from RA or maybe Pourette in the past. Either that or maybe a good supplier had a really bad employee? Unfortunately those kinds of things happen. Karen B

1288B is still made, this is my staple for containers. I'm a weirdo and prefer straight paraffin and doing my own thing. Karen B

I add my UV while the wax is melting and never had a problem with the UV. What wax are you using, I know soy likes to frost maybe that's the problem. Karen B

I haven't done **palm** pillars yet but I do understand repours in general. 1st the bottom of the mold will be the top of the candle. 2nd yes with palm you will need to poke relief holes and fill them.(with any wax you should) When doing the repour fill the holes and bring the wax just to within 1/8" of the edge of the 1st pour. (get it as close to the edges as you can without the wax spilling over the sides, or going higher up the mold) I'm guessing with palm make that 2nd pour wax hot, 200 degree's. I would think having it has hot as possible will help it find all the little air holes palm loves to create. Don't worry about the crystallization on the 2nd pour because that will be the bottom of the candle. If you don't go higher than your 1st pour then you shouldn't see the wax from the sides when your all done. The bottom is never as nice as the top, so a warning label is you best friend to hide those bottoms. Karen B

you don't have to put the pillar wick pin in the mold like you do with a votive. You can feed it threw the bottom. Just place a little putty around the outside of the pin to make sure the wax doesn't leak threw. The tops look much better this way. Karen B

I tried it, I don't know what it really is. It had a kind of transparent look to it like vasoline, and a consistency like playdough or remember that stuff you would place on the newspaper and it would copy the cartoon print. (more stick like that) It could be a type of micro wax I'm not sure, there are many micro waxes out there but the ones I've tried are hard. It didn't work all that well for me but I use a straight paraffin wax. Karen B

I did this with my son for a school project. He hand dipped bayberry tapers because it was a project about the Middle Ages. I figured they didn't have paraffin back then and didn't want to render my own tallow. (I had the bayberry wax laying around) Hey so he was a rich kid in the Middle Ages what can I say. (lol) Keep the wax at a constant temp, he dipped it into the melted wax brought the wick out. Then after a few seconds he placed it into cold water for 30 seconds to a minute. (just to speed things along) Another tip is to tie something small to the end of the wick so in the beginning the wick stay's straight. If you dip it into cold water, before you bring it back into the wax wipe off some of the water drops, otherwise the finish will look funny. It is a very long process but my son actually had a lot of fun making his own candles. They actually showcased his candles in the front of the building so he was on cloud nine. Hmmm, the school never did give those candles back to me, I wonder if they new it was bayberry. hth, Karen B