IlluminatedGifts

I have the 2005 version. It is a PITA setting it up but I find it’s helpful when you are on the phone with a customer. I can pull it up and know what I have as finished goods instead of walking around looking through the shelves or my work area. My husband helps out and when he is talking to a customer he can go in and see what we have too instead of always asking me. lol Once you finalize your testing and enter the materials in the build section, you can refer back to it when you are ready to make your product. I can’t tell you how many times I couldn’t find my notes and the program saved me hours hunting around for the darn thing. I do not recommend spending the money for this if you do not have the time to set it up properly and maintain it. I’ve been known to slack off and at the end of the year scramble to enter the receipts and builds in for a good report. There are easier programs out there (and cheaper) that others may post for you. I set up and train people on QB and had to buy this to learn how it works. What better way then putting your own info into it! If you have specific questions I’ll be more than happy to answer them if I can.

There was a discussion on a list that I belong to last fall about the rock salt. Here are some tips that were discussed: 1.) The cheapest place that people found is water softener salt from your local home improvement center (Home Depot, Lowes, etc). You need to buy the salt and not the pellets (pellets will not absorb the fo very well). 2.) Some people rinsed the salt and let it dry before adding the fo. This made the salt more translucent if they were going to display it in a dish uncolored. 3.) Add the fo a little at a time. Too much will make the salt wet. If you used to much you can either add more salt to absorb the fo or you can spread it out on a cookie sheet and dab it with a paper towel. Each fo used will react different as far as absorption so you need to play around with it. Obviously, if the fo is not absorbed in the salt within 24 hours you used too much. 4.) Using candle dye could stain and soap dye will fade even though it is not in the sun. The best method to color the salt is mica. I found this out when after a few weeks stored for sale the color was completely gone from the salt. 5.) Store salt in a glass container not plastic. The scented salt will eat through the plastic over time. 6.) People were making different colors of the same scent and mixing them to make things more interesting. They were using a glass dish and either had the salt by itself or mixing it with potpourri fixins. 7.) Definitely have warning labels for this. We know fo can damage surfaces but so can salt. hth, Chris

If you are looking for paper bakery boxes this is the place that I get mine. Scroll down the page. There are different sizes. The down side is you have to buy by the bundle. http://www.wesellcoffee.com/page70.html HTH, Chris

When I was making bakery pies I had two pots melting – one for strawberry and one for blueberry. I had a friend over and was gabbing with her when I realized that the strawberry was colored blue and the blueberry was colored red. <sigh> I chalked it up as another soon to be senior moment! Chris

Room temp (70* humidity 35%), remelted and poured at 150* in unheated molds and did not cover them. They are setting up now but showing signs of cracking at the wick pin and the tops are rippling like the one on the right in my pic above. The interesting thing is the smoothest top so far for me is pouring at 160* in room temp mold uncovered. Shame it cracked. When I can unmold them I will try again at a lower temp to see if this works. I think I’ll try another scent/color too to see if I get the same results. Chris

You’re welcome. The embedded candles do look really nice. I’ve had people think it was a real preserve jar. lol Trae: That’s how I first embedded but I couldn’t help get air pockets that showed with the apple preserve. As I pressed to get the bubble out I usually broke the apple slice. Then I read about freezing embeds and pouring hotter and found that worked for me. What is your technique for placing apple slices?

Thank you for the welcomes! I became addicted to candlemaking 4 yrs ago when I had a decent cash flow and no bald spots on my head! lol I did what a lot of people did when they first started and bought a book on how to make candles (gel) at the local craft store. I fell for the “floating wicks” that weren’t attached but was safety conscience enough to say yes it pretty but I wouldn’t burn it. That’s when the internet became my friend and teacher in how to make a proper candle. The addiction continues now that I want to try my hand at soy. I started with votives last summer and was pretty pleased with the results and thought to myself that this was pretty easy to do. NOT! When winter came and colder temps and low humidity is when I found out why people pull their hair out! My votives went from perfection to frosted, cracking, pitting lumps of wax! We had orders over the holidays and became very frustrated with making a dozen get two good votives out of the batch. Spending 2 days to get a dozen to ship out. I swore soy was not for me until I found this message board and found others having the same problems and everyone was troubleshooting the problems. So here I am dabbling in soy again. :rolleyes2

