Country Crafter

Hi congrats on trying something new! Can't help you with the wicking as we don't use that type however I will try a few of the other ?s; 1. Normally I would heat my jars but because of the gel chunks I was scared to heat them. I got all kinds of jump lines. How do you avoid jump lines when making this type of candle? Not sure how you put yours together but we place a few chunks of gel up against the side of the glassware prior to pouring then add a few on top. We do not heat the glassware and pour the overpour at a medium temp, not your type of wax though, jump lines are not a problem for us. Perhaps try and pour a little hotter and see if your gel holds up to the heat. love the way the liquid dye colored the gel but have a limited number of colors. Can Reddig-Glo dye chips be used in gel wax? Absolutely but as with liquids use very little! If your finding your colouring to strong or want to mix some liquids to make new colours, melt a couple of oz. of gel and add your liquids, fairly strong. Pour into a pan or ice cube trays, (easier to measure down the road.) and add cubes of the strong coloured gel to your clear gel when your making your candles, start with one cube per lb. and add if needed. There is a difference in the melt point of these two candles. How will that effect the candle? As with any new candle only testing will tell you, start by wicking as if the container was straight paraffin and go up from there if you need to. Depends upon how much gel you have added to the mix. How will the differences in the amount of fo used effect this candle? (Not sure if I’m wording this right. Hope you know what I’m talking about.) In my opinion you should not be using different amounts, just as the fragrance you are using should be non polar for the whole candle, if using both paraffin and gel, the amounts should be based on the rate for gel. These do mix as they are burning! Is there anything else that I need to be looking for when making or burning these candles? No , just test as you would any other candle, melt pool, smoking, throw etc. Have fun! Wendy

Yes we did Amy, I build all the display units whether they are for us or an account, it works well this way as I can custom a size (lol for a price of course) if a particular space etc. needs to be filled. This one has done well as it is a starter,, 24 hook on top, your choice of t's, clams or both and 12 votive choices below. They can add onto this unit with another of the same, just a hook rack or all votive shelves or we have jar cupboards that match too. Thanks Wendy

Morning all, thought I would share a couple more pics as I was adding them to the site. This is our starter display unit for our wholesale program, it has done well for us getting our foot in the door especially locally on the island. We offer it in white, black or natural. Hope you like it. Wendy

Hi all, put your thinking caps on please! We carry CK 1 (type) but it has never sold for us, perhaps a change of name, any thoughts. Thanks Wendy

Thanks everyone, your comments are making us feel great! We struggled with the look of the tins for awhile, trying to come with something a little unique yet cost effective as well and definately different from our everyday line we carry. We got the cost way down to what we needed however at first I thought they may be a little too labour intensive for the busy season however, having everything precut makes it a breeze to slap them together. Thanks again, Wendy

Thank you both! I am kind of laughing at the "nothing to distract" comment. For the first few yrs. of the biz, I fussed everything up, lots of props, very overdone labeling etc. and this past couple of yrs. we completely changed our look although not necessarily our products. I did this due to the pressure put on me by my daughter whom I work with. She prefers uncluttered, definately not strong country or prim etc. After much thinking about it I decided to go with her thoughts, she is 30 and very much the age group I wanted to Target, they spend. It is working and I have grown to love the simplicity of the look! Just a thought and again thanks Wendy

Morning all, thought I would share a few of the pics we had done by a photographer for our brochures, they look better in print than on the web but I am very happy with them. Hope you like. Wendy

Why thank you Luci, as wedding favours I love the organza bags, they look very elegant in my opinion, although we have been asked to do an order and put them in burlap, lol. Wendy

Thanks everyone, yes this glitter is safe to use, actually it is cosmetic grade but there is other glitters sold under various companies own names that work. (Most of the craft store, even the super fine is not safe, it will spark and crackle or clog the melt pool as it enters the area of the flame. ) We make the candle then apply a light coating of watered down modge podge which is waterbased, very thinly! We then dust with our shakers. Lastly we spend the next few weeks finding glitter everywhere! We use the halographic which sparkles different colours, looks pretty when the light hits it. HTH Wendy

Hi Jean here is a couple of pics of different items we do in this effect, hope they help. Wendy

Thanks everyone, we have been doing our smoreman for a few yrs. now and he is always a good seller for the season. This particular order will be put into a squat bail jar with a frosting of snow on the bottom, (whipped wax). Then we can wick him to completely melt. Other times they go onto a rusty pan or terra cotta saucer and then we wick him like a mini pillar. The burn time in either case is minimal, like many novelty candles they are bought for that reason as a novelty, we do the best we can with the wicking to make them safe in case they are burned however achieving full burns and melt pools is often impossible. They are time consuming to make all the components, put together and paint but they are fun! Thanks again Wendy

WE're busy pouring up a storm this weekend, we have 50 of each of these to get done for an order, getting a little sick of chocolate, Wendy

