Stella1952

How lovely!! It reminds me of my 30-something year old (oh crap - it's 40 something...1973! DUH!) shell pillar. The center was burned out decades ago and I have been putting votives and tea lights inside for all this time. I really need to refurbish it - it's beginning to look more than dingy, but it was a wedding gift from a dear friend and I still love it so even though the man I married that day is only a vague memory to me... Sure would love to see a pic with it all lit up... Hopefully more of the 'caners'll come around and tell you the type of wax they use - you could also search the forums as I know Donita has told us many times...

Willow, I'm happy if it helps, but unfortunately none of what I wrote is conclusive... wish that it were! But maybe if we all share our ideas on puzzling issues like this, we'll find some more solid remedies amongst all our findings. Like many folks here, I am pretty wet-behind-the-ears at the fine art of chandlery, but always glad to share what has worked for us.

Keep him around!!! A perfect partnership!! I love BOTH!!

Willow, the short answer is that we, too, see some bubbles in our C-3 to some extent at some point during the life of the candle. We are endeavoring to discover something that consistantly reduces the bubbling to zip, but so far haven't found any one thing that we can point to and say, "Do this and your bubble trouble is history." Some random observations: It seems like there is more bubble formation toward the end of the jar, although we have no hard data on that... It also seems like there are more bubbles when the wick isn't quite right... Jars & tins seem to develop bubbles at about the same rate... **candles which frost a lot around the edges after burning seem more likely to have an objectionable quantity of bubbles... The things we currently do for bubble reduction are: • tap the jar on the table carefully right after the pour to release air bubbles, then a couple of times as it cools (before it skins over or gets tooo slushy), especially if we see any developing; • pouring slooow right down the wick • ultra clean air-dried jars (we wash 'em in Parson's Sudsy ammonia & HOT water, then put in the oven upside down to dry) • we don't touch inside the jar once they are clean and dried & we store them upside down until moments before wicking & pouring • warm the jars until they are ALMOST too hot to handle • slow, protected cooling after the pour Here's how we figure it... if there is no tunneling, nothing for air bubbles to adhere to on the jar surface and as few air bubbles as possible introduced during the actual pouring process, the bubble formation is knocked down to a dull roar. Although it doesn't look like someone "hocked a big one" in the candles, the measures we take above do not eliminate bubbles totally! *scurries off to look in test jars for bubbles* Yep - about half (burned down between quarter & halfway) have 0-5 bubbles, most of the rest have a thin line maybe 1/4-1/2 inch long at the edge of the jar, (15-20 small bubbles) and a few, burned all the way down to the wick tab, which look mildly rabid. Some FOs and dyes *seem* to froth more, although we haven't been able to conclusively say "this FO from So & So or that color dye from Thus & Such causes C-3 to froth like it has rabies."** The reason we can't totally pinpoint it is that there are still too many variables in how we pour, such as, did we stir the holy livin' heck out of it right before pouring for some reason? Was it a remelt from the previous day? Did we remember to do our version of tempering (something we have found that really helps a lot of ills, but we haven't "dialed in" the exact process yet)? We also have not kept close enough records of each candle poured from a single pot of wax (we usually load up the Presto, add the minimum doses of USA and UVS, melt, temper, then color and scent in a pouring container), ie. do the FIRST candles from a pour develop more bubbles than ones from the LAST ones? Is it better to carefully ladle the wax into the pouring containers and jars so as not to incorporate any fine air bubbles into the melted wax? I am not sure whether the air bubbles are happening because of air gathered into the wax during the pouring process or whether it is a surface tension problem... I do have a couple more wild ideas to try to see if they help... will let y'all know if they work. Have not tried vybar, palm wax, or paraffin in case you wanna try those... (*crosses beeswax off the to-do list*) Testing is ongoing... If someone told us that doin' the funky chicken over the cooling candles will make them mo' better, hey, we'd try it! Well, IF the curtains were pulled... and the spouses weren't around to see...

I would LOVE to see a photo of that burning - I'll bet it has a heavenly glow!!

Yes, Tony, I played around until I got a palm/soy blend that suited me. It is not nearly as transparent as paraffin, but has worked nicely enough for the paper and botanical embedded projects I have made so far. The blend leaves a thin coating of crystals on the surface of the paper, which I like.

EOs are trickier... try samples from several suppliers - not all EOs are created alike. We have not made many using EOs but we pour much cooler than you do and we add the EO just before pouring and stir well. We use NatureWax C-3 with Universal Soy additive and UV stabilizer. The scents are frequently more subtle than the FOs, but they were within reason to us. Good luck!

