Country Crafter

Thanks everyone, the kids seem to like them too! Well those jars, I must confess to being a compulsive collector of supplies, lol. Not just candle supplies but anything that I think can be used "sometime", :embarasse , we have a whole room in the shop dedicated to these items! I bought a few cases of these a few yrs. ago from our glass supplier with no particular use in mind. (They are actually a votive holder, very heavy glass with the inner part being straight up and down, not curved like the outer portion of the glass and exactly votive cup size, so they work well with votives.) To me they looked like a beehive of sorts and the idea went from there. We charge very little for our kids camps and I try to use up items that are inexpensive or that we have hung onto for a long time. Any candles or soap or b and b we do are probabaly the most expensive, wood working projects, mosaics, scrapbooking etc all consist of the scraps we have around from other projects. I really love to teach the kids, each group is so different and it is amazing how they put there own spin on things without fear, not like us adults that usually follow patterns and directions to a the letter, lol. We have one more class today and I will tell the kids how much you all liked the bee's! Wendy

I can't help you with where to find the molds for these types of items as we make our own but I can share a pic or two in the gallery if anyone would like to see our styles. Janet does beautiful work and if we didn't make our own molds I would certainly buy hers! Wendy

Thanks! We held two groups over this Christmas break, one was 7-9's and the other 10-12's. Most projects were the same for the two groups and it was nice to be able to do that. Quite often we have a younger group, 5 and up and the projects (of all types, not just candlemaking) have to be geared more towards them and then a second set of projects for the older ones. This made this set of classes much easier on us! LOL Wendy

Gotta agree, everything we do is by weight and often by grams as it is more accurate. LOL, Vickie your right! Unless your in Canada, 1 lb. of paraffin and as well as gel is equivelant to aprox. 18 oz. by volumn, just in case thier is a Canuck or two reading this. Wendy

Thought I would share a candle that our group at Kids Craft Camp made this week. It is hard to come up with a candle project where they can do more than just make the candle and this one seemed to fit the bill. They enjoyed painting the head, cutting the wings and adding the antenna's. Every bee looked a little different, lol. Wendy

Thanks again everyone, yes they do smell great if I say so myself, lol. These particular ones have a votive cup inserted in the centre, when the original contents of the votive cup are gone the customer can insert a votive of their choice. We also do them with tealight cups inserted, five to a pie if desired. I prefer the votive cup as to me five tealight cups take away from the overall look of the pie however when burning the five flames look pretty too! HTH Wendy

LOL yes definately calorie free, although we have had a few "chocolates" go missing out of our displays over the years, would of loved to see the faces as they bit into them! Those darn dipped strawberries take time but they look quite yummy when done up in the wax cups, worth the trouble I keep telling myself, lol. Thanks everyone, I am playing with soapin now and have to keep myself from doing everything chocolate, lol. Wendy

Thanks so much everyone! We love making bakery items and they do well for us, yes we make our own molds and embeds as well. The two new ones we are working on will be offered as slices as well as whole pies, (no gel toppings) all paraffin, hopefully they will be good sellers too! Wendy

Thought you might enjoy a pic or two of a few of the nine inch pies we offer, we are restocking these as the Christmas season wiped us out! We will be offering two new ones for the spring collection, they should be ready to list by mid January. These are done with a cup for a votive inserted in the middle, we also do them with 5 tealights holders inserted as well if ordered. Hope you enjoy. Wendy

We're busy getting ready for Valentines which always includes an assortment of bakery items, hope you enjoy! The first Wendy

Hi all, hands down this year our two best sellers other than b and b baskets and Christmas items were our Popcorn Munch basket and our Sushi Boxes. Surprising to us, these are older items that we always keep in stock and the past couple of yrs sales for them fell off, lol. Our customer base is definately increasing with new purchasers..new to our items. Here they are. Wendy

Thanks everyone! Shawnee, those boxes are our bath confetti. We purchased little purse style boxes and using our sizzix system did a cut out, packaged the confetti in cello bags and placed in the box. We had four varieties. They did well, we took 100 and sold 82. Kind of funny though, the first day we had the yellow on the outside row on the left of the rack, they sold like crazy. My daughter always the marketer, moved the yellow and placed the blue, (which we had sold the least of) on the left. Guess what sold the second day, yup the blue! Just goes to show customers don't necessarily pay attention to what they are purchasing, the variety didn't seem to matter, just the placement on the rack! Wendy

Morning all, we did a two day show this week, Thursday and Friday. We don't usually do shows but felt it was a good advertising venue since we closed the store last April and moved back to homebased with a full studio and classroom. I had forgotten what all the packing etc. was like, ohhh my aching back! It went well, about what I expected, many small ticket sales, with our pies, new Christmas Votive Boxes, Stacked Christmas Tins and a fair amount of B and B being the biggest sellers. We did not take our jar lines and t's, votives, gift boxes etc. were' limited to all Christmas scents, not having alot to choose from drove peeps to buying those which was nice! Here is some pics, sorry bout the quality, I have a setting changed when I was working with the light box and couldn't get it changed back at the show! Wendy

