Dustpuuppy

The first step is to kiss all your disposable income, goodbye. Second step is to read a bit. Third step is to melt some wax and make some mistakes. Fourth step is to come back here and figure out how to correct those mistakes. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you either achieve perfection or file bankruptcy... whichever comes first. You won't have a clue what questions to ask, till you start screwing stuff up. Remember: If your first candle appears to have come out perfect, you've obviously made some horrible mistake. It will probably explode.

You can only do what you can do. You get the best burn you can when burning properly, then you torture test to make sure your jars aren't going to explode if they leave it burning for eight hours. For every customer who only burns them for an hour or so, there will be one who burns them for 6 or 8 hours straight. The people who burn for an hour aren't going to have safety issues. The ones who overburn may. So if you wick up and someone burns that candle for 8 hours, is it going to still be safe and not crack the jar ?

Yeah, there are two problems I can see with my idea. The first being how difficult it would or wouldn't be to add another section. The other is that the board could become all bloated and unmanageable if they start adding sections for everything that comes along, thus working the mods to death trying to keep up with it all.

Jamaica Me Crazy ? It's different. Not overpowering, as I recall. Damned hard for anyone to get a bead on, since it's a mixture of scents. Peak's has one called buttermint candies that I recall being quite pleasant, too.

Vicky, would it be possible for you guys to add another subsection in the candlemaking area, for posts on this subject? Just thinking out loud but if anyone ever DID decide to take up this task, they'd only have to gig through that one section, rather than 3 or 4 different sections with all the other posts to sort through. Plus, in the meantime it might be pretty useful on it's own, as a starting point. Not sure if it can be done with this forum software or if it would be too much trouble. With some software it's like 2 mouse clicks and type in the title, with others it's major surgery. Just a thought.

Well, Vicky, we certainly thank you for volunteering. So, you'll have that done by Monday, then?

I'd get rid of them before you get burned. That wax doesn't just roll off your skin, like water. It tries to burn it's way through. Spill hot wax on you even while you're wearing jeans and you could get serious burns before you can get the jeans off. You couldn't get them off fast enough to avoid it, even if George Clooney was in the room.

Just a thought. If you're close enough to drop in at other supplier's shops... You might be able to get some ideas from the folks who work there about the blend your old supplier was selling. Especially if you can take some time to 'shoot the shit' with the folks at the order desk. I'm sure you're not the only one that's freaking out over this. I'll bet they've heard this a few times. They may have some ideas about a replacement.

It makes sense. You're doing the same thing I was talking about, just in a different way. I'd suggest just doing just one of those size 16 FOs, though, at first. Just in case it's drastically different. Maybe zero that one in, then test all the others from that group with whatever wick finally worked for the first one. If you find that you have to go up 3 sizes with the first one, you can start testing ALL your FOs at 3 sizes up from normal ? Just thinking out loud.

Getting all creative and trying new things. Getting an idea and then figuring out how to bring it to fruition.

Can't help you with the wax but I have a trick for the wicking. It worked for me, some people think it's nuts. I used to wick one candle that was just wax, with no scent or color. Then another with a heavy vanilla or bakery scent and a lot of dye. That kinda gave me a range to work from. I could make educated guesses on things in between. If there were six wick choices between the two, I could start with the one in the middle for a lightly colored rose scent. It might save you one or two tests per FO. Then again, it might have only worked for me because I'm a lunatic to start with. YMMV

Yeah. The colors are really nice. It occurred to me that what I said before might not have come out right. It was by no means a criticism. It was part thinking out loud and part because I miss South Florida. :smiley2:

Funny how things can smell differently to different people. Always intrigued me. :smiley2:

That's neat. I always liked those. Not many people do them, any more.

Not the most moronic thing I've seen on this board but it's getting real close. Anyone who doesn't stick to the techniques YOU believe to be right, is just producing shit? What a complete and utter crock of shit. What's obvious is that your judgment is severely impaired by your snobbery. These "upscale products" you keep going on about aren't going to burn any better or smell any better than what's being produced by most of the people on this board. The only reason some people are willing to shell out $40 for a $20 candle is for a name and a fancy label. :rolleyes2 If you're so pathetic that you feel the need to buy respect in this way, it's kinda laughable. Just like the people who drop 5 grand ( or much more) on a Rolex. Anybody impressed by it aren't really worth impressing. It doesn't give you any more hours in the day. It's not gonna keep time or last any longer than a $200 Timex or Pulsar. All you're really getting for the extra $4800 is a name. I guess there's no accounting for a total lack of common sense, either. And no, I haven't tested every other candle in the world. I somehow doubt that you have either. I'm certain you will soon inform me otherwise, as is your habit.

