gottabt

Which kind? I think that if you are more specific you might get responses. I know that many ppl make them but are you referring to the cardboard ones, corn cob ones or ornies? Just a suggestion.

I guess my view is different but I would not even give a candle to a friend to test before I had full coverage. I actually had insurance in place for about 6 months before I started selling. Too many ppl out there that do not read the caution label and it will only cover you so far.

I am afraid to even say that mine are also single wicked and mostly I use a cd-16 or 18 depending on the fo when I need to wick up. They reach a full melt pool in 4 hours. Which is exactly what I want.

I use a little receipt book from wally world. I rarely give out the copy to anyone but it allows me to write down what sold, tax charged, amt collected. I also write in cash, check or charge and if a charge - the clients name. It works really well for me since my inventory is in an accounting system. The software automatically takes care of the inventory from doing the receipts. I also keep a running total of the bottom of the pages to see how I am doing. I do not use a page per order - we just draw a line after the entry. One book lasted a year. The only time I give you the copy is if they are leaving their purchases with me until the end of the day. If so, I have them fill out the top portion with all their info in case they forget to come back (this does happen and you need to reach them).

Hi All, I just wanted to share. I met with a lady yesterday that has a booth in an antique market. I did not know what to expect but it is an upscale market shop. The items in there are more on the expensive side. A little background - she purchased some candles from me at a craft show last year (sorry to say I do not remember her). Well, she contacted me a couple of weeks ago about the Fall and Holiday scents. I did not have to "sell" her on the candles - her biggest questions were which ones to start with. I walked away with an order for 14 large jar candles and 10 clamshells, and 1/2 a dozen candle toppers. She is thinking that this order will not be enough but wanted to test the waters. The store that she is in also really gears up for the Kumquat festival so the "official candlemaker for the kumquat growers" thing was really a hit. Just for your info the scents she picked to start with are: Cinammon Sticks Christmas Past - KY Bayberry - the clientele is older so this one I recommended Gingerbread Harvest Home Sweet Home Hawiaan Christmas - my personal fav. The clamshells are all over the place but needless to say - kumquat is in the mix. It really sounds like the candles should do well in the store. Of all the vendors that they have in there - there is no home fragrances of any kind so the field is wide open. The only drawback is the town is mostly for snowbirds so the summer is slow. I really need a store that does not cater to snowbirds. I need to make money all year long not just the winter months. Take care - I have to go pour now.

Congrats on the shows. To get more space in your booth I line up my tables in a u-shape but the customers go into the center not me. Sometimes it gets crowded but I have learned that if it looks crowded with ppl - more ppl stop to see what the excitement is about. I do not mind the sheets on the table - in fact I think that it is a good idea. I use tablecloths - the largest I could find - but they still do not cover as well as I would like. I think that the key is to put them on carefully. Make sure that the front bottom is just skimming the floor. On the front corners, I lift the sides so that the top front edge is the fold and pin it back to the side back corner. When I am done the top edge of the cloth has a fold parallel with the edge of the table. All the excess fabric disappears to the inside. It gets rid of the bulk at the front corners on the ground. I have tripped over those corners too many times. It also stops the cloths from lifting in a breeze. I hope that I explained it right.

Wow, you have been busy. I like the white paint! The pegboard really looks handy and wait until you go to a hardware store and see all the things that you can attach to one for storage. I have another little suggestion that really works well for me. Since your work bench is wood it will work for you too. I took a cuphook and screwed it into the bottom front edge of the work top - I keep my heatgun hanging there. This has been a wonderful thing for me - it keeps it out of the way when cooling and right there when I need it. I was always so afraid of getting burned on the thing before I thought about hanging it.

Summer sales were almost non-existant. I did sell some things to friends and on my site but nothing to get excited about. I used the time to revamp my stock and get my marketing together. I am lucky because I know that my main customer is opening in November so I was busy pouring. I can not do shows during the summer and even the October one in 2 weeks could be a little too warm. It really depends on your area as to how sales go. Jan, Feb and March were still good for me - the summer starts early here.

I have used metal buckets and yes you should seal them first. Use three coats of modge podge with special attention to the seals. HTH,

Two years huh - well, that is not very long if I look back to this time last year. Money wise I am still in the hole in year two. I think that it will be better once the kumquat growers open again. Since they are only open 6 months out of the year my greatest profit is realized then. So on to the future. I would like to be in a couple more stores. I am in a gift shop and it is a joke. She is only opened when she feels like it. She has become a teleflorist so I am hoping that this improves. Her store just moved to a more visible location so I am hoping to see more come out of this arrangement. I do not make much because she pays wholesale for consignment. Do not ask - first store - strange circumstances. The kumquat growers sell to many fruit/gift stands and hopefully more business will come from there. I will need to market to her business partners. I will still do 2 shows a year for awhile. They are huge shows and the advertising alone is worth the hassle. I have a website and will continue to market that. I will be streamlining my line. Well, a little. I need to add more gift type items but will be getting rid of the scents that do not sell. I need to get away from impulse buying. I too am guilty of following trends. I think that I will need to get into pillars more but I will only do one or two sizes. I think that the line is pretty well set and I will see how it goes by the end of the year. This of course all depends on how much time my dh's new company requires of my time. I am hoping that six months will do it but with the growth potential I am just not sure.

sks bottle is where I got mine with droppers. I use them for my liquid dyes.

Congrats - 3.5 x is good. Can I ask what price you were charging for the pumpkins? I have a few I am going to pour for a show in 2 weeks and wondering about the price point. Thanx!

I have never been to ours. It is only about 20 minutes away but in a direction that I do not go. I keep thinking I should make the trip and I think now that I should. Thanks for posting - one more place to spend more money.

