Everito Bandito

:highfive: Good Idea - thanks. The oven won't be missing a spot as I sometimes do with the embossing gun.

Those look great....My very first pillar was UPS colors much easier

This was what I got on the second round. They definitely came out better but I don't think that I had the bottoms of the molds entirely clean. I think that may be why I have a few light colored spots in the tops of the candles. There is also a bit of a greasy film on the candles but at least the insides of the molds were dry this time around. Scented with "apple strudel". Note to Deanna, I thank you for your kind words and support. I can't help but wonder what it is about pillars that causes you to say, "they scare me". Is it the thought of not getting a proper seal at the wick hole and the possibility of hot wax running all over? If so, just set the mold in a pan that's bigger than the amount of wax in the candle. I bought these molds from peaks along with the wick pins. Thay also have two types of sealer (one white putty and one grey) I bought both and mixed them together as per suggested by them. I don't have to use much putty - I roll into a ball - press it flat to bottom of mold (outside of course) then I insert the wick pin through the putty from the bottom. (make the intial hole through the putty with the wick pin from the top actually) That way I can clean that little bit of putty from the pin and then I can see the hole from outside easier. Then push the pin through from bottom. Set on flat surface and press the mold down to snug the mold and pin and get a tight seal. I would imagine that some prefer to put the putty on top of the wick pin base and loop it around the pin, then push the pin into the mold until they get a snug fit. Either way should work. "Everybody to their own notion," said the old lady that kissed the cow. Then pour the candle as you would a container.(except I leave enough wax in the pot for the second pour). Check the wick pin as the wax cools to keep it centered at the top of the mold. (sometimes they can move a bit) I let the wax cool for a couple of hours, and poke relief holes with an old steak knife. I twist the knife so as to really open a decent hole to let the air escape as the wax shrinks, I usually pick out any excess wax at the top of the relief hole and toss it back into presto. Just check the relief holes periodically and keep them open until the wax cools more completely. You can touch the side of the mold after 3 hours and the wax will still be pretty warm. It suprised me the first time I did it because I expected it to be cooler than it was. On these candles I did my second pour around 6 hours after the initial pour. I pour the second pour as close as I can get to the top line of the first pour without going above that line. Let cool until completely cool. I then *gently* pry apart the wick pin base from the mold going around the circle a bit at a time so as not to bend the pin. The putty will begin to pull loose (seperate from the mold and pin) I then just pull the pin on out by hand. This particular batch of wax that I'm using looks brainy - rippled - wavy - funky on top so I leave the candle in the mold. Take a paper towel and fold it once - put the paper towel against the top of the candle - turn it over - put it flat in presto pot - give it enough heat to melt the wax enough to flatten/level the bottom of the candle. The paper towel soaks up most of the excess wax. I move the candle around a bit whilst leveling it - then I tilt it back take it out - throw away the paper towel and clean up the mess. Take a pic. Put it on here. Then write a long post about it...which most candlers probably find to be quite boring........and I'm done. Try it - it's really not all that scary. Solid colors with a preblend wax are easy.

LOL - Eugenia, true, true and true, and I know my posts can ramble on and be difficult to read as well. I wish that I could be more efficient at conveying my thoughts through written word. I used to love that song, "Ramble On" by Led Zepplin. BrandNewToCandles - Yes she is a good wife. However, when we first got married we used to get divorced about once or twice a week, now after 16 years we only get divorced about once every couple of months..LOL.. Here's one of my "UH OH's" I poured these two yesterday around 4:30pm and took them out of the molds this morning around 9:30. It seems to be leaking liquid dye (8 drops red and 2 drops green per lb.) or FO (1 oz per lb.) or both. Maybe too much dye or maybe just didn't have it stirred well enough. I melted them down and poured again - added a pinch of UV inhibitor (forgot the 1rst time) and added one tsp. of UA = 1/2 tsp per lb. Stirred well. We'll see if that helps. Still trying to figure out how to attach these photos so that they don't have to be clicked on to open. Think I have to add , I'm just not sure where and when to do it.

I waited until 1am to light 3 of the pillars tonight just to let the house cool off really well. (it was 97 degrees here today with heat index over 100) It has been nearly 3 hours and only one has a mushroom and it is very tiny (LX 28) so I suppose that pretty much shoots my possible ambient temperature/mushrooming theory in the foot....lol... The candles continue to seem to be burning well, though. Going to blow-em out shortly and try to catch a nap. (maybe) I sleep very little.

You can use IGI 4625 for votives, according to the description on this page(scroll down a bit to pillar waxes). http://www.candlescience.com/wax/paraffin-wax.php I would think that any wax that is used for a pillar, could be also used for a votive. After all, they are both molded candles. But I do reserve the right to be wrong...

