Stella1952

Oh BRUCE! Those are WICKEDLY wonderful! The taper is to die for! And your watercandle - WOW!! I have not attempted anything with water yet, but that "castle" might just tip me right over the edge! Facinating! No matter what, it's always great to just have fun and see what happens, isn't it?

Topofmurrayhill, you are RIGHT! :embarasse Oh well, at least we know how they are spoze to look when lit...

If you have a label on the top, you could secure your hang tag thread underneath - sorta like the tassle on a graduation mortarboard hat...

What a beautiful, unique project! I hope y'all have a lot of success with them!

Looks like jade or green travertine! Very nice! Are you keeping that one or will it be finding a new home? I find it difficult to sell/give away candles that I REALLY, REALLY like... not that I need another candle around here... :rolleyes2 We look at one another when we make a mondo kool one and try to think of reasons WHY that candle cannot be sold! It's addictive...

Ilona, those are lovely and it is so kind of you to make them for the kids.

Thanks, AJ!

No, I wasn't kidding. If I had a problem with the quality of products I had ordered from someone with whom I had attended shows and purchased wholesale products, I would resolve it with them directly and not post it on a public forum, which seems spiteful in and of itself... Just my humble opinion... :lipsrseal I certainly agree that these candles are not of a quality that I would be proud to sell or give away. I would let my husband burn them in his shed, however, so long as the wicks were centered...

Rainbows have been used as design motifs for thousands of years before they were adopted by the gay rights movement! :rolleyes2I LOVE this candle! It would match nearly ANY kind of interior or exterior decor - especially MINE!! What's with the "secret buddy" thing?

I was curious about these diya candles, so I Googled them (images) and found this photo of diyas burning on the Stanford University website... Diyas are earthenware lamps. If anyone wants to learn more about these beautiful traditional Indian lamps and their uses, try Googling "diya."

Sounds like this is a result of a personal dispute with the owner of Amber Ridge Candles... I would not judge their customer relations nor product quality from this, although it would cause me to beware... Hopefully you can resolve your differences with the owner amicably.

Looks like a hurricane to me! Do you have any pics of it lighted? I am wondering how much light comes through that beautiful deep red... But no matter what you call it, it's a good looking project. How tall/wide is it and what wax did you use? Would love to see more of these!

Ginger, we ordered the rootman and other plastic novelty molds from Pourette... They came packaged VERY nicely with wicking and helpful, clear instructions for each mold. Keep in mind that we pour these with palm wax, so all our experiences come from that wax only. Our only complaint about these molds is that the material from which they are made does NOT tolerate HOT pouring temps. When we poured our molds around 165°, they did fine, But when we poured at 180°+, many of them had release problems and the hot palm crystals even etched patterns into the surface of the molds in a few spots. Once the molds have suffered temperature troubles, especially the "etching," they will never release cleanly again no matter how much stearic or release is used! To promote longevity from molds made from this material, pour on the cool side (forget "slushy", though, because it will set up too fast and not fill in properly) and wait to demold until the casting is totally cooled. Excessive pulling on the mold will cause wear at the edges, which then split. I have been successful in repairing splits (on the outside) with silicon rubber sealant, but once there is a split, it usually will reopen after demolding the next casting... We did not purchase the little mold closure and stand kit - it didn't look like anything more than we could do with Acco clip fasteners, big cans of veggies (for support) and masking tape, but check it out for yourself. Pouring these molds is MESSY on a good day. It is not unusual for them to leak - especially when pouring at hotter temps - and this leaking will create caverns rivaling Carlsbad and Mammouth cave systems! Doesn't matter HOW many relief holes one pokes - We actually think poking a bunch of relief holes causes as many problems as it resolves! We have had to escavate and refill many bottoms and even lost some because they simply were too riddled with tunnels to sell or give away. The rootman is a moderately difficult mold - it has some undercuts that cause mold vacuum and difficulty in releasing when the mold is flexed slightly. Watch out for his hat! It's long and tapered and will break or crack easily, especially if the candle is still the slightest bit warm. We usually allow them to set up for a full 24 hours to gain strength before we attempt to remove the candles. Some of the molds are quite cost-effective to cast; others are difficult and are very labor-intensive. We make the difficult ones mostly for grins and do not expect to be able to sell them at a price commensurate with the labor (in setup time, pouring and finishing) that we have in each candle! They are simply for our friends & relatives as a novelty... Despite the challenges, we DO enjoy these very much and recommend them to anyone wanting to make unusual candles - just have PATIENCE and think the entire process through before you begin. Remember: these are MESSY to pour so be SURE to totally cover your worksurface and watch for leaks! Always make up more wax than the mold requires so you can refill in case of leakage or caverns. Have fun!

