Ollivander

Here are more pictures after about 14 hours of burn time. The top of the jar seems to get pretty hot. I have read it should only be 175 degrees but how can you measure that. There seems to still be some wax left on the sides but it is getting a full melt pool. Do you think I might have to go one more wick size up to an eco 12? I found someone else who is using this jar and they use a HTP104 wick - how is that wick compared to the eco 10 or 12?

Anyway let me know what you think

Looks very promising. Thanks for sharing your first efforts -- it's fun to watch your progress. Glad you folks are having fun and I'd say you're off to a good start.

Thanks - I am having fun sharing this with everyone. Everyone here is so helpful:D . I will post new pictures after I burn a couple of more times.

Are these still the Eco 8's? I can't really tell from the picture, but is the deeper side at least 1/4" deep? How is the throw? If at least 1/4" deep I would stick with this wick and burn all the way down.

BTW, I have the same Mikasa plates.

I put in the eco 10's for that one. I measured the depth by putting a butter knife in the middle and it was about an inch. The sides were just a little less. I don't know if this is the proper way of measuring. I will burn this one all the way to see what happens. The throw was great on this one.

Got those plates for our engagment about 9 years ago.

Ok here are my pictures after 4 hours of burn time. I have a top view, and a view of each side. the melt pool went all the way across. The wick was bending towards the side that looks deeper.

Well we made the blueberry last night - using eco 10's (just to have another shot at making a good candle, and its fun). Anyway we heated to 190 then poured at 175. We preheated the jars and then covered them after pouring. We checked them out this morning and they were perfect, no wet spots and no frosting!!

So we will test burn this tonight and I will post some pictures.

Thanks again

Ok after 4 hours here are the pictures. They both had a depth of almost 1 1/4 inches in the middle and about 1 inch on the sides.

The 70/30 blend will tend to burn down then out so don't judge the melt pool just yet. It will always be deeper by the wick than the outside too.

I am going to let it burn for 4 hours and I will give you the results. Thanks again

Ok - here are the pictures after one hour. I do think this wick is to much. The melt pool was a little over 1/2" deep and you can see the width in the pictures. I am going to try the eco 4's and eco 6's next.

I'm not sure how much you've explored this message board, so I'm throwing in another tip. It'd be easier if you don't wick your jars when you pour them. Once they've set up, you can poke a hole in the center using a skewer, stick a wick in, then use the heat gun to hold it in place. That way, if it doesn't look like the right wick, you can easily yank it out and replace it. Don't be too quick to pull out a wick though. I like doing multiple burns before I make a decision on a certain wick.

You know I did read this but I totaly forgot about it when we made them. I only bought eco 8's and eco 10's. I am burning the candle again now, but from what I can tell that the mp should never go much deeper then 1/2" so these are probably wrong. I will have to order some more. I will let you know how this one goes anyway.

Thanks again

Hi - I answered some of your questions on our board but someone did catch the "frosting" here that I thought was just a reflection of light - good catch Candle Man How much FO pp of wax did you use with the 70/30? What kind of dye - liquid or solid?

Thanks

Thanks again for your help

These candles hold 9oz so for 2 candles I used 17oz of wax and 1 oz of fo with the reddi-glo dyes chips -(used 2 chips).

You will have to play with the wicking, but it does look like a big jar for one wick. They look great for you firsts, nice jars. Also, it is pretty difficult to make a candle that at some point doesn't develope some wet spots. Heating and cooling slowly does help but wet spots are a fact of candle life. Go look at the big brand name candles in the stores, you want to see some wet spots LOL it will make you feel much better.

Thanks - It has a 3 1/2" diameter in the biggest area. I just burned one for a little over 4 hours and it had a full side to side melt pool at about 3 hours. I didn't check the depth until the 4th hour, which I should have checked it at 3. It was a little over 1 inch. I will have to burn again tomorrow and check it when I just get the full side to side. The jar did not get hot at all, I didn't test the melt pool temp.

This is my first time testing a candle so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks again

That one wick will leave 1/4 in of wax around that container you picked. With that scent, maybe less.

So your thinking these might need to be double wicked?

I think we are addicted already. We were only going to make 2 candles with the melon mist but after we finshed them we wanted to make more so we did the pumpkin pie. We have 20 lbs of wax and 10 scents to fool around with.

Thanks again everyone. I am going to try again tonight with warming and cleaning the containers. When I do the burn I will supply pictures as it goes along.

The one on the left also has frosting. The tops have a dip in them, you can either top off with more wax or use a heat gun to smooth them out.

Yeah I was wondering what that was. What is frosting caused by? I haven't bought a heat gun, but I will give that a shot.

Thank you very much for your input

My wife and I made our first candles last night, using 70/30 blend heating to 195 adding color then fo and pouring at 170. We did not heat the jars. Both candles seem to have really bad wet spots (I think). Is that what this is? I don't know if these are good enough pictures but if you look close enough the top half of the jar is darker then the bottom half. The tops seemed to have come out good. Thanks for your help

Yup, that's exactly right...assuming the water weight was correct. I was a little surprised how much water you fit into that container. Not that I've used that jar, so I'm not saying it's wrong.