I agree with you candleman however we have sold hot chocolates done in various styles for seven years and the large mallows outsell the mini's, go figure. As for the decorating and as much as I hate it ,no candle is sold from here in just a plain jar or tin. All of our works are geared towards a theme, season, event, style etc. and all are decorated or an appropriate container is used to suit. Often we include, cards, poems, recipes, many things that add something to the product, makes them slightly different than the rest and our customers come back looking to see what is next, lol. Even our gift boxing is usually done up to represent the idea. Often times our craft business brings alot to the product be it scrapbooking, painting, claywork etc. so that really helps. We couldn't suceed marketing straight jar candles, there is too much competition to make it profitable. This way we add more cost and time but we also charge appropriately for it. If they can't get it elsewhere, (or at least for awhile, lol.) Thanks everyone for your comments, this time of year is a busy one and it is always so nice to hear positive comments from fellow chandlers! Wendy

We love tins too! Unlike glass they are very forgiving, if the top pour looks good you got it made, lol, no wet spots. As was said, they do get hot, test your wicking carefully and make sure you burn each tester right to the end, they tend to "pick" up because of the heat near the end of the burn. Our labels state to burn on a heat resistant surface. We have poured hundreds this year for our fundraisers, so easy and they sell well. Here is a pic of ours. Wendy

Thanks you guys, the pouring I don't mind it is the decorating I don't like. Hard to tell from the pic but these have a 1 1/2" green velvet ribbon with a silk bow on them, tying those little bows is not my things, lol. My daughter usually does all this type of stuff but she is away and things have to get done! (She did do all the cards for these before she left though.) Wendy

We made 150 of these today, lol, whew I am sick of the smell of chocolate! 138 were for a fundraiser and the rest for a show this weekend. Glad there done! Wendy

Absolutely gorgeous Henry, thanks for sharing with us! I love beeswax, we don't do much of it as the costing is quite high up here for the product and the demand minimal however you have encouraged me to put a few more out there! Wendy Country Creek Crafts

Thanks we like the pie racks too and we're busy baking a storm up this time of year, lol. Wendy

Some of our pies and more! Hope you like. Wendy

Hi Henry, not sure if you read something I wrote previously however when we started with gels back in 1998, (and believe me there was not alot of info back then,) we contacted Penreco and the FO houses we dealt with and although polarity was a new issue at that time(Penreco did not even advocate the use of fragrances at that time either until they set out % guidelines etc.) we were advised to use only non polar fragrancing in our embeds as well as our gel. To date all the embeds we supply and use are made with non polar fragrances at the same ratio as suggested per lb. of gel not the suggested rate for the paraffin. As Vickie said, it stands to reason as your products melt and mix together the components become one. Any reputable supplier will be forthcoming in what they use for their embeds, drop them a line and ask. Our lines of bakery type items have been going strong for 7 yrs now although preserves have definately dropped off the best sell list. We still do a fair amount of scene type gels however 90% are double glassed with a soy or paraffin insert. They seem to sell better this way, customers prefer the "forever" aspect and we can be more creative with the items we use in them to create the design. The only ones we do not double glass are straight gel with no embeds etc. flutes, wine glasses, our Christmas gift packages etc. A good gel candle with throw can be achieved, it takes time and testing just like any other wax product. Your pies look great and I hope you continue with them! Wendy

Hello Angie, I have some questions concerning your gels, I cannot tell absolutely from the pics but it appears you have many flammable items in some of these, (plastic plants and fish, seashells, (flowers, on your site,) etc.) and they don't seem to be double glassed. Perhaps I am just not seeing the inner container in your pics? As well some look slightly cloudy, it may be an abundance of bubbles or the way the picture was taken but it can also be from using polar fragrancing, (not suitable for gel and a safety hazard). If you have ensured your fragrances are "gel safe" then I am sorry to have mentioned it. I am a fanatic about safety especially where gels are concerned, unsafe candles can impact all of us and if I have assumed incorrectly my apologies and if not and you would like some further help and direction with your gels there is many great people willing to help here. Wendy

You may be able to accomplish this thru wicking etc. however if the finished pillar is one to sell, how are you going to guarantee your customers will use the correct t'light? Of course if for yourself it would be no problem. Wendy

Your welcome, let us know how you make out and post a pic or two! Have fun Wendy

Hi, we choose the gridwall for a couple of reasons. First off we closed our store and I have 24 full lengths of gridwall and hooks and second I would hate to ship slatwall, it is extremely heavy. You can take these units apart and put them back together with an allan wrench so they can be shipped, although if shipping with full contents as we do it is easier to keep them together, stack all the boxes of product inside and slide into the cardboard boxes. Hope that helps. wendy PS and I like the contrast too, although the black grid does blend into the units when we do them black, the natural pine goes well too. Edited to add, I refused to use pegboard, lol, I don't like the looks of it. We did have some in the store and to me the grid and the slatwall look better.