Here is a scenario about my swapping wicks. Let's say that on my very first burn I would install a wick and light my candle and after 3.5 hours that wick had only produced a 2 in dia. melt pool. Then I would remove that wick and install the next size up of the same wick type to see if it produced a larger melt pool a larger or smaller mushroom etc. By doing this I was able to determine a few characteristics of different types and sizes of wicks. When I got to a wick that seemed to be working fairly well I would put one of those wicks in a new candle. Granted that my initial candle began to look a bit whoppy jawed to say the least, so I just took a sharp knife and basically gave it a pretty much smooth top (slightly convave) and then tested another wick and so on. Now this one workhorse candle I'll call it (actually two of them) were what I used to get myself closer to the wicks that showed more promise. Upon finding promising wicks they got inserted (actually new ones of same type and size) got inserted into my new candles for a more accurate testing. Please don't think that I'm arguing here. I'm attemtping to provide a clearer picture of what I was doing. I eventually plan to produce a safe sellable product given a lot more time and a lot more testing. I'm fairly sure that I understand the general instructions and purpose of the 3 or 4 hour burns - and the concept of 1 hour per inch burning and I'm thinking that the reason (or at least one reason) for burning a 3 inch pillar for 4 hours is to see whether or not the candle edges are going to keep the melt pool in check. (hope I said that correctly) I may never sell a single one but I still want to learn to produce a top-notch product. My burning for the longer burns is basically for a couple of reasons. One is just to see if or how long it takes for my wicks to produce a mushroom. The other is to see what would happen to the candle if casual candle burner X lit the candle and forgot about it. Which theoretically can happen to anyone, myself included. (and probably will sooner or later) When I test with the long burns I do take notes at 3 hrs and 4 hrs, then I have let them continue to burn in order to see how well they would hold up in the forgotten scenario. I continue to observe and note throughout the entire process. I will also test with multiple 3 to 4 hour burns as well.(I'm fairly sure that I am understanding what you are saying about choosing a wick that works if someone follows instructions.) I plan to test per instructions as well. To make a long story short I will test until I am certain that each candle that I let leave my home is as safe as it can be. I am also aware that it will be likely that my best looking/burning candles right now, will not hold a candle (pun intended) to what I will be producing two or three years down the road. I really am listening to you and I am soaking it in to my mind. Thank you for taking the time to respond to this thread. I have read a lot on this board and I have read enough to know that you know exactly what you are talking about. I am well aware that I have very much to learn. Thanks for helping me think even more about what I am doing. You may have noticed in the first pic on this thread that my pouring pot is a dog food can(sitting right next to the melting pot)...I'm disabled with severe chronic pain, in my lower back and legs. My income has dropped from pretty good to basicaly nothing, so I cut some expenses to a certain degree. Just a few short months ago I couldn't have even considered making candles or even typing this rather long response,(it took me several sittings but I eventually got it done) but I fianally got a doctor who is attacking my pain aggressively and I thank god for him, because I'm now able to come out of my shell a bit and actually do something worthwhile. My definition of luck is: L-abor U-nder C-orrect K-nowledge and I'll take all the luck I can get.

I'm almost certain that I read somewhere (probably on this site) that a waterbath would help create a glossy finish also. (I'm over 45 so sometimes I forget.....it may have been *Scented* that had stated something of that nature on another thread that I was reading.) Maybe she will read this and either confirm it or confirm that my mind is at least half gone...LOL.) At any rate, I just did a quick google search for wax additives and came up with these two. Something like the Gloss Poly C - 15 might be along the lines of what you are looking for. I have never used it so I can't comment on results, but the candle that they have pictured looks pretty shiny. http://www.candlewic.com/store/category.aspx?q=cWax+Additives Also on this next site the Luster Crystals (maybe the same thing as the Gloss poly C - 15 or at least close to being the same) and the Translucent Crystals both have the words "Glossy" and "Sheen" in the product description. Then, further down the same page there is a "Candle Sheen" and a "Candle Gloss Spray" http://www.candlechem.com/additives.htm Again, I have not used any of these products, so can't comment on results. HTH BTW - Your candles look really nice - your work came out well. I like them!