Thank you for your help. I will check it again, I did it late last night so I could have easily made a mistake. I thought it was weird that it worked out to be the same in weight as the size of the container. I bought the containers at the jar store so maybe they use the actual weight that the candle will be? Just guessing, I will let you know. If you are interested at looking you can find the jar at www.thejarstore.com

Thanks again

I did try the calculator and I got 8.99 oz, but didn't really know what that meant. But now I do (I think).

so is this correct

10.45 * .86 = 8.99 (Which is what the calculator gave me) - so lets say 9

6% FO - .06 * 9 = .54 oz

94% Wax - .94 * 9 = 8.46 oz

100% - 9 oz

Thanks again everyone.

I just want to make sure I am calculating this correctly, I did some reasearch and am still a little confused.

I have a 9 oz Honey Pot jar. I weight it without the lid - 4.45 oz. I then filled with water and weight again - 14.90 oz. So that means I need 10.45 oz of weight.

So at

6% FO - 10.45 * .06 = .627 oz (weight)

94% Wax - 10.45 *.94 = 9.823 oz (weight)

100% = 10.45 oz (weight)

So this would fill my jar up to the same point I filled with water?

would this be correct. Do I also have to include the coloring weight % in this also?

Thanks for your help

Edited: We were typing at the same time, How cool that you are helping your wife! But I warn you now that you will also become addicted to this in no time.

My wife needs a hobby (we have 2 kids 5 year old boy and a soon to be 2 year old girl). She used to do craft fairs (before we had kids) with other stuff she made.

So hopefully at some point she will be able to do craft fairs again with her candles (but there is already someone at our craft fairs selling candles, but they are from out of state), we actually buy them and they are great.

We will see how it works out, but I will try my best to help her succeed.

I am in desperate need of a logo design Do you happen to do that?

Oh sorry off topic!!! And also want to say WELCOME aboard this is a great place everyone is soooooo helpful.

I don't do that but I have a friend who does. Anyway anyone can PM me if you have any questions.

I looked at the greenleaf message board (haven't joined yet) But I did find this...

"Start with the Eco 8. I've had good results with the #8 in 3 & 3 1/2" .. heavier FOs I used #10. I did wick one 3" with a #6 but it was a tapered container - had some hang up for the 1st 1/3rd of the jar but it caught up from there."

That is where I got those wick ideas from. I just ordered some stuff from bitter creek and forgot to order different wicks, I could kick myself because you can't add on to an order there.

Hope this helps and you are off to a good start it seems you have done your home work so to speak lol You are going to be a candle junkie now

I have spent hours looking through this stuff - I find it interesting already and Haven't really done anything yet.

My Wife will be making the candles though - She is good at stuff like this, although now I want to try it myself (but that could be dangerous). I am the researcher. I want to make sure this is done right. I have been explaining everything to her, and hope to help her get on her way to making great candles.

I am a software developer so if anyone needs any help with there computers, web-site info etc I will be glad to help.

Thanks again

Thanks for the heads up on the glue dots, I did a lot of searching on here and I did not even think to look for what would be the best way to stick a wick (That actually sounds funny - stick a wick). I just ordered the wick stickums from bitter creek and I also bought some more color chips. I will have everything on Thursday except for the color chips which I ordered from Peak and won't be here until Monday (They take a long time to ship to me, They shipped them yesterday). Got my jars today, they are pretty nice.

Thanks again everyone

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Hi everyone, thanks for your replys.

Here is the link to the jar I bought (9 oz) it has a diameter of 3 1/2 inches

http://www.jarstore.com/product.asp?itemid=72&catid=35

I made a mistake on the wax - I bought 2 10lb slabs. After you mentioned that I would want more then 2 lbs I realized I made a mistake.

Hello everyone, I have been spending a lot of time looking through this message board, there is so much info here.

The only candles I have made was a starter kit from Michaels

I did order stuff based on some recommendations here, I will be making container candles.

What I ordered... (All of this stuff is starting to come today)

Jar - 9 oz Honey Pot Jar from the jarstore

Wax - Greenleaf 70/30 blend ( 2 10lb slabs)

FO - I purchased 10 1oz from Natures Garden

Wick - Eco 8's and Eco 10's (I think I should have ordered more different sizes)

Color - Peak Candles reddi-glo chips

Equipment

4 lb pouring picture

Digital Scale

Thermometer

Glue Dots

EZ Wick Setter (Single Wick)

My Plan...

Make 1 candle per FO/color/wax with an ECO 8.

Make 1 candle per FO/color/was with an ECO 10.

I will then test each of the 2 candles. If I get good results with one then I will buy more of that FO to make some more test candles for more testing (marathon burning, giving to family etc..).

So here are my questions...

This might be getting a little ahead of myself but I have been doing a lot of reading on Test Burning and there are many different factors.

Do you test burn candles for every different batch of wax you order? Or once you have a good jar/wick/fo/color combo you stick with that?

If you have proven a good combo do you test it again months later just to make sure everything is still ok with it?

How many candles do you make at one time per fo/color/wax/jar combo? I know this could vary but was just curious.

So does it look like I am heading in the right direction to start?

I am looking foward to my journey in candlemaking, and look foward to getting and hopefully at somepoint giving helpful information.

Thank you in advanced to everyone that responds.