DanaE

I'm really shocked that the candle came out of the mold! I LOVE Joy Wax and it has such a great scent throw, but I've never considered putting it in a pillar. Now I'm going to try it today just to see what happens. The melt point is so low and the wax so soft that there's no way to avoid a blowout somewhere along the way. I've even had it happen with lower meltpoint votive waxes. No matter what wick I used they'd still overflow or bust out the sides. Keep your Joy wax and make tarts or some containers with it. Buy some good pillar wax. You could also mix some Joy into your pillar wax if you want to stretch it out to last longer. When I mix container wax into my pillars I use about 10 oz of container/soy wax, 3 -1/2 lbs of pillar wax and then add in my FO and UV. At least then your wax won't go to waste. After I make the Joy pillar I'll take a picture. I'll try to remember to take pictures while it's burning to see what happens. DanaE

I've had a couple do this to me lately. Not sure why, but I know exactly what you're talking about. I think I may have overdone it with the fragrance on those candles. I get the ring most often on sweet or vanilla type scents, which are heavier anyway, and I load my wax to the max, so that could be the problem. DanaE

I'm using Warm Gingerbread from Heartfelt and it's a great scent. You can smell the Gingerbread, some cooking spices and something sweet in the background. (I personally hate gingerbread scents but like this one). I think that Christmas Splendor, Apple Jack 'N Peel, Spiced Cranberry and Sweet Pumpkin Pie would all make great Christmas gifts. (Oh! and cinnamon buns or Home Sweet Home, which to me smells like all cinnamon; you can never go wrong with those). I can't help with the decorating part. Unfortunately I seem to have lost that gene before I was born and can't even decorate my own house, much less a candle! lol DanaE

I've purchased mine from both Connie's Candles and WSP. I also find them on the classifieds pretty often and will snatch up a case or two when I see them. They run around $22-25 for a case with the lids. (watch for that; a lot of companies sell the jars, but not always the lids, so I try to find places that sell the lids with the jars) DanaE

I LOVE the Brown and Orange ones, and the blue/green combination. They are just gorgeous . I love shades of blue and green, but don't often go that dark; next time I'm going to add more color and see what they look like! DanaE

A couple of the rows of bins are missing, I couldn't get them all in the picture. There's over 30 bins altogether. Okay, I need a 10-step program.... Wait, gonna try this again and see if I can get some more of the bins in the picture...

Christina, they were made with regular 3x6 round molds. I make a bunch of extra wax when I'm going to grubby something. After you unmold the candles, put a wick through it. Reheat the wax until it's just melted and start whipping it with a wire whisk. At first it just looks like a ton of bubbles and nothing else. After a little while it'll start to get the consistency of whipped butter, and slowly it'll get thicker and thicker. I use the back of a wooden spoon (the front won't work, don't ask me why; I tried). I just stick the spoon into the whipped wax, scoop a bunch on the back of the spoon, pick the pillar up by the wick (hold the whole thing over the pour pot) and start at the bottom of the pillar and frost it upwards. If the wax won't stick to the pillar then the wax is just a little too cold or it's been whipped a little past the point where you can do the technique. When that happens, hit the pot with a heat gun, stir a little and do it again. It takes a little while to frost several candles, so I often end up hitting the pot with the heat gun at least twice to help the wax at the right temperature. After you've frosted the sides of the pillar, sit it down quickly (I use wax paper) and frost the top. If you put embeds into it, you have to be quick because the wax sets up fast and you won't be able to push the embeds into it! HTH - Grubbying was one of the first techniques I learned, because i was using OK6228, which doesn't mottle or rustic and I was bored. I actually had no idea that other people did this technique all the time; I thought I invented it - LOL! DanaE

It's a mix of OK6228 and any container wax I happen to be closest to...*G*. In this case, it was a parasoy container wax. I use more container wax than OK6228 so that it sticks to the pillars (I learned the hard way that using 100% pillar wax means the icing breaks off in pieces when you touch the candle). DanaE

My husband built this, because i have an addiction to wicks. I also have some laying on the floor, and some bins are holding 3 or 4 different sizes! I tried to put one size per bin, but I didn't have enough. The file is too big. I'll resize it and put it up tomorrow morning. DanaE

Made with OK6228. I'm mad because the top of these pillars came out the perfect shade or orange/brown and yet it doesn't show up in the picture. I worked hard to get that perfect shade too! I think my flash is too bright, but also I had on 4 overhead lights! DanaE

This is a new silicone mold I just purchased. It makes 7 small cinnamon buns attached together, and I just decorate the same way I would a regular cinnamon bun. It may be hard to see the individual cinnamon buns with the icing on it though...... DanaE

Top view...there's actually bronze shimmer on the top, but the pictures aren't showing it correctly. It looks really cool DanaE

I'd prefer to just make cinnamon buns, but this one particular customer likes them better if I make a square pillar, then put raisins and pecans on it and pour icing over the top. (all the bakery type pillars and pies are made with OK6228) In the next post will be a picture from the top. DanaE

For an order. The lady loves Banana Cream Pie so she wanted both pies and the grubbied pillars. It's hard to get a great picture since they're already shrinkwrapped and labeled, but oh well. DanaE

Another view....