Thank - you all for the responses. (very much) Yes Eugenia, it is the Riverbanks Zoo. Some folks have petting zoos but in july ours is a sweating zoo...lol...today the J223 cut easier than the air. Also, I have been trimming the wicks before I light them again. With these long burns the wicks/and flames seem to be a bit too tall after a few hours, maybe this is normal. I keep looking over all these different kinds of wicks and I think about when I was a kid they probably didn't have half this stuff, so I'm thinking that I'll order a small amount of the regular flat braid and maybe some square braid type stuff that I'll be willing to bet was used in candles effectively way before a lot of this new wicking hit the market. Just a thought. Last night I let those pillars burn until 11:46 pm = 7hrs 32mins. Also the two darker pillars scented with hazelnut coffee were lit around 8:30 pm and I also let them burn until 11:46. Funny thing about it is that they all started to produce mushrooms about the same time which was somewhere during the last 50 minutes of the burn. The HTP 105 had the largest mushrooms out of the four. The other dark candle was wicked with a CD 20. The two taller lighter colored pillars were wicked with LX 26 and CD 18. Other than the mushrooming the meltpools were good, they were not too deep and they were giving me the desired result of self consuming edges. Today at 2:13 pm I lit all four candles again. At 7:13 after a 5 hour burn the HTP 105 had made itself into a mushroom tree so I blew it out...The LX 26 had developed a tiny mushroom and I blew it out also (at 5 hrs). I did notice that that little tiny mushroom on the LX 26 had displaced some heat from center and seemed to have affected the edge of the candle rim very slightly (thinner than the rest of the edge around the top. (just an observation) I let the CD 20 in the dark pillar and the CD 18 in the light pillar continue to burn until 11:03 pm - 8 hours, 50 mins. (and yes Top, the flames were getting pretty tall by this time) The wicks may not be curling/self consuming quite fast enough. I may be wrong but I may be right...lol...I vaugely remember a song that went something like that only I think it was you instead of I. Anyway the candle is a system and any one of the components can change the system. (Margaritamama I'm paying attention ) One of the reasons for wicking these candles up was to attempt to get rid of mushrooming and some of my reasoning for that is that if I can get the wick to self consume then the casual candle user may not end up with a lot of carbon pieces built up in the wax pool as time goes on and the candle nears the bottom. One thing that I think that I am seeing (so far) in my quest for making this great burning candle is that there seems to be a trade off for each change in the system components...and that is one of the things that makes this quest intriguing. Another point of interest (maybe) is that it took over 8 hours for the CD 20 and CD 18 to develop mushrooms (even though they were tiny -they did appear) but they didn't appear nearly as soon as they did yesterday/last night.(meaning the amount of burn time on the candles) However, the part that carries my interest a bit, is the time that they did this, which was around 11 pm (both nights). Now this may be absolutely meaningless but my house starts to get a bit cooler as the evening wears on = air conditioning finally catches up to the intense summer heat as the night air cools a bit outside. So it may be true that ambient temperature affects mushrooming as well - dunno - it was just an observation. Nevertheless, I have chosen to burn the CD 20 and the CD 18 candles, how did mama put it - burn those suckers until I only have an inch left of them. Top I am hearing what you are saying about swapping wicks in pillars and believe me I value what you are saying. Now here comes the *but*....lol.... When I ordered my wick kits - quite a few actually - I really, really didn't know sh*t from shineola about what size/type etc. wicks were going to work best out of all these wicks that I was looking at so - even though I do see your point and agree, at my very first stage of (let's see what this one does) I was able to weed out some of the obvious wrong wicks for these particular candles rather quickly and affordably. So I guess that I was able to leap from unborn to infant stage of learning to wick these candles with a little more speed by having done so.....lol...but I may be wrong. And I would also say that your eye is likely correct on the wicks being a little big....but hey at least I didn't resort to what I was considering (might still do it just for the heck of it) and put a shoelace in one of them.(mad scientist effect) Could'nt I get away with pouring a 3 in. candle in a 4.5 in mold to save a bit, since these will be for testing. Something like set a 3 in tall something beside the mold and just eyeball it. I thank everyone for your guidance and willingness to share your knowledge and experience. (very much) Thank-You! - It's very nice to be doing something that I am enjoying and have good people to share it with....I would also like to say thanks to the sponsors of this board.

I don't think that you will have any problem with people not wanting those candles. They look fantastic, I mean wonderful, I mean sharp as a tac, I mean super cool, I mean Wow Baby!!!!!

Took these pics around 9 pm. (4 hrs - 35 minutes burn time on the two tallest pillars) The darker candles are the ones that I started testing with and have used 3 or 4 different wicks in each. I had to carve on the short one in the back to give it a fresh start. It had done some tunneling and was looking pretty raggedy (that's a word aint it..lol..) Anyway it has a fresh HTP 105 in it now. Just watched "Gone With the Wind" great movie but loooooong. First pic is melt pools. Second is flames.

Thanks Candle Man, that makes perfect sense and as you can see. I hadn't thought of it. I kept upping the wick sizes in an effort to reduce/eliminate mushrooming, but now I think the flames may be too tall. When I get this wicking thing narrowed down to several favorites, I'll use the same wick for the entire burn of the candles. I'm currently working with CBL 141 wax - I may switch to IGI 4625 before it's all over with, but for now I gotta burn what I can see instead of see what I can burn...lol... Thanks again, I'll go ahead and seperate them now.