I want to thank Jason for allowing me to test the 474 votive wax. Here is what I did: 4oz 474 Room Environment: .25oz Cinnamon Vanilla Temp 70* 4 drops EVO Burgundy Humidity 30% Heat to 180* added FO and color, poured at 160* The cold throw right out of the mold is amazing strong! Will remelt and try a lower pour temp. The one on the left was poured in a room temp mold. There were hairline cracks when cooled. Minimum frosting. The right one in a warmed mold and a styrofoam cup placed over it. No cracks but pitting on the top and more frosting.

The most common gel used is MD as far as I know. The HD people use to suspend heavier objects. I started out using the MD and it works well especially for what you are doing. When I started embedding heavier objects like glass I found the HD held up better especially in the hotter months. Instead of having two different gels, I switched over the HD. It really is a matter of preference and what you are actually embedding. I know people who use MD and do not have problems. Chris www.illuminatedgifts.com

Hi, I just realized that I made a few posts but have not properly introduced myself. My name is Chris and I live in NJ. I was bit with the candle bug about 4 years ago and now consider myself a full fledge addict. If I’m not trying improving my candles, I’m on the internet researching anything and everything relating to candlemaking. I found a supplier within a half hour from me and picked her brain until we became best friends! lol When doing craft fairs I had requests for soy candles so there I go searching the internet for soy information when I came across this site. You people rock! The information that you share is priceless. I’ve been hesitant to try soy because it can be a “pull your hair out wax” until you find what works with you. I did try Cargill V and loved it until it cracked like crazy over the winter. No matter what I did the success rate for votives were terrible. I hope the 474 will be more user friendly and can’t wait to test this one out. I did get a sample of the 464 and love it. Now I’m in the process of finding the right wick for this wax but was very impressed with the cold throw, higher pour temp, good adhesion to the jar, smooth tops. For me this wax is the closest that I found that behaves. I could go on and on but will end this here! Didn’t want one of my first post to end up as a novel. lol Chris www.illuminatedgifts.com

When I make my preserve jars the first thing I do is put the embeds in the freezer so they get really cold. Make sure the wax used for the embeds is a high melt point wax. I pour my gel hot and use HD gel. I guess around 200 (or at the point the gel is thin like syrup) into the jar. Pouring this hot let me give a good even coating on the glass. I pour enough to coat a section from top to bottom rolling it to coat the glass about ¼ in. I found this helps with air bubbles between the embeds. Then I place the embeds in the gel and press so they are close to the glass but still has gel between them and the glass. You can raise the jar up enough so you can see what you are doing. Just don’t tip it towards you! Keep adding hot gel and roll the jar around until you have the glass wall covered with embeds. I found this method gave me a good look for my preserve jars. When the gel cools the embeds will stay in place. Do not play with the embeds after you push them in the hot gel. They will melt so leaving them alone you will not smear them. After the sides are done then I pour some cooler gel in the middle about an inch at a time then add some embeds. I do this in layers. Doing the sides first then filling in the middle in layer will not show jump lines. I hope I explained this right! lol It will take some time to get the technique down but you will pick up speed the more you make. Use a popsicle sticks to press the embeds in the gel otherwise you will burn your fingers! HTH, Chris www.illuminatedgifts.com

When I make beach scenes I use play sand that I pick up at our home improvement center and sift out the bigger pieces. I pour the sand into the container and pack it down lightly. This helps with air pockets in the sand. Set up the beach scene and pour a thin layer of gel (about 1/8 to1/4 inch of gel) to seal it. Let it set up. Before I pour the remaining gel in the container I take my heat gun and soften up the gel around the glass edge inside the container. Be careful not to heat it too much or you will get bubbles from the sand coming up. This helps with the line you get when you pour your second layer of gel. Since your gel is unscented then you know that the scent did not cloud it and you can use it for home use. You may find that the sand particles will clog your wick and you may not get a good burn from the gel. HTH, Chris