Try Googling "free graphic downloads" or when you know the subject - like Mountain Lake, use that search term in Google images and see what you find... If you see a graphic that interests you, and it is copyrighted, you can always write to the photo owner and ask for permission to use it - all they can say is Nope. Here's what I found for Mountain Lake... http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Mountain+Lake&btnG=Search+Images&nojs=1

You betcha! We have some orders to catch up on, then back to playing around with some ideas we had prior to Holiday Madness! Thanks all for the kind words.

Thanks, Georgia! You are so correct - I missed the thrust of the question! Glad you made things mo' clear! There's NOTHING that confuses me more than math questions... 'course READING does help...:D BTW, the calculator was useless for the problem at hand...

BEAUTIFUL! Great idea about the votives so customers can reuse their art candles over and over... Dang! Now I am SOOOOO craving PIE!!!

Wow - Christmas got so BUSY, I didn't even take pictures of many things as they were selling as fast as we could make them! Here's a couple of the new ones... Rootman in Warm Vanilla Sugar Square Pillar & votives set in Stargazer Lily Round Pillar in Moore's Flower Shop™ Ball in Aloe & Green Clover Thanks for lookin'!

I like your labels - the font looks good and I like the fragrance on the big label and the weight on the bottom with the warning label... However, the beans do nothing for me. I think you would be better served to use an illustration of the scent if you don't have a logo... like for the Mountain Lake, an illusrtation of a mountain lake would look nice... or for Christmas Tree, use a Christmas Tree... or for Bare Naked, a classy nude... I think you are very close here!! I particularly like the clear labels on that jar rather than paper ones - looks very classy.

OK, thanks, y'all:D - I have a better picture now! So you are basically using the fryers to melt and hold unscented, uncolored wax to transfer to another container for scenting and coloring? I can see where the larger size melting pot would be nice to have...

I have had very good results using CDN wicks for soy and palm wax. I have not tried them with bayberry or beeswax yet, but when I do take the plunge into those other waxes (I am SOOO jealous!), that's what I will start with...

Same problem here - a drop is not a drop is not a drop... First, make sure you shake the everlivin' daylights out of the color then squeeze out ALL the contents of the dropper and draw a little of the shaken stuff into the dropper. That will give you the most uniform drop size... Coloring small quantities with consistency is much more difficult than coloring a larger amount because it is hard to divide a drop! I have, however, simply dipped a toothpick tip into the dye to get just the right amount... We frequently save the test drips with the information on how much wax and how many of what color(s) to get that particular shade... Guess it depends on how precisely consistant the colors of your candles need to be... When I have to absolutely MATCH colors, I make them from the same batch of colored wax so there will be no variation. With our market, matching a shade exactly is not required very often... There will always be subtle differences from dye batches, particularly in small batches, so we don't really worry too much about our products being THAT standardized, but in other markets, it would be imperative.

Thanks, Carrie, but they do not carry the kind of wicking we prefer. I am in contact with a couple of suppliers who do carry the CDN wicks we like to see if they can come up with an affordable solution. I don't want to have to purchase 1,000 wicks of only one size just to get a 9 incher!

Kelly, I use a different brand of soy and both colorants and fragrances DO affect frosting, soooo.... You MIGHT be using more liquid than is necessary to color. When coloring, I start with a tiny amount of colorant and test the color on the bottom of a soda can by dripping a penny-sized drop and allowing it to cool. If the color is way light, I increase the amount of color gradually, testing after each addition. The final color will always be a little darker because the greater volume of the candle appears a couple of shades darker than the penny-sized test drop. I usually never even approach the max amount of liquid color recommended by the manufacturer... HTH

To figure this accurately, we'd need to know what size candle you want to make! As in 9% of WHAT? Here's a link to a percentage calculator... http://www.onlineconversion.com/percentcalc.htm According to it, 9% of 16 ounces (1 pound) is 1.44 ounces. So 16 oz. minus 1.44 = 14.56 oz. of wax required for a 1 pound candle with 9% FO, assuming the volume = the weight. HTH