Country Crafter

Thanks everyone, hope to get the floaters done up tomorrow and pour the glasses. I find spraying a fine coat of matte varathane prior to painting, (wipe the candle down with alcohol first) works well to create a base for the acrylic paints. I use the same spray after to coat the finished product. I prefer to work on unfragranced candles when painting, the fragrance can interfer with the painting. Candle mediums do work as well, although I find for any detailed work I don't like the mixture to work with. Sometimes it makes an even basecoat hard to achieve in my opinion, although some applications it works fine. I have some water jugs to do up although these are not for anything candle related, I like painting on glass too! Thanks again everyone. Wendy

Todays work is done! Happy to have them done, just got to make the floating daisy candles now! Wendy

LOL I can relate, my first series of painting classes over 10 yrs. ago was Folk Art, the project a birdhouse. We lovingly call it my $250 dollar birdhouse, the classes were cheap, the supplies definately not! Wendy

That is beautiful Donita, thanks for sharing. I love the look of one stroke although have never attempted the technique myself. LOL, it certainly doesn't look easier to me, I find it amazing to watch someone adept at the process to paint, they make it look so effortless and quick, whereas I agonize over every brush stroke, :embarasse , lol. Today is daisy day! I am working on some glassware for an order, if all goes well will post a pic or two later. Thanks again Wendy

Thanks again all, much appreciated. Actually this was not done using the one stroke method, sorry your confused, although the one stroke method can offer a final technique that results in a "similar look". Our painting starts with a base coat pattern and uses a combination of highlighting and shading to achieve the final results. One Stroke as the name suggests is done using a different brush, not a combination of brushes. A very different technique and an art in itself. I am sure others will appreciate the link though. Wendy Edited to add: this particular candle came to us through our instructor I think through Pier 1. It has a linen type texture which I liked as well as the concave top. I made silicone molds from the originals, (the shape is not protected) and love the detail it offers. The company that offered this candle is also the company that produced the concrete type candle which was recalled which some of you may remember.

Thanks everyone, this candle was originally created by one of our paint instructors, she does beautiful work! I spent the winter, LOL, learning to paint these pansies (and other spring and summer blooms) and am quite pleased with how they are turning out. I have dabbled in painting for some yrs. and am kicking myself that when we ran the painting studio I didn't spend a little more time actually participating in the classes, now I am self teaching, lol. Thanks again Wendy

Flowers are doing well around here, spring is slow to come. Wendy

http://www.supercaldecals.com/ Wendy

No not at all Sharon, I wouldn't speak to someone like this in person or on any board. Sorry if you think that is the case. We have worked yrs. at finding fragrances that work well for us in our applications and as well that are cost effective, (lower percentage used.) Not all that we use are like that and I never have indicated they were, there is some that we use at the max or close to it to achieve the throw we are happy with. Anyway I am not going to argue the point, not in my nature. Have a great day. Wendy

Hello Nattycat, not sure of your needs and it may be impractable for a large amount but before we had ours precut and imaged by a local printer we used clear acetate or mylar, available at craft or office supply stores we used a fiskars circle cutter and made our own. (If you use the printable acetate sheets you can print your labels etc. on them prior to cutting as well.) For the wick hole use a nail punch or similar, (a template helps to place the hole in the correct spot.) HTH Wendy

I think you must have me confused with someone else, we have never pushed our site onto any group including this one. If you look at the number of posts and perhaps go back and read them you will see that. In addition we have not been supplying oils, wax etc. for quite some time since our switch from retail back to homebased, last April actually, although I don't think we ever "announced" this move to this board, only our newsletter group which your not on. The only products we now carry as a supplier are our wax embeds. As for the oils, Sherri is right, we carried and used many Wick your Wax oils, fantastic products although there was a couple that we couldn't get to throw in our formulas at the strength we liked. Our other oils come from a variety of sources, mainly made inhouse for us. It has taken many years and dollars to search out what works for our applications and hopefully you will find some suitable for your use. Wendy

Hello Debra, you should not need to "max out" your fragrance load if your using quality frags that work with your applications. Many fragrances in our stock are used at 3% and we achieve a fantastic throw. Adding more is not the answer and definately not cost effective. We have a few that if used at the max % smell downright nasty, overpowering the nose. I would play around and test a few more frags, perhaps from a few different suppliers and see what you can come up with before just adding more. HTH Wendy

Your welcome, if you have bought from them before thier price structuring is different now, no 40% off for wholesale on listed price. Sherri, we have never used blocks, only liquids, powders and chips so I am not sure bout them. I do think there is a number of different manu's though for them, there seems to quite a difference in blocks by postings you read. Wendy

Pourette manu's Reddi Glo Dye Chips HTH Wendy

Thanks, I am not sure what these jars are called, we starting bringing them in three yrs. ago and use them for our wickless, they are 4" wide and hold 7 oz. (we fill them less for wickless, they hold 9oz. filled to the top) so they are a nice size. They are made in Spain and are very heavy glass both the bottoms and the sides, I like the ridges, adds a little character to the glass. The only issue we have with them is no tops however we use mylar clear circle imprinted with our logo and info and they look nice. Thanks for asking. Wendy

A couple of items for our spring collection, pics need to be redone. The jar is scented Freesia, Gardenia and Sweet Pea and the flower unscented. Wendy

