Daria Blue

For those who have larger melters - what brand(s) do you have? Are you happy with the brand or is there another brand out there that you would like to have instead?

Stella - thank you!! I should have added that I use palm wax but I will take a look at the link that you posted.

I am at the point where I am ready for a "real" wax melter. I began with the double boiler method and then moved to a presto pot. From there I moved to multiple presto pots and other heating elements to melt my wax. Each element would melt 5-10lbs of wax. I am now at the point that I would like to take the leap and get a professional type wax melter and I'm not sure where to begin. I have been looking around and have discovered that there are many different types out there at many different price points. Does anyone have any recommendations?? I am looking for a wax melter that melts 50-100lbs of wax.

How I've been spending my weekend.... 1. 3 x 4.5" Palm Wax Pillar - Apples & Clover 2. 3 x 4.5" Palm Wax Pillar - White Tea & Berries 3. 3 x 4.5" Palm Wax Pillar - Antique Sandalwood 4. 3 x 4.5" Palm Wax Pillar - Oakmoss & Amber

I have been invited to attend my first craft fair with my palm wax pillars. I am very excited, but also getting a bit nervous! I have a large inventory stocked up in my studio, but my question is how many candles should I plan to take? I don't want to not have enough, but I also don't want to have a lot of boxes that I'm packing up at the end. They are thinking that 300-400 people will be attending, but the director said that she honestly wasn't sure how many. It is going to be in church/school and will be a two day event, 6 hours on Friday and 10 on Saturday. I will have a space indoors that is 8x8. For those who have done shows, any suggestions on how much inventory I should plan to take?

Thank you for the great advice. I am taking some candles over tomorrow - I'm very excited about it!

Yesterday I had a friend of the family approach me asking if I would like to put some of my candles in her store. She has a very successful family run "country" store in town and candles would fit in perfectly. I am very excited about this opportunity, but I also want to make sure that I'm approaching it the right way. Up until now, I have always sold my own candles, so this is very new to me. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? We didn't talk about prices or any of that yesterday, I am taking some candles over tomorrow and we're going to talk about the details. My biggest concern is pricing and the $ aspect of it. I have a set rate for the different candles that I make that I've always used up until now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I don't, but I can go get some. Do you put duct tape or anything over that then?

I recently purchased two 3 x 9 1/2 inch round pillar molds. When I was buying them I didn't stop to think of how I would use a wick pin or wick it before pouring. My problem is that I have wick pins, however they are only 6 inches tall. So...I decided to wick the mold before pouring the wax...I threaded it through the hole and secured it with heavy duty duct tape. I put several layers over the bottom, criss crossing it and pressing out any air bubbles. The pieces of duct tape were long enough to wrap around the sides and up the side of the mold about 1/2 an inch. I figured that it was done well enough...so I poured my wax (palm wax at 210 degrees)..and within 5 seconds the entire bottom was leaking all over. Needless to say I made a waxy mess...I tried it again...only this time increasing the duct tape by two more layers. The same thing happened. So now I'm open to any suggestions that you may have as far as how I can wick this thing without it leaking out the bottom. I would prefer using a wick pin, but I have not found any place that sells wick pins that are at least 9 1/2 inches. Any suggestions?

I find that liquid dyes increase frosting in soy wax - so I tend to use dye chips and blocks. In order to get the color to mix well, I will melt down the dye before - typically in a spoon over a flame - so that it blends well with the wax since you pour soy at such a low temperature. I've found that Bitter Creek (north) is one of my favorite suppliers. They have a huge selection of liquid, dye blocks and dye chips. A couple other places that I like are www.candlescience.com and www.candlesandsupplies.com I hope that helps - happy candle making! -Daria Blue

I recently began using the wuz and wuc wicks after seeing them introduced at the bcn convention. Of all of the wicks that I have used with soy, I do like them. They have good burning qualities and once you find the right size for your candle, they burn well. A nice thing with these wicks is that they have a colored thread running through the middle of them to indicate the size. So for those of us like myself who may not always be as organized as we like, if I would get a couple different sizes mixed up, I can just look at the color of the thread which is visible to the naked eye and tell if it's a 140, 150 or so on.

Has anyone had any luck using hemp wicks in either Ecosoya PB or Feather Palm wax? Those are the two types of waxes that I primarily use and have been interested in giving hemp wicks a try. However before I go out and purchase some, I was hoping to get some advice as to if anyone has had any luck or if you have any suggestions? The size of candles I make have a 3 inch diameter from 3 to 6 inches in height. Thanks.

I've recently been tossing around the idea of entering my candles into an Art or Craft show at the end of the summer. It is still an idea and nothing written in stone. For those of you who have done art and craft shows with your candles before - do you have any advice or tips? Is there anything that you wished you would have known or thought of beforehand that would have made it run smoother? Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Candle Science has a new palm wax for containers which you can find at; http://www.candlescience.com/wax/glass-glow-palm-wax/ I would definitely give that a try and see how it works. I haven't used it myself but I've had good success with their other waxes so I'd assume that this one should be good too.

Thank you for both of the suggestions! I will try out both of them, I find the Styrofoam to be an interesting idea. I have several containers of packing peanuts and that might be something that would work well to hold the mold snuggly while keeping it from cooling too quickly.