Missy, I can only echo your comments. The tops we get on C-3 are usually as satiny smooth as a baby's fanny! We also get the occasional dip by the wick, but seldomly enough to require a second pour... We pour at about the same temps as you do - 140°-150°. We generally use Universal Soy additive to help with the fragrance load (1-1½ oz. per pound) and to resist frosting (some colors and scents frost anyway to some degree sooner or later - the ones that frost badly within the first month after pouring, we do a batch with the same FO in a different color to determine which seems to be causing the frosting). We use UV protectant (my partner calls it Sunscreen ) at the recommended dose of 1/8 tsp. per pound. We wash the jars in Parson's sudsy ammonia and set them upside down in the empty dishwasher to air dry, or on wire cookie cooling racks. We heat the jars until they are almost too warm to touch (no idea what temp... whenever human skin begins to get uncomfortable ). We add the FO just before pouring, but we take the time to stir it in well before pouring slowly into the container. During the winter, we had great results putting a cardboard box over the cooling candles so they would not cool TOO quickly in our drafty ol' house. We never put the lid on the container until the candle has totally cooled - about 24 hours. When removing the jars from the scale after each is poured, we usually set them down kinda hard (without slopping the wax!) to dislodge any air bubbles and again if we see any forming around the wick area. The heat gun sometimes does accelerate frosting, so we try not to have to do that or to do a second pour. HTH

Kool, Gdawg! Please let us know how you like them.

Here's the lowdown on the CDN wicks - scroll down to the correct table... http://www.justbynature.com/wicks.html We have been very satisfied with these. We had used hemp wicks before and they mushroomed like my yard after a week of rain! We did not want to try every brand/style of wicking out there (there are so many!), so we studied the descriptions of each one and decided to try the CDNs on both our soy and palm wax candles. We were pleasantly surprised that the CDN worked out well for both types of wax.

I have researched palm wax tirelessly and discovered via one manufacturer's site that there are several formulas of palm wax for different purposes and effects. Like soy and paraffin, all palm wax is not the same... Here is a link to general information about malaysian palm wax... http://www.lipidchem.com/about_palm.html ...and here is a link to their specific products. I think many of our suppliers purchase from them... http://www.lipidchem.com/our_products2.html Wish we could talk more of our suppliers into making more of these different formulas of palm wax available to us...:undecided THANKS for the link to the light box instructions - I think that will resolve my photo issues!

Judy, those are absolutely perfect! They should sell very well for you!

Looks great to me! If you are using a digicam, be sure to set your white balance for incandescent lighting... the yellow of it shades the entire photo if you have not color corrected... You can also correct general color flaws in a photo editing program. Most digicams come with photo editing software, but if yours didn't or is not very useful, try downloading The Gimp (do a Google search for The Gimp and you will find it) - it is a full-featured open source program that rivals Adobe Photoshop in its ability to manipulate images. Good luck and hope to see more of your mondo kool candles in the future!

I can't see much from your small pictures... are you usng the suggested wax, methods, etc.? I don't use paraffin for 'canes, but have found that when there is a slight buildup because of an uneven coating, the thicker places can be slightly shaved to remove the excess. It takes some practice when overdipping (if that is the process you are using) to ensure that everything gets an even coat. HTH:D A quick pass of a heat gun can also correct minor flaws.

The CDN wicks carried by JBN have given us excellent results on 8 oz. widemouth round jars. Start with a 12 and see if that works... you might need to go up to a 14, depending on your FO, etc. They sell a wick assortment that is very cost effective for testing purposes. If you search the forums, there are more responses to your question.

NatureWax C-3 gives us fantastic, consistent performance overall. Proper wicking and high quality FOs make a huge difference also. Wihth the good, consistent results we have obtained using this wax, we don't even consider trying anything else... if a product is giving one excellent results, unless one is just into experimenting, why would one consider anything else? This is a question that has been asked/answered many times before. Searching the forum might give you more responses.

I would LOVE to see some of the projects in which you use those excellent coffee beans! They look exactly like the real thing!

Some of our palm pillars and votives do the lacy thing also... personally, I love the look!! Dunno if it is considered "correct" by those "in the know", but I like it anyway. BEE-YOU-TEE-FULL!!!

Daria, I hope this will be the first of MANY times you post pictures because your candles are WONDERFUL! We seldomly do much layering or "weird stuff" with soy because we got hooked on palm, but now you have me itching to fire up the Presto pot and go PSYCHOdelic with some soy! Just wait'll my partner sees these...

Well, I guess that kinda depends... some folks WANT candles to leave shells and don't consider their candles to be comparable to "store bought crap." The beans don't burn embedded in the shell. At least the ones we have made never have... I had a large candle given to me years back that had embedded seashells (but not in the center). Those didn't burn or scorch either because the candle was wicked to burn down the middle and left the beautiful shells in the shell so I could relight it with a votive for the next 33 years, coming up on 34.

... and where do you get this Italian palm wax - I sure love dat candle!!

If it says, 100% soy wax, then that's the kind of wax it contains plus additives (like color, fragrance, UV stabilizer, stearic acid, etc.). If it says "soy," then it means it contains soy wax... but who knows how much... or what else the candle contains...

I use Tacky Wax for mine. One can melt it and spread it with a brush. Do you overdip?

Love the daisey chain! The glow of BW is unbeatable!

Your "wrong" rustics look mighty "ALL RIGHT" to me!