Hi Dave, lol, gotta agree it did seem like a bit much at the time however it is not only for the insurance companies protection but for ours too. It insures that we are fully covered if the need arises and it forces us annually to keep our equipment, stock, building everything up to date and documented. Especially important when our insurance is based on stock levels both finished and unfinished, equipment used, volumn of sales etc. We have to look at the previous yr. when up for renewal and estimate the upcoming yr. Sometimes our premiums go up, sometimes down but overall the policy although costly (lol aren't they all) offers discounts for documentation and we are insured each yr, for exactly what we need. Another thing we require is export product liability insurance, most policies only cover the country the policy is taken out in, we require riders for each country we ship to and each country is a different rate, (U.S. being the most costly with Japan right behind). This can vary for us each yr. and if we drop a country, the loss of a rider may drop our insurance for the yr as much as 150 dollars. LOL so much track of, thank goodness for a very organized office keeper who handles most of this, lol, not me! Wendy

With our application for insurance yrs. ago we supplied literature about each product we used, a synopsis of our methods, a copy of warning labels and information brochures, a fire inspection certificate with applicable diagrams showing where our equipment, extinguishers etc. were located, pics of the shop which showed our storage applications of fragrances, caustic materials etc. including an estimate of maximum amounts at any given time, a listing of our melting equipment, (our company insisted on approved for the use equipment only, no prestos, fryers etc., funny double boiler was ok), and food processing certification, (we make some foods, chocolates, etc. for our gift baskets.), as well as expected maximum stock levels, equipment on hand, expected yearly volumn of sales. Some of what we sent was overkill but all material is retained on file. We did not supply our product labels but a signed statement that biz contact info would be applied. Gotta luv insurance regs! We update any information yearly with our renewal. Our insurance is a commercial policy based on homebased with a seperate building insured seperately from the dwelling for business. Information concerning flammable and caustic products and quantities as well as location is also on file thru our local fire department. Wendy

Loads of testing going on here this weekend to replace some frags. Trying to replace a few Wick your Wax ones which is not going to be an easy job. A few on the list Vanilla Grapefruit Gingerbread Buttercream Bamboo Cranberry Wish me luck. Wendy

This is a new one on us and I think we have been contacted by them all at one point or another, lol. Any one heard of them or had experience. The service is free but of course if you want a platinium membership for more exposure it costs, http://www.wiserep.com/ Wendy

Thanks Chris, that is great to know! Wendy

Hi Henry, thanks so much for the info. LOL no they certainly won't stay lit long enough to see, I am going to restrain with the auto paint strainers, don't know why I didn't think of those, hubby owns a body shop! (The beekeeper also suggested cotton batting, like what you put in quilts although did say alot of wax was lost using it. As for pouring, I poured at 155, I think cooling too fast was the issue. I had a really strong frag on the go for some paraffin and even with my respirator it was getting to me and I opened up the door to increase the air flow. I used standard votive molds and these really were a pain to get out, I incorrectly I guess assumed as the molds were well seasoned I wouldn't have a problem. How about release, I have powdered mold release and silicone spray, any suggestions. I would really like to do some votives and don't want to have to make up some silicone molds for them if at all possible. I did pour up a little beehive in one of our silicone molds and your right, I guess it cooled slower and no cracking! Kind of enjoying the frustrations of playing with a new product, LOL, we work with gel, soy, paraffin and a bit of palm, what's one more eh! Thanks again for your help. Wendy Edited to ask one more quick question, (then I will quit buggin everyone, lol.) The tall pillar, ( done in tin mold, taller than I have poured in beeswax before pulled in somewhat on two sides, it was a 3" square.) I am assuming because I did not poke relief holes, correct? Got busy doing other things and forgot but you should poke in beeswax too I would think?)

Thanks Vicky, I figured it was still too full of sediment for a cleaner easier burn. Will strain it a few more times and see how things go. I knew what I was getting into with this, we were told it would need further cleaning up and so far we are just playing to see how the process goes. Pricewise I feel the extra work is not unreasonable for us to do, to eliminate the cost of shipping as well as the much lower price per lb makes a huge difference. Although I might feel much different during the busy times, Thanks for your input, much appreciated. Wendy

Looks great Kris, I hope they do well for you. We couldn't get them to move up here and removed them from our listings some time ago, however each market is so different! Good Luck! As for lids, wellscoffee used to carry them, (sorry not sure of the addy or even the name, we don't order U.S. for these products, perhaps someone else can help.) Thanks for sharing. Wendy

LOL no legs and wings aren't fun! However this was clean as far as that went, still alot of sediment in the pots after pouring though, even though we strained twice. Got the pillar mold out this morning with a fair amount of ease, last night it wouldn't budge yet was cool, the votive molds took some chilling and alot of tugging and they are cracked on the tops. I decided to test burn anyway and what a difference from the "old" beeswax. Our wick sizing that worked well with the old product just won't cut it in these. Little flame, struggling like crazy and the votive won't stay lit. I do absolutely love the colour and what little scent I am getting with the poor flame though so I am not giving up. As for the water trick, I too have read about it, however is that not more for removing the bits and pieces, not for filtering. I am sure it is this sediment that is remaining in the pot that is causing the poor flame etc. (Certainly going to do some more wick testing before admitting defeat, Another quick question, what about molds, what do you find works best for beeswax. I know beeswax likes silicone. Thanks Wendy