Jane42

We would slice our hands up all the time - then we started just using the turkey roaster or the oven to clean them. Turn them upside down on a paper towel covered cookie sheet - then put them in the oven on warm. The wax will melt right off. Sometimes, if I have used a dark color, I will check and make sure it has all come off. Otherwise, they are "good to go"!

I just checked out a site that carries these lamps - I wonder if my customers could follow these instructions...:tiptoe: Full Instructions are on the back of the bottle of most every brand of Fragrance Lamp Oil. Make sure you read all the directions before proceeding. 1. Set Fragrance Lamp on a level, stable surface. Remove the Decorative/Open Shade and Solid Snuffer Cap. 2. Fill Fragrance Lamp no more than two thirds full with fragrance lamp oil using the small funnel. Dry off any spilt Lamp Oil carefully! NOTE: Your fragrance lamp will not function properly if it is too full! You may add as little fuel as you desire, but never more than 2/3 full. 3. Insert the Wick Stone into the Fragrance Lamp and REPLACE THE SOLID SNUFFER CAP ON THE LAMP.. Allow at least 20 minutes for the Wick Stone to absorb fragrance oil. (If the lamp does not stay hot, you MUST put the snuffer cap back on and wait another 20 minutes before lighting it again.) 4. Make sure the Fragrance Lamp is not near any flammable material. Light the Wick Stone (You will get a substantial flame... 2 to 4 inches tall) and leave the flame on for at least 2 minutes. The whole point to this is to get the wick stone up to operating temperature of 400 to 500 degrees. Blow out the flame after 2 to 4 minutes. Make sure you blow out the flame, do not assume it has gone out. The Wick Stone is now operating. There will be no flame but the burner stone will be very hot! You may damage the wick stone if you leave it burning with a full flame for longer than 4 minutes. 5. Place the Decorative/Open Shade over the Wick Stone. The Decorative Shade protects you from getting accidentally burned on the hot Wick Stone and also helps to hold the heat in the stone. Never put the Decorative/Open Shade on your Fragrance Lamp when the flame is burning. 6. To extinguish, remove the Decorative/Open Shade and place the Solid Snuffer Cap on the Wick Stone.

Well, I feel better now! I just bought a reed diffuser from C&S and put it in my very small bathroom - and I can barely smell it. Granted, I don't always remember to flip the reeds, but it is kind of a disappointment. I know the FO is going up the reeds - that was the first thing I checked - and my hands smelled like peach all day! lol I think I will try a stronger fragrance and see how that does.

We never had ours fitted with the spigot...just pick up the pot and pour. It probably isn't the safest way to do it, but so far so good...:rolleyes2 If the pot is really full, I just use a metal measuring cup to ladle it out.

Ain't that the truth! I had a person at one of my shows going on and on about how they used to buy their candles at Wally World - they just LOVED them - but they stopped carrying the brand she liked.....oh, brother!! People are FINALLY telling us that they see the difference between our candles and the ones they used to buy. They truly did not care about that at the time they were buying them...they just liked the smell...but now they appreciate the no soot, long burning, fragrance WHILE burning, etc. Sure takes them awhile...lol...but, better late than never!!

Sounds like you had a great, and informative, time!! Now that we know how it all works, and were able to talk to a few people there, I would definitely like to take some of the classes next year. Like I said before, the class Sandy took was disappointing, but it was an experience to go there, check things out, listen to how the classes were going, and - of course - SHOP!! lol It was worth the 5 1/2 hour drive!

We use liquid...we have never tried anything else.

Well, my business partner did take the excel class, and it was a disappointment. The instructor even said at the end of the class that she was not happy with how it went and she would try to get at least half of the fee back. On a good note, though, I was able to really get a chance to look around, pick up some things I wanted to try and meet a few people that I have only emailed or talked to on the phone. We did pick up 6 cases of wax - and boy, was that a bear trying to get it out of the car and into the basement of the townhouse!!! We definitely need to hire someone to do that part....I am limping around today....apparently I am in worse shape than I thought!!! lol Anyone take the excel class? If so, what was your impression? Any other good classes that you would recommend for next year, if they are offered?

Ohhh, we have wanted to invest in one of these...that seems like a good price! PS - Islandgirl, did you happen to be at the Candles and Supplies Workshop this weekend??

I think they sell the rolls of butter rum lifesavers at www.oldtimecandy.com. Every once in awhile I want the Bun Maple candy bars.....and they have those too!