Looks good from here. I might have been tempted to change the green to aqua, just to get that South Fla. thing going on. On the other hand that whole art deco thing has been done to death... Either way it looks good, the layout is good... And I'm using Firefox, so it doesn't just work with IE.

RESPONSE !

With UPS, the shipper files the claim. With freight lines the receiver files the claim. Since UPS now owns it's own freight line, the line blurs a bit. Call UPS or follow the link Judy posted. Find out if you technically sent it UPS parcel or UPS freight.

Could be either one... flip a coin. LOL I could have sworn I'd seen them for $4 somewhere but I've been out of the loop for a while. I checked several different places while we were discussing this. Most were selling them in the $8 range.

Since I've no way of testing that, I'll concede the point. As for the wick falling over... As I said, I've had it happen. And yes, it would DEFINITELY have caught a nearby lampshade on fire. Along with anything else within about a foot or so. By contrast, I've never had a candle continue to burn once the wick got down to the top of the tab. As for bad advice, it's everyone's responsibility to test their product and to try out whatever methods they find to fit their needs. And it seems to me; that you're the one promoting a method that's catastrophically dangerous, due to your irrational, prejudiced belief that there's only one 'proper way' to produce a 'classy product'. Frankly, if it had been anyone but you, I would have dismissed the whole thing as BS the minute they brought up that type of terminology.

I agree with that, to an extent. I do think we should keep in mind how nuts some folk are. That's why we torture test them. Because some folks will leave them burning for 12 hours, without trimming the wick. For this reason I used to underwick mine just a tad. Never had a blowout unless there was a pretty good breeze. ( Technically, I guess you could say I adjusted the formula, rather than the wick but the effect was the same.) Things of that nature. I guess what I'm saying is that you can't make anything idiot proof. You can take some simple steps to help make them more idiot resistant.

What Judy said makes sense, as far as special sales go. I didn't sale anything through any consignment that was 'on special' so it never came up. I was also a bit concerned about the price fixing thing. I'm not certain that it's an issue, as I said. Plus I didn't want to try to control what someone else was doing. So those were my reasons. Judy had good reason to do otherwise. You may find that you have reason to make a third choice. Whatever that may be.

Top and I don't always agree on things but he generally has solid logic backing his position. If it were otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered with all the exposition/explanation above. I generally work on the assumption that he has some bit of info that I don't. In this case the error is in thinking that the wax can be sucked up through the hole in the bottom of the tab. It simply doesn't work that way. I had to think on that one a bit. The crimp that holds the wick in the tab will shut off that flow of wax, just like bending a hose in half chokes off the water. Plus, once the wick burns down to the tab, it's not getting any air. The air and fuel have to mix at the point of combustion. When that point of combustion is lower than the top of the tab, no more air... ergo no more combustion. I had to think on that one a bit. Bottom line is; this is little more than a religious argument. You can tell that when the debate degenerates to the level of statements about 'classy products' and the 'proper way'... etc. At that point it becomes ideological rather than logical.

I think that legally, you have to set your price. Then you have to let them sell at whatever price they want. If you demand that they sell at a certain price, it's price fixing. If you ever had a dispute, that might work against you in court. It might invalidate the whole contract. I'm not a lawyer, so this is just my understanding. To simplify things I just put a dollar amount on it and suggested they sell at a certain price. If you get $8 per unit, retail, you might say that the consignment price is $6 per unit. You can't really tell them what to sell for. If they can get $8.50 instead of $8, then they just make a bit more money. Instead of actually setting the markdown at 25%, I set the price at 75% of my retail price. My people always sold at the same price I did, so it didn't matter. If they sell them for a bit more, you're still getting 75% of your retail price, even if you don't get 75% of THEIR retail price. I'm not totally sure that price fixing even applies to consignment but my way just avoids the issue all together. Instead of saying that you get X%, you're saying that you get $X. For my tastes, this also makes negotiating easier. Arguing over 25% vs 26% gives everybody a headache. $6 vs $5.90 is easier for most people to wrap their head around. I hope some of that rambling made some kind of sense.:rolleyes2

Congrats. Glad you got it worked out. If you ever find out what was going on with the other wax, I'd be interested to know.