flutterbye

I love the French Vanilla & Amber ones, beautiful color combo!

Thanks for the responses. Well my main issue that is preventing me from profiting enough to keep the business going is that I mostly make luminary (hurricane) candles, a huge variety of them, but really, they last forever so theres never a need to replace them so once a customer has purchased a few, theres no need to ever buy more. I do have loyal customers who tell their friends and order personalized ones as gifts for others...But after a few years I've almost hit up every possible customer in town. At alot of shows, I'd get people come back and say how much they love their luminary or remark to there buddy as they walk by that they bought one at a previous show but theres no reason to replace a candle that never consumes itself. And my prices are so high now, I cant help it, supplies have gone up too much. My tarts go like crazy only because there the cheapest thing on the table! But they don't pay the bills. If I hear one more customer mention those stupid cheap febreeze flameless luminaries, i'm gonna freak out. Business was booming a few years ago. I thought this was it, I'd found something I love doing so much, get to work at home at my own schedule and actually have a fun job. But once I started having to put supplies on a credit card that I couldn't pay off anymore, I realized it was over. Back to the 9-5, mind blowingly boring, uncreative, work for some other jerk, job....

So, I haven't posted much in Soooo long! I went completely out of business in the recent summer. I just couldn't compete with all the mass produced, cheaper products out there for sale in the general department stores.. I made amazing luminary candles, worked my butt off! Embedded, Personalized, etc. but have been one-upped by 'Glade' and every other battery operated, scented, everlasting "candle" product out there, I cant tell you how many times I've heard customers say things like "I saw these candles at Kohls or Gordmans, scented, made of real wax and battery operated for only $5.99 each or so and so makes what you do for half the price, why do you have to charge so much more? ....So I closed up... I'm just curious to hear of other peoples stories of having to lose their business to a mainstream battery operated or other mass produced related candle overthrow. I hope I'm not the only one... I got so used to hearing " I love how unique and special your candles are & handmade is so much more special" Then BAM! There are glass hurricannes you can personalize with your own photos yourself, safer, battery opperated luminary pillars for less than half of what my product costs in wax... Their entire finished product at retail costs less than my cost per supplies@ wholesale. Guess us homemade candlemakers are being overthrown by the larger, factory operated companies.... I Loved making candles...but just cant afford to do it anymore..It breaks my heart that the economy has turned this way...people cant afford the well made products like we all make, they just settle for the cheap crap that they sell at Target or Wallyword... I get it, I'm broke too...but it just breaks my heart...Thanks for listening to my vent.............. :undecided

I wear those gloves chemists use, can stick my whole hand in 200 degree wax and wouldn't feel a thing. I'm sure most other heavy work type gloves would be fine too for overdipping.

Thats really cool! I guess the gel would work better to form to the rounded glass. never thought of that, great idea!

I absolutely LOVE your logo, it's very pretty! Good luck with your retail shop!

I think it should definitely be much smaller. At least put some color or a graphic in the backgound. Or maybe if you printed that on a semi clear frosted label. Think they sell 'em at office depot or max. It's took me almost 2 years to finally perfect my label and I still hate it...

Ooooh! Those are really neat! I know in my area, flameless candles are very popular. Keep at 'em, they will probably sell really well for you.

I've made these a lot and they are tricky. What helps is if you let the photos sit in the wax for about 2-3 minutes, then when you press them onto the sides, they are more likely to stay in place without much cooling from the outside. I also use 2 chopsticks to press the photos up against the sides and to get out any trapped air bubbles. Also, try using a large dishtowel that you can wrap all the way around the candle. When you finish one side leave the towel in place and move on to the next side (very quickly) and so on. You may have to flip the towel over to the cooler side about halfway through. I've tried ice before and every time I get those marks, must be too cold or something..HTH!

These were a PITA! It took almost 2 hours for me to carve and paint each one. Probably will never do them again, but they will makes good gifts for someone in the future. Thanks for looking, Happy Candlemaking!

So...I haven't posted anything new in awhile...mostly because I haven't done anything new in a long time. I made these with crushed sea shells and a variety of other shells. I'm happy with them and may add them to my line soon. Surprisingly they all turned out perfectly the first try. Shown unlit and lit. Thanks for looking

I second the previous posts. I had my stuff in one shop on consignment and will never do it again. You know how you go to most stores and you see all the candles dented up, smudged, scratched etc. ? Well, thats how mine ended up after months of customers picking at them and being rough. So, there were always quite a few candles that never sold because they looked like crap and nobody wanted them...Then it's my loss, the shop owner could care less. But I'm not saying every situation would be like this. Just keep that in mind. Good Luck!

Other than some of the fonts being a little tricky to read, I absolutely love it, it's beautiful! I love all of the colors you chose, the purples with the green. Looks great.

I use that metal tape. They have it at Wal Mart...not the stuff from the plumbing section with the blue backing but the roll of metal tape from the painting/tools section. Works like a charm every time. Just crisscross two pieces, leaving a corner folded under so that you can easily pull it off when ready. I have even permanently sealed wick holes on molds to use them a hurricane molds and so far it's stayed put through many many pours. HTH!

I can't say enough good things about bluevoda. They're website builder is amazing, you can do anything with it.

Plastic shoeboxes would work. I use big ziplock bags, but I also do not scent mine. Not 100% sure but I think ziplock bags are a no if you want to keep scent in??

I don't think that would be a problem at all, especially since butt naked is a name that would be hard to guess what it would smell like. If it were a popular dupe scent or something like that (assuming butt naked isn't a dupe??), obviously that would be different. People probably wouldn't suspect a thing. Just let your regular customers who may have purchased it know that it has changed.

Everyone refers to me as 'the girl with the candles' Guess they don't think I'm old enough to be called lady.

I think it looks really neat! I wonder if you'd be able to do it again or if this just happened by chance.

Pretty much all I have sold this holiday season are personalized hurricanes and other personalized candles to be used for xmas gifts. I think around here where I am, there is an unlimited supply of pillar and jar candles at numerous stores allover that can offer better prices and prettier packaging/presentation than me. I can't drop my prices though that much, so I think people just look elsewhere for an item that looks pretty much the same but costs less (but may not burn as well;))

Absolutely adorable! Very unique, I love them!

Well, I had long hair till 2 days ago when I cut 9 inches off. I have a beanie hat I wear and a specific pair of jeans and a top that are already covered in splatters of wax. Oh and gloves and shoes (that I had already spilled wax on) Makes it much easier to not have to worry. The trick is when you have 2 cats and work out of your home, keeping their hair outta things. I swear, it doubles my time spent on jar candles.

Bookcases are great, I use those 5 tier dvd shelves on top of tables. You can fit SO much more stuff that way. At least bring some more of your scents that you cant fit on the table and store them under the table and put a sign out saying you also have those scents in stock. Or put together a small case of sample scents you couldn't bring along and a brochure to order those scents from. Good luck on your future shows!

Whoa! You'd think that when people would go to light it, they would think, hey this looks flammable and I'm about to ignite a flame right next to it. It's amazing, I see things like this in a lot of stores and just think to myself are people really this dumb? Obviously yes. Cute candle but the candlemaker should have known better.

Made these for an order from a woman who just lost her mother and wanted a photo of her mother and each family member together embedded in a hurricane shell. Getting ready to box 'em up and ship them out. It took forever because half of these I had to repour because they kept cracking. I finally figured out the problem though, it is cooling temperature related...weird that I've been making them the exact same way for over a year and now all the sudden they wanna crack. Anyways, thanks for looking!