I made two different types for an order...one has a pie shell, the other has vanilla wafers all the way around it as the shell. I'll post one picture on this message and the next picture below....... DanaE

Yet again, someone orders a 'fresh' scent in the winter. At least I like the pattern on them Made with 4045H, 1/2 teaspoon of Fisher Trop in 3 lbs of wax, 1 oz of FO, UV inhibitor. (I was trying to keep the mottling from being completely even, and the Fisher Trop does that) DanaE

Fern, I've made votives with this wax for 6 years - love it . It was my first wax and the first type of candles I ever made. I use a CD6 and it works just about perfectly everytime. Occasionally I can wick down to a CD5. I have to say that I don't have any drowning out issues, but I did with LX wicks and occasionally with zinc wicks. And yeah, I load my wax with FO too, which makes it harder to wick, but I don't care! I use 1-1/2 oz of FO pp on almost all my votives and pillars unless I have a scent that'll make you sick if you use that much. At one time I also used cotton cored wicks; I think it was a 44 cotton. But they seemed too hot, whereas the CD6 seems perfect. So make 4 or 5 votives and try a CD5, CD6 and CD7 and see what you think... DanaE

I'm sorry about your problems. I love Candlewic and haven't had a problem, but there's no way for a company to have 100% satisfaction all the time I guess:tiptoe: The only company I ever had a 'problem' with was Candlesandsupplies.com and I can't really call it a problem, since I called, they fixed it immediately and had the missing items on my doorstep the next day. (Well, other than that Angie lady and her company, but that's another story). Candlewic is very close to me, so I order one day and get the box the next day. The shipping is incredibly cheap, the waxes are great quality and I can get virtually any type wick I want. (plus some of their accessories are the cheapest I can find). The few oils I've tried have been subpar so I don't order them, but I'm hooked on them for my mottling waxes, coloring, wicks and pour pots. I'd never recommend ordering wax or heavy items from a company that is very far away. The shipping can be killer. Even just a couple of states away can make a huge difference in shipping. I'd love to order from Peaks, but everytime I put items in the shopping cart to check on the shipping I go "ouch" and back out. They are so far away from me that the shipping is just killer. But if they were closer I'd definitely use them! DanaE

I agree. Regardless of whether you use a votive wax, pillar or even container wax, they have to be burned in a tight fitting votive holder. I've used container wax to make votives and they came out of the molds, but not all container waxes will. I've also found that KY125 soy container wax comes out of votive molds if you put them in the fridge for a couple of minutes after they are completely cold . I use a pillar wax about 80% of the time. 10% of the time I use a straight paraffin with additives, the other 10% of the time I use a votive wax (4794). DanaE

Jenn, the KY125 will work fine in the clamshells, and release without leaving wax behind, but I'm not sure about the others, except J50. I actually have all of those waxes here, but use them mixed in different ways. I am able to get the J50 to release easily from the clamshells that are NOT ones WSP sells. I was using the ones that are flatter and the lid doesn't come permanently attached, do you know which ones I mean? I've used J50 in those many times and the bar of wax popped out in one piece without any damage to either the wax or the clamshell. I think the WSP clamshells are a good bit deeper and the cavities are a little different so I don't know if the J50 will release from those. I haven't poured the Parasoy or Perfect Blend into clamshells so I don't know, but I've found, just from my own experimenting, that if the wax comes to me in slabs and the slabs aren't soft, I can usually make tarts with it and it'll work. If I can push my finger on the wax and cause a huge indent, it usually won't work in the clamshells. I do color mine, but you don't have to...... DanaE

I've used both J223 and J50 in 9 ounce hex jars and was very happy with the scent throw. I've never been disappointed with either wax. Of course, Comfort Blend is a great wax too and would probably be a great mixer in either of the waxes, but it smokes so much if you don't get the wick perfect that I often stop using it for a while and go back to J50. I don't believe you'll be disappointed. I've always had a wonderful scent throw with both waxes and one container could be smelled all over the house. (although I think J223 actually has a better cold throw....) DanaE

Who knew, after all these years, that I'd actually be in style? I don't know.....maybe I'll try it out soon. I think I have a phobia. I can just add it to the list of my other phobias! DanaE

A couple of years ago I read about why this term was created. It seems that years ago a candle could only hold 1/2 ounce of oil pp of wax. I assume because the wax was formulated differently than it is now. Then waxes came out that could hold 1-1/2 ounces of FO per lb, so sellers began to call them triple-scented. I don't think they meant it in a bad way, but it's made it hard to explain to customers that there's only so much FO you can put in a wax before it just separates and sets at the bottom of the pot (and I've actually typed those exact words I just typed to several customers who have asked about triple scenting). So officially it means that the candle is made with 1-1/2 ounces of FO per lb. We all know that some waxes won't hold that much FO, and doesn't even need that much to make a wonderful, strong candle. I personally don't take offense to it, and do my best to explain what the term means, and how different waxes work. Let's face it, most people don't even know there are different types of waxes, and they think that they can just buy a wick at Michaels and stick it into any candle on the market and it'll actually burn right! DanaE

NO way. I mean, I can't force myself to wear the darn thing when I'm by myself, much less take a picture for the whole world to see - LOL! I tried it on just that once, and realized that if my husband saw me like that I'd never live it down so I yanked it off and put it away. DanaE