LoL...Columbia is sort of like a rain forest - Hot and Sticky..I have a friend who grew up in New Orleans, moved here from Florida and he said that Columbia was the worst place that he had ever lived in for summer months. He must'av really been serious about it because he moved to Ohio this past winter...lol.

Thank you all... you too Luci. Eugenia - here are some pics after 3 hrs 10 mins.(lemme know what you think - I value input - especially technical) I did a lot of wick testing on my first two darker brown colored pillars. (since I used wick pins, I could pop one wick out and put another in) I usually let them burn for several hours also. (made many notes also - Barbara said, "you sure are doing a lot of writing for just two candles"....lol...That was before she realized that I was changing wicks in and out.) I got some pretty good use out of those first two pillars. I think I'm getting close with these two. (maybe - hopefully) My mission is to get them to curl in without hugging them manually and hopefully consume themselves without ever going over the edge. Lit them at 4:20 - pics taken at 7:30

Always looks better after wife steps in...."Blessed are the bold (wives) for they shall make the old man's baby poo mason jars look a little better"...LOL... The blue Jar (my very first) is scented with "Coral Delight" from Cajun's. Pillar flame a bit big - it's been burning almost 3 hrs.

Thanks and thanks. I figured I'd post some nuts and bolts pics of just starting out stuff. Looks like I have either underwicked or I just cut my wicks too short for the first lighting of my little green jars. Most of them are barely burning after 2 hours. But they still smell good. FO is under 10% must be more like 7% (just off the top of my head) - I used 2 ounces to 2.21 lbs J223 wax. Yea I like her too momma and thanks for the vote of confidence elle110. My wife is starting to feel sorry for me..lol...she's now trying to put together a better photo op. for my candles..I told her that I wasn't really concerned about it....but she's busy as a bee now....me thinks she was bored and looking for something to do.

These candles are being tested now. Trying to narrow down to best burning wicks. My first two pillars were brown and scented w/hazelnut coffee. Wife said that they were too dark. Wife was right..lol...but I gotta learn to color along with everything else. My first containers were the 16 oz blue ones. The piilars that I just lit are scented w/vanilla bake. The green containers are scented with honeysuckle. I was coloring them with yellow...then I had an *IDEA*...Uh-Oh.... Wife says the green ones are color of baby poo. Wife is correct again....LOL... Oh well, they are for learning only..good thing huh. They might look funky but they sure do smell good.

Pass me a plate of cinnibuns over this way please.

Yes they are special too! All work is special and honorable. Hats off to you those look great.

Heck YEA!!! way to go Brat - that's a great looking candle. I like it!

Good thing they went to Virgina instead of South Carolina or you might have had to change the phrase "some of them had melted" to "All of them melted"....it's been really hot here. Maybe have to use a higher melt point wax for summer tealights - just a thought. Best Regards

Hat's off to you. I'm just learning to make candles and I decided to have a look in this section (first time). I'm a 49yr old man and have been bathing with just whatever soap all my life. I currently use "Dove" soap from wally world because that's what my wife buys.....lol However, after reading your description I'm seriously opening my mind to what I've been missing. I don't know jack about handmade soap/body products, but you are making me want to look further into it for certain. Heck, I might just have to order some of your product for my dear wife and whilst no one is looking I might just have to use it on my little ole self. (probably won't be able to go watch football game with the guys afterwards though..lol.)

Maybe some of the measurement chart on this site will be of some help to you. http://www.candlecauldron.com/measuring.html

I have to stick with affordabilty as much as I possibly can. I bought the Escali Primo digital scale from Target.com. My local store didn't carry it in stock.(although the website says "online and in stores") The total after shipping (7.99) and sales tax (yes they did charge sales tax of 1.98) came to 34.91 I live in S.C. and think it was shipped from Minnesota. I saw one of these scales on a candle suppliers website after I had already bought mine. (can't remember which website it was) I probably could've saved a bit on shipping had I bought it through them. The scale is plastic and small but my work area is small so that's ok with me. The weighing deck is about 5 3/4 in. It will weigh up to 11 lbs. It weighs pounds, ounces, and grams - I usually keep mine on ounces setting - ie: 16.25 ounces It does have the tare feature so you can (if you so desire) put your wax in your pouring pot - put your pot of wax on scale - hit tare button and it'll go to zero - then pour in some of that expensive fragrance...lol....and never lose a drop of that high dollar stuff by weighing it straight to the pouring pot rather than pouring into a seperate container to weigh it before adding to the mix. HTH P.S. A heavy duty candle maker would likely use a heavier duty scale, but for my little operation I consider it a decent buy. http://www.target.com/gp/browse.html/ref=in_br_display-ladders/601-4381203-3124146?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=16393851 P.S.S. I did some searching and found the candle supplier with the same scale. Just scroll down a bit. http://www.kycandlewaxsupply.com/

I like owls - glad you saved it! Whooty whoooooo......