Crowded House

I will definitely be getting a dolly for the next show in a couple of weeks. My arms are in pretty sad shape today.

It's good to know that it's okay to ask other vendors for a quick break if neccessary. Thanks for all the replies.

For those who do craft shows, what sort of physical support do you have?

I did a show today and it was a pretty positive experience except it was a logistics nightmare. My husband works nights so he had to take last night off so he could watch the kids today.

I hauled in a couple dozen boxes by hand (each weighing 20-30# plus) from the parking lot while the husband watched the kids (aged 1 and 2), set up by myself, sat/sold for 7 hours by myself (my husband did bring the kids up for 20 minutes at noon so I could take a break), then hauled the remainder back out to the husband-and-kids-occupied car after that.

Like I said it was a pretty positive experience but I. Am. Exhausted. I used to have more friends and family helping me but not this year.

Anybody else have very little physical support when they do craft shows? What do you do so you can walk around, take a break, use the potty? Do you ever leave your booth unattended?

This forum was designed to help you decide what color to make your candles, what body butter is better and even who likes/dislikes Just Scents FOs. Wow, what has happened here? I used to get great information here, now it seems like a daytime drama or episodes of Springer or Maury.

Merry Christmas!

Well, One of the things I do is to wick all my jars before I start pouring. I hate to stop and wick, it really slows me down. The next thing I do is divide everything into groups. For example, I put all my jars and dyes that I will use for 1 scent all together with that scent, all the jars, dye for the next scent together with that scent, etc. keeps me from having to keep going back looking at orders and making sure I got em all. I weigh out how much wax I need for one scent, melt it, mix it, pour it, set aside. Go to the next scent. After I pour everything, I get all my labels rounded up so I can be ready for that. Then I trim wicks one scent at a time, add the lids, labels, and place in the box to ship. Once I finish one scent, I do the next.

Gawd, I hope that doesnt sound too tediouse, LOL! It just works for me to keep everything organized and to work things in groups (by scent), and I realized real quick that having everything ready before I got started saved a lot of time.

Not tedious at all. I do it much the same way, because I have 2 kids under 3 years old in the house and if I didn't I'd lose my place for sure!

Another thing I do is to make an Excel spreadsheet of all of the candles I need to make by a certain deadline - FO on the vertical column and jar sizes on the horizontal. When I start an FO I shade in pink all of the jars I am preparing to pour, and when I have finished pouring I go back and shade them grey so I know they are done.

An LX24 does a pretty good job in the 7.5oz. If an ECO14 isn't doing the job in the 12oz then I doubt any of the larger LX sizes will be sufficient, either.

A CD22 would be my first suggestion out of the types you listed, although that could get pretty hot as it makes its way down the jar. You never know until you try, though.

I agree. Scott is a great guy to work with; he's very familiar with the Libbey line.

444 new blend here.

That's possible. The only time I had that happen with 415 was when I made testers at night and they sat in the sun the next day.

I've never seen anything like that in my 444, but I'd love to know what you find out.

Around here it seems to depend entirely on the size of the show and how long it has been running.

There are podunk shows that charge $15 for one day, and others that charge $500 a day for a weekend, but the high end ones usually advertise like crazy, have entertainment, etc.

Probably the best deal running is a show that has been going on every fall in one of the outlying tourist towns here. Estimated turnout is around 80k for 3 days, and the booth fee (for all three days) is only $120.

"Honey, I wicked six cases of jars today for your Caramel Pecan Pie pour you wanted to do tonight."

"Thanks. Ummmm...what size wicks did you use?"

"Size?"

I guess I'm luckier than I thought to have a DH who has only a passing interest in the operations of candle making.

My first show was at some podunk place that ended up being around 15 vendors and maybe 100 customers all day long.

They put me next to the most aggressive Country Bunny person ever. She was actually physically grabbing old men out of the aisles to do scrubs on! I ended up not quite making booth fee.

Keep your chin up, and good luck today!

I've been thinking about this since I first saw the ads for the glade thing that is basically an upturned glass with a shallow bowl and a wicked tart which is designed to melt ultra fast and be gone in a matter of hours, "filling the whole room with fragrance" (their words).

My guess is that this appeals to the market that doesn't care how long the product lasts as long as the results are fast.

Pure genius on the part of Glade, too. Two tart-sized candles and a glass cost almost $10 where I live, and the 3 tart-sized refill is just over $7.

I would suggest you try asking again around a month from now.

I think there is a difference between bashing and posting something that made you do a double take so you're looking for opinions. It's possible that what you saw as a potential negative is something that someone else sees in a different way and is actually quite valid.

A public forum is a good way to learn and share all sorts of different opinions on candle and soap related things. Unless you're talking about the manner in which it's presented ("That SOB ripped me off!" as opposed to "$10 shipping for one votive candle? Can this be right?") then I disagree that nothing negative about someone else's business should ever be posted.

Doop? I'm not familiar with that term.

I think you should find out who they expect to eat the cost in cases of damage or theft.

I found that I didn't have to twist any more after I sharpened my scissors.

This resource has been my absolute best friend in wicking since Top turned me on to yield months ago. It takes forever to load so I suggest a download for reference.

Don't know about the 4oz ones, but the 2oz ones are recessed.

Red, blue, and yellow in equal amounts should get you grey.

Wow.

I checked the site. They obviously use many MC products, the ingredient list for the bases is identical to the MC site. Not one B&B product is actually formulated by this company, I presume.

It's pretty easy to spot when they don't bother to clean up the spelling errors for the ingredients listed on the MC site.

I think they might be mistaking "Kosher" for "Organic".

I bought a box of 415 from MC way back and it does indeed have "Kosher" printed on the side of the case. It made me wonder about the Jewish soy candle market. Anyone know about that?

I prefer to call soy candles "an agriculturally-based, water soluble product in an easily recyclable glass container".

You did a lovely job grouping your products. I don't think you need more height precisely because of the way you grouped them.

I do think you should cover the risers, though, or at least spray paint them so they aren't as obviously cardboard.

Libbey has an outlet in Shreveport.

Snowtop has one that smells like butterscotch. Great throw in soy (like, knock you out the door hot throw).

EZ Soy is a container wax. It's not really made for votives, IMO.

If you want to use EZ Soy to fill a votive container with wax and make a candle that way, I'd go by the votive container width when selecting a wick size.

Hope this helps.

Pumpkin Custard?