DanaE

I would add a few more blueberries, and then put some crumblies over the top. The crumbles make all the difference to me It's very easy to make crumbles, and some suppliers sell them also.

DanaE

I use CD6's in my OK6228 votives, and LX 12's in my 4045H votives. I love my low smoke zincs in my pillars, but not so much in the votives. I do find that a 36-24-24 works good in 4794 votive wax though.

DanaE

I agree. I use OK6228 and it makes wonderful grubbies. I tried it with another wax one time, a votive wax I believe, and it looked rather.....strange.

Any pillar wax would work though.

DanaE

You said you used to use soy and now you use some bunch of numbers. What do you mean you changed from soy you didn't like it?

Some people change from soy because it doesn't always throw every scent. Soy can be picky and there's a lot of testing to be done to find scents that'll throw in each soy wax.

As for the 'bunch of numbers' - that's the wax's name. It's called 4045H, just like there's J223, and J50, and OK6228, etc. etc.. Most waxes are designated with numbers, not names.

DanaE

I've never had a scent that didn't throw in the 4045H, so I'd say you won't have a problem. If it'll throw in soy, it'll throw in the 4045H.

DanaE

Normally I use a mix of J50 and OK6228. Right now I'm trying to finish off about 12 lbs of Comfort Blend, so I'm using it instead. It has an AWESOME scent throw. I'm seriously happy with this blend. Of course, once I run out I'll go back to my J50.

DanaE

I've used many cases of the 4045H and can't imagine using anything else. I use 3 tablespoons of stearic per lb of wax, plus a small amount of vybar 343 and it holds about 1 oz of FO pp of wax.

You can look in the gallery under my user name to see the various mottled and rustic pillars I've made with this wax. It mottles beautifully everytime.

For wicks I use low smoke 19s, but I think Fern said she uses an LX28 and a 62Z works too. (oh, and a 1/0 square braid), so there's a few different wicks to try out.

DanaE

I've mixed many of the waxes together, mostly for fun. I add soy wax to my pillar wax occasionally to give it a creamier, more opaque look. I mix various waxes together just to see what happens. I can see a chandler doing this, if they worked hard enough to find some formula that burned better, longer and had a stronger scent throw, but I just can't imagine the amount of time it'd take to do all that testing. I use about 10 ounces of soy flakes (container) to 3 lbs 6 oz of pillar wax when I was a creamier pillar. It has the good side effect of eliminating fingernailing. I also mix pillar wax and a parasoy blend to use for the icing on my cinnamon buns.

It's a cool thing to do when you get bored and have about 25 different waxes in your basement (like I do!). I can't resist buying 10 lbs of every darn wax on the market and then mixing them together. I don't sell those, of course, but they're fun to make and burn for myself.

DanaE

Okay, one question here. Two people in this thread have mentioned that they buy OK6228 from Candlewic. I used to buy it from them but then it disappeared. Is it still on their website somewhere and I'm an idiot? I only use 6228 and 4045H, and recently had to start buying the OK6228 from another supplier because I couldn't find it on Candlewic's site.

As for service? I buy a ton of my stuff from them. I ordered 9 molds, wick pins and stearic a few days back. Got a shipping confirmation on Monday and got the package on Tuesday. I've occasionally had little things go wrong, but I've had little things go wrong from virtually every supplier, and if you buy from them long enough, eventually they're accidentally going to leave something out, or something is going to get damaged.

After 6 years of candlemaking, virtually every supplier I buy from has made an 'oops', but if they fix it immediately I don't even think about it anymore.

Just my .02

DanaE

The cinnamon bun and icing look great! I agree that the pecans could be a little lighter, but you can use this one to test burn your wicks, and then use lighter pecans on the ones you sell. (I can never decide how dark to make my pecans- they come out a different color every time!)

DanaE

I just received an order for 15 of the 3x3, and 5 of the 3x6's. I have to say that's a first for me, as everyone always bought the 3x6, and this is my first order of the 3x3's.

DanaE

If I was going to make candles whose purpose was to pour on someone, I'd pick a very low meltpoint soy wax. At least that wax melts around 90-100 degrees, versus the 145 mp you were using.

I can't see that I'd ever make a product like that, but I'm just saying if.....

DanaE

Cut 'N Carve candles are a true art, and I don't think you'll master it by Christmas. Bruce makes gorgeous cut 'n carve (or curl) candles and you'll see some of them in the gallery. It does involve dipping the candle in various colored waxes, and you have to have the correct wax to do it.

I'd suggest you go with some basic pillars or basic containers, test them with a few different sized wicks to see what burns best and just do that. Or even better, make votives and tie something pretty around them. They don't need as much testing and you can usually hit upon the correct wick within 3 tries Tarts might even be a better idea. Make some tarts, include a tart warmer and some tea lights and you're ready to go. You'd still have to test a few waxes and a bunch of scents, but at least you wouldn't have the wicking problem to work with....