I listed the places we buy from so I didn't have to add yet ANOTHER supplier to my list...LOL Thought it would be easier to just add the mold release oo my next order to one of our regular suppliers. These would be for paraffin votives. Stella1952 - Now that we have jars and votives down, pillars are next. I always get a bit nervous when I tread into unknown territory. Except for reading about them, I have yet to actually pour one. I think we are going to stick with paraffin at this point - although I love looking at the palm pillars that people post! Top, thanks for the info. Jane

Stella1952, where do you purchase the silicon spray? Since I want to test this within the next day or two, I think I will try the items I can purchase rather than order. I do want to look into the mold release powder, since it may help us with all of our other votives and, hopefully, pillars (when we actually get brave enough to MAKE a pillar:rolleyes2 )

Sockmonkey, I have looked at those trays and thought they would be a great idea - just never tried them! Pier 1 had some on sale after Christmas...will have to keep my eye out for some more and give it a whirl! It would be nice to do something a little different than the baskets. Holly, I have never tried what I suggested in regard to just covering the basket part and leaving the handle uncovered. :undecided If you wanted to try it, they do sell the shrink wrap at Michaels. They also have the basket shrink wrap at the dollar stores. It took us awhile to get the hang of it - definitely a learning experience. :smiley2:

Good for you! My husband's friend works for a car dealership and I have always wanted to approach him about the possibility of giving them to his clients when they buy a car...just need to get the courage to try!! LOL Will these be in something or just laying on the carpet? I know that I have to be careful about telling people, even though we have a warning on the package, that the beads cannot be placed on the carpet, plastic, etc. in the car. They tend to want to place them in the ashtray, cup holder, etc. Congratulations on your first wholesale account!

My GUESS is that the FO makes it a little "greasier" and helps it release. Occasionally, we have a votive that doesn't want to release, but when we did the unscented, they ALL needed to be "thrown around"!! Thanks, all, for the advice...much appreciated! Jane

Holly, That is a beautiful basket! When we make our baskets, I crumple paper (that we buy from a moving company) into the basket and press the jars into that, making a "mold" of the jar. We then put the shred over that and put the candle back in, trying to get it to "set" into the pre-formed impression. We did use glue dots between the jars so that they wouldn't hit each other, and to try to keep the items in place. The handle baskets are more difficult to do because you don't have the pressure of the shrinkwrap to help you hold things in place. I am not sure if this will work, but could you take the shrinkwrap and just put it over the items in the basket, tape the bottom, and try to shrinkwrap it that way? I hope you can figure out a way to do it, because that is just one gorgeous basket!! Maybe we need to order a big basket from "you know who", examine it when it arrives, then return it to the store. Is that "unethical"??? LOL

I am making unscented votives for my son's wedding. I know the last time we made unscented votives it was very difficult to remove them from the molds. I am going to try mold relase spray, but wanted to know if any are better than others. We normally order scents and wax from JS, Peaks, C&S, BC and Cajun. Does it really matter who I purchase from? Any difference between one or the other? Thanks so much for your help! Jane

The woman that designed ours is in her 4th year of college majoring in graphic arts. She also works for a printer part-time, so she was a big help in letting us know which designs would cost more and helping us to narrow down just what items we would order printed and which we would print ourselves. She wouldn't charge us (she is the sister of my future daughter-in-law), so we made the candles for her wedding and make sure she is well taken care of when she attends one of our shows! LOL

We always do a repour with our paraffin votives and melts - it just looks more attractive. I have seen the melts being sold without the second pour and it just looks so "unfinished" and ugly to me. With our soy, we get flat tops on the first pour, so no need to repour.

We also do all our batches by even amounts - less figuring! For our jars, we make a batch of six at a time. If we don't, then we are also messing around with matching color, etc. Two and a half pounds per six jars....easy! We also have the formula figured for testers when we want to do one at a time. For those, the color does not need to match! The only time we have run into trouble is if we are short on stock - jars, wax, scent, whatever - and we aren't able to do the "six" method. Luckily, that doesn't happen often.

With our votive wax - 4794 - we put it in large trash bags, take it outside, then THROW it on the sidewalk. So far we haven't broken the sidewalk. It can be fun, and sure helps when you are frustrated over something!! LOL We then put it in the rubbermaid container and keep a chisel and hammer handy for those large, stubborn pieces! We just lay the large piece on top of the broken ones and finish breaking it up that way. At this point, the ONLY thing I like about soy is that it comes in pellets....:tiptoe:

Oh, that's right..I had forgotten all about them being open on Saturdays seasonally. I hope they do make an exception for that weekend. I will be emailing them to be sure - we wanted to be able to pick up the wax at least, but probably won't arrive until after hours on Friday.

She does all of our books, so she signed up for the excel worksheet class...nothing FUN!! LOL She is really hoping that this will help get everything sorted out and that she will be able to spend less time on it! She may be taking one other one - not sure yet. I really hope the store front is open...there are a few scents that we want to check out. We started with their FO's - have stuck with quite a few that work really well for us.

We are heading down. Due to our "finances" my business partner will be taking a class - I will just be hanging around! Do they have any of the warehouse open when they have these classes? Will I be able to "sniff around"? We also wanted to pick up supplies while we were there. It is about five hours away from us. Ohhh, and Candlewic doesn't seem that far from Candles and Supplies...I wanted to try some of their pillar wax! Would have been great if I could have gotten Friday off of work to leave early and check them out!

We use 4630 and always heat to 175-180, then add FO and color. I may try cooling it a bit before pouring, though. In our 10 oz apothecary jars it isn't as noticeable, but I see a very slight "dip" in the finished product. Maybe pouring cooler will help that a bit.