I like the shape but wicking it would scare me - good luck!

I see tons of possibitlities. The first is to add some color with paint. Even white. I would suggest the following: Contact paper on all surfaces. This is easy to clean and adds color Paint all the wood white or a light color. It would help seeing what is where. Build up - vertical space is very important - I will attach a pic of my space with fo's arranged in a storage tower I laid on it's side and attached to the wall. I used shoe racks under my presto pots - Since these have a shelf they are great to organize additives, tools, and little things at eye level. The space above the worksurface - I added corkboard - this is great for keeping special instructions on index cards. I also put up inspriration photos of projects I want to try. Do not forget floor covering. I use this huge puzzle piece foam mats for the floor. Standing on concrete will really hurt your back. Hope these help getting the creative juices flowing - the space is great!

Okay a quick question. I have straight paraffin and all the additives but no idea where to begin. If you were going to make a molded candle with straight paraffin (scented) which additives to use to make a nice consistant colored finish? I have stearic and vybar (for pillar wax). Please help as I need to start playing soon. TIA,

I used 8" tubing with just sealing the bottom. I held on to the top and heat gunned it mid-air. I did not want the top to skrink. Oh I did gather the top and use a twist tie to keep it together when shrinking - removed the tie and then tied it off with the curling ribbon.

I package mine in skrink wrap and then tie the top with curling ribbon and attach a hang tag. I will try to attach the pic if I find one.

Thank you all for the kind words of encouragement. It has really been a tough decision for us. I started working for myself about a year or so ago and my dh just bought his company. It is really stressful without an income (all money earned by me goes to pay the candle expenses). I am truly blessed that my relationship with my dh is so strong. We are the best of friends and he is really happy that I am coming aboard. He keeps telling me that he wishes it was sooner than the first of the year but I do have "some" responsibilities to my business. But the truth be known I am really looking forward to being with him all day. We really have not had much time together at all since he started. He has promised that we will pour on the weekends together to make sure that my business do not suffer in the meantime. I really want to thank everyone here for their friendship and I do promise that I will try to log in once a day at work. He already knows that there will have to be access on my computer to check my forum. He has seen my withdrawl in its worst (when the board crashed). Now I will need to figure out how to check my company email from the office too. Thanx again!

I approached my tent cards a little differently. The reason is that I have a few different products that I use the bag toppers for so this made sense to me. I buy cardstock from michaels in the big slabs at 12 x 12 size. I buy the neutrals because the all white are more expensive. When I get them home I cut them into 4x4 squares. Using a straight edge and xacto knife this goes really quick. Next I get labels - 2 x 4 and print them up. The first labels I make are the caution and then the front labels. These will change for each scent. I put the card on the top of the bag and staple it into place. Then I put the correct labels on the cards - they cover the card stock completely and the added benefit is that they also cover the staples. I think that this looks really nice. Just a different idea. I hope it helps.

I got some dissappointing news - after careful consideration it looks like I will need to step away from my candle business for awhile. My dh bought a company about 5 months ago. It is a spin off of his father's company and they are still doing the books for him. After many weeks of forensic accounting I have found the they are either not collecting or not forwarding (many clients are still paying father's co) the money due. This number is actually close to 25% of the outstanding payments. Since they are messing up the books so badly and do not really care about our small company I am going to have to take over the accounting. This means that I will have to start working full-time for the company as of the first of the year. We have decided that I will finish up the year with the shows that I have scheduled and I will keep up the accounts that I have but no more marketing for new accounts. I will be keeping my website and selling the little that I do through it but no more working at home in my jammies. I am hoping that it will be a temporary thing - less than 6 months but who knows. In the meantime, I will need to set up his books and get ready for the transition to a new accounting system. The ppl who know me will know of course that I will be using Peachtree for the company and with my knowledge of it this will not be difficult just time consuming. All the set up work will need to be completed prior to the first of the year. This will also give the current staff a chance to get the books up to date. I have really grown to consider a lot of you my friends and not having the day to day contact with everyone here is really going to suck (sorry but there is no other way to put it). I am really sort of mad that this is necessary but I really do not see any other way - the stress on my dh right now is unbelievable. He knew that there was an issue but could not find the time to figure out what it was or how bad it had gotten. Thank you so much for listening to my little story. I am really not happy about this and it really does help to share.

Hi All, I am so excited - I got an email from someone who was given one of my candles as a gift. It turns out that she has a store and would like to meet with me about putting my fall and holiday scents in her store. I am so excited. The store is in a town full of antiques and interesting shops. It is a destination town for leisurely shopping and lunch type day. She has an antique, home furnishing and accessory store. I am so excited. The meeting has been rescheduled for next week. I am glad that I have the time to get my ducks in a row before meeting with her. Thanx for letting me share.

I am jumping on this bandwagon - what a pain in the arse. I just got an inquiry about making some for a wedding and I said okay. It is a new customer and she is really in love with kudzu. I guess she wanted something like a yankme discontinued grape scent and this fits the bill. I did limit is to multiples of 4 - she is up to 5 sets so it will be worth the work. The only time I have done them in the past was for the fall and holiday shows last year - they did well and I thought that they would be a good way to get more new customers.

I have to second the recommendation for WYW Perfect Pumpkin. I do not like pumpkin pie at all to eat that is. When I smelled the perfect pumpkin I feel in love. It is incredible. I only use the 1/2oz per lb in J223 and it is a great thrower. I completely sold out of the candles last year at every show I did. I guess Cosmo magazine said that pumpkin was an aphodisicate (sp?).

I am going to hi-jack and say for a straight coconut try BCN. I use it and like it - it is a mellow scent but nice.