DanaE

I can't imagine the need for cornstarch! Maybe someone used it and it worked, but I've found that whipping regular votive and pillar wax is a breeze and I don't need to add anything to it (just did it yesterday to make 4 pies and had no problems).

DanaE

Sure it could! But that would depend on what you do the wacking on! I would not do it on your walls, or your countertops, or anything that you wouldn't want damaged. I use a metal sheet, and it has tiny pock marks from where I have wacked......

I whack mine in the basement on cement walls. I actually enjoy doing that . I don't have to do it with OK6228 wax, but I do with most other waxes (the mottling waxes and 4794 especially).

DanaE

Maybe another OK6228 user will pipe in here....but I couldn't get black with this wax unless I used half a bottle of black dye! LOL

It's a very white, very opaque wax and it just doesn't want to be black. It takes color very well and I usually get a darker shade with the same amount of color than I do with my mottled or rustics, but black just doesn't seem to want to happen; it either turns dark gray or purple.

DanaE

Heather, you can buy them at ebay with the spout already attached, that's what I did. I think they are $39.99, and worth every penny.

Also, one or two of our suppliers sells them with the spigots attached....I've seen it mentioned here so hopefully whoever it was that mentioned it will chime in here and repost it.

DanaE

Did you try pouring it cooler? I love the OK6228 too ( of course!) but it will shrink like crazy, so I let it cool down in the pot some and then when I pour I get smooth tops.

DanaE

I've had those inquiries before. I give them the link to this Board telling them it's a great place to learn.

e

That's what I do Eugenia. I give them a list of candleboards to read, tell them about all the various suppliers and manufacturers and then I start discussing waxes and wicks until they're so confused they give up - LOL!

Most people DO think they can simply stick any wick into a wax and it works. If she has purchased wax and wicks and jars, she should at least give a little thought to research, or either figure it out on her own.

DanaE

Hands down Illuminations. Their jar candles are very strong, and I LOVE the Dulce de Leche scent. I still buy them. Unfortunately they have a tendency to throw black smoke, so I usually burn them a few times, then start scooping out the wax and putting it into a tart burner. (it's super super soft, you can stick your finger all the way through it).

2nd place would be ...um...I have to go look it up. They make totally cool soaps with all types of embeds in them, and they use glitter in their jar candles (they appear to be gel wax chunks with an overpour of white container wax). They have such a great scent throw that I used them even when I first started making candles because I loved them so much!

Found it! Primal Elements. Their sweet scented jar candles are divine, and the soaps are wonderful too. I can't even imagine how much money I spent over the years on their candles before I made my own.

DanaE

That's what I've been doing. But I'm going to try Candle Kitty's method too.

One problem I find with these is that they don't hug smoothly. They kind of crumble which I assume is cause of the cooler pouring temp. I'm slow at it and the wax gets a little too cool. Hopefully, the more I practice the better I will get.

Pam, after you pour the two colors, hit the outside of the mold all the way around with a heat gun until it feels really warm. Then you get a nice smooth surface, but it doesn't melt the wax enough to completely blend the colors

DanaE

Oh my gosh, those are so pretty! It's a very unique shape too, and looks lovely lit.

DanaE

I think the pink and purple looks cool - a psychedelic 60's thing going on there.

I can't marble worth a **** so I stopped trying. Now if I want something like that I make 2 batches of the same scent that are colored differently, let them cool until they start to get thick and pour them at the same time into one mold. I get 2 colors kind of swirled together, and I don't yank out of my hair in frustration.

DanaE

The problem I have with the narrow straight-sided glasses is that they're tight enough to break off the rim of the votive when you put it in.

Like everything else in candlemaking, there's seldom a perfect solution. You just have to make reasonable decisions.

*Nodding head vigorously in agreement*. I HATE having a piece of the top of the votive break off when I put it in the narrow, straight sided holders! But I have 4 cases of these glasses and I give them for free in any package where someone purchased a votive (because we KNOW that customers will burn votives in stupid things, or just sit them on a plate:shocked2: )

I don't know if it's the norm, but mine do get hot, and I'm careful to place them on something so they won't hurt whatever surface they sit on. The fluted votive holders don't get that hot, but they take a little longer to get a full melt pool and good scent throw going.

DanaE

My only question would be, what pillar/votive wax are you using? I ask because the 36-24-24 isn't hot enough for my votives made with OK6228, but they're perfectly fine for 4794 votive wax, so it's going to depend on your wax.

I respectfully disagree about eliminating the pillar wick pins . I love mine and since I use pretabbed wicks it makes it a breeze to just pull out the pin and slide in the wick. (Okay, MOST Of the time I use pretabbed wicks). If I don't use wick pins I use the wick centering system that Rob sells.

DanaE