The one in picture was poured a darkish brown colour. After it was demolded we take silver acrylic mixed with medium and dry brush the candle to add some highlights. because the master (the piece of log we used to make the mold) was very rough the paint mixture when dry brushed only hits the high areas and leaves all the cracks a dark brown.For this one I was going for a birch type bark finish on it. Hard to show in the picture. I don't think I would do another of this one unless it was for an order, a ton of silicone was used for this mold, lol. Although if I did it a little smaller it wouldn't be too bad. I am not sure what you mean by your last sentance but if it is are both ends wood grain looking then no they are not so laying it on the side with a slice taken off wouldn't look that pretty, thanks for pointing that out! I did pour one up last night, (lol) took awhile to find the mold! I am going to slice it into 2" thick rounds or so and drill out a tealight holder space in each, the top and bottom will be flat looking but the outer edges will show all the bark detail. Will see how those look. Thanks everyone Wendy

We make all our own molds. Thanks everyone. Wendy

Hmmmm great idea Candleman, I might have to fire up the bandsaw and give that a try. Thanks Wendy

Morning all, I thought since I put this pic in another forum hear in regards to a question I would add it here. This is an old silicone mold we did up four or five yrs. ago for a custom order. It is a very large candle measuring about 6" in diametre and 9" tall. This particular one is poured whole, like a full pillar, however we most commonly insert a tealight holder or pour the outer shell in high melt and lower melt the inside. Gotta make a few of these up for Christmas now that I remember I have the mold! Wendy

We have done similar but I don't have a pic of it. What I do have is a pic of the silicone mold we made from a log and poured as a whole. However we have done it poured as a shell with high melt point and an insert, then poured the inner with a lower melt point. I think using the mold is the easiest way to get that outer texture. Here is the mold poured as a whole pillar. Wendy

Henry we too stay away from plastic or poly as they are. Not only are the temps worriesome, fragrance seems to be a factor with them where gel is concerned. I think Penreco may have something on their site about this, it has been awhile since I checked it out. We use alot of oyster cups for double glassing if we're working with gel, they give a long burn time and most often do a candle out of gel, insert a glass tealight holder and a soy or paraffin tealight. They look pretty too and sometimes help to alleviate any concerns customers may have about burning gel. (These darn stories still pop up occasionally!). Have fun and oh yes, we use alot of LX wicking in gel, not the norm but it works for our applications. The only thing is all our wicking in LX is pretabbed therefore waxed and it does mean popping trays of wicks into the oven between paper toweling to remove the wax. Post some pics of your creations. Wendy

Gretchen these are very easy to make too. Use clear mylar or acetate sheets and purchase a circle cutter. (Available at any craft or scrapbook supply store.) Hole punch the centre with a free stye punch. If you purchase acetate sheets that can run thru your printer you can also print on them before cutting. We use them for our wickless containers which have no lid. If you would like to see a pic, let me know, I am in the shop right now and the pics. are on our home computer. Wendy

Just another thought although I am looking it from the other way around, we are located in Canada. Our insurance must have a rider for international selling, either wholesale or retail. We have to specify and pay a premium for each country we ship to. Your insurance company may be different. Some countries are more costly than others as well, for us the US and Japan are the most expensive premiums we pay. In addition when we were just homebased and carried our insurance as a rider on our house insurance we could not get out of country coverage. We had to switch to a commercial policy for that, much bigger bucks. Just something you may wish to check into. Wendy

Jeez guys, your making me blush, thanks so much! As I said with the regular everyday business creating new gels has just not been possible but with all these great compliments I think I might drag out my idea book! Much appreciated! Wendy

LOL all these are painted by our instructors who have taught for many years. They do some great work on a variety of surfaces and each have their own style and mediums they prefer. Painting on candles for classes is a first for us this year, thought I best get some of our work involved in the process, lol. I do paint, although certainly not this well and not enough to teach! This is one that I did last year,

Thanks so much you guys, I do love working with gel! For bubbleless it is lots of work with the heatgun or time in the oven. It depends on the candle. If wax embeds are used neither method can be used, they will melt and as well if you have floating embeds they will sink, so the key for us is to pour hot, very slow, down a spoon or similar and for floating embeds we pour in layers,heat gunning lightly between layers to remove the pour line. It does take practice, lol, or luck! The fisherman was not this clear, personally I like some bubbles, it adds to the light refracting when it is lit, however this little guy sat in a window for awhile and the bubbles disappeared. We don't do nearly as many scene type candles as we used to, mass production for wholesale has severly cut into that, however we do keep a few favourites on hand in the store and to take to shows. Pies, preserves, desserts etc. are the mainstay of gel for us. We do alot of weddings though, we rent display racks that we make for our candles for the tables etc. and we get asked to fill the holders with gel more than soy or paraffin, people like the look it seems. Thanks for your comments once again, much appreciated. Wendy

LOL there painting on a couple as we speak! Will post when they return the projects to us. Here is a pic of one done on a solid candle, pansies, and a winter scene they did on a candle jar. Our students seem to like the ideas they are signing up like crazy for these particular classes. Wendy

Some gels were asked for in the gel section, here is a few that I don't think I have posted before. Hope you like. Wendy