DanaE

Candlewic is in Pennsylvania. If you're in California the shipping would be outrageous. Those of us that are happy with the cheap shipping are ones that live within Pennsylvania, or one or two states away. You need to find a wax supplier as close as possible. I get two cases of wax for $20 shipping at Candlewic, but if I order from a supplier a couple of states away it'll cost me $45-$50 for the same amount of wax. DanaE

The meltpoint of my wax is about 135, if I remember correctly. If I pour at 150 I can occasionally get a rustic effect, but sometimes they just don't have any rustic at all. Try upping your temp to around 155 and see what happens. Just make sure the inside of your mold is incredibly clean. Sometimes I try to cheat and I halfway clean it, thinking "it looks good enough" but then I lose the rustic because it stays inside the mold. Adding a good bit of stearic helps too. I use 3 tablespoons per lb of wax and sometimes it's so rustic that I feel the need to scrap off some of the white stuff - LOL!. DanaE

I took Henry's advice and used Gloss poly to get rid of the fingernailing. It didn't work at first, and I think it's because I just didn't use enough of it. On a batch for my husband, which was going to be bright red, I put a ton of Gloss Poly in there and it didn't fingernail yay! Well, they did fingernail, but I melted them back down, added a bunch of Gloss poly and now, after a week, there's no fingernailing. I find that the fingernailing, for me, is the worst in brown and red candles. Some people like the effect, but it just drives me bananas. I've been known to dip my candles in hot wax or even grubby them to cover up the fingernailing. But then, mine didn't come out as pretty as yours did. Your fingernailing is so even that it looks like you did it on purpose. Mine come out as huge white circles randomly placed and I actually had a customer email me and ask me what I put inside the candle!! ack -so Gloss Poly C-15 has become my best friend. DanaE

It's a beautiful candle, but I DO think you could get some more rustic effect on the outside. When you unmolded it, was the inside covered in rustic? If so, try cleaning them as best as you can, then spray them with Pam and don't wipe it out. That'll help the rustic come out with the rest of the candle. Oh, and when I pour slightly too cool I actually lose the rustic effect (???). So now I'm trying to stay around 160, instead of the 150 I used to pour at.... DanaE

I love it. I love when a pillar mottles and rustics at the same time. It's just a neat effect. I can get the same effect by using Gloss Poly C-15 and pouring around 165 (with 3 tablespoons of stearic per lb of wax). I don't know why it happens, but it looks cool. DanaE

I use the wick stick ums, but I wick the container before I heat it up. So far, fingers crossed, I don't have any movement of the wick. There was one brand of wick stick ums I purchased that absolutely wouldn't stick and when I pulled them straight to clip a clothespin on them they'd pull out of the wax. Wixnwax.com has good wick stick ums and so does Bitter Creek North. DanaE

Nodding head in agreement. I do/did the same thing. I make several votives, put different wicks in each, and line them up on my computer table where I know there's no draft. Watching them side by side can be quite an illuminating experience. I've found that a CD6 works best for me in the OK6228 and I don't need to test them anymore. Only if I run out of CD6s do I start testing other wicks. On the mottling wick I use LX12 (thanks Eugenia!). In the parasoy blend I bought from KY, I had 6 or 7 votives lined up with different wicks. In my opinion, for my blend, the HTP52's worked best, as the CD's just seemed to want to smoke too much. DanaE

Chris, you can also buy wick centering tools for molds without a hole in the bottom. You can get them at Bittercreek and also Rob's wick centering tools. He has all sizes and the rods come with them. They are life savers for me on funky sized molds or molds without a hole in the bottom. (to see what I'm talking about, go to Bitter Creek North's website and do a search for wick centering tools. A picture says a thousand words). Without the wick centering tool I would have never been able to get my 6x6 3-wick mold straight. Even though it has holes in the bottom....I simply tape over the holes and use the wick centering tool and they come out beautifully:wink2: DanaE

Yeah, I can never go to her website and just order the molds I need...I always end up buying others to try. I just bought the mold that makes 7 small cinnamon buns all hooked together that you put in a 5" aluminum pan and I'm definitely making up a bunch of those babies today! I sell so many of her cinnamon bun votives that I had to order more molds. In the last month I've sold 50 of the cinnamon bun votives and since I only had 2 molds it took a while to get them all finished. They look just like a cinnamon bun in votive form, but they're closer to 3 ounces instead of 2, so you have to have a bigger votive cup for them. I put raisins and mini pecans on them, pour icing over them and sprinkle with cinnamon and everyone goes crazy over them. They are relatively easy to wick (I use a CD6 and it works perfectly). I go to A.C. Moore and buy a bunch of votive cups that'll fit the cinnamon bun votives and whenever I have an order I enclose at least one of the cups, so the person will have something to burn a votive in until they can get more of the right sized votive cups. DanaE

Buy the next larger wicked size. Or try a CD wick. The CD's always seem to throw the scent better than other wicks ( in my experimenting). Unfortunately I don't use them as much as I use to, because I need a huge CD to wick my pillars and end up with too much smoke. It you're using a 32 cotton, perhaps a 44 Cotton would work, or maybe a CD7. HTP's are great too, but again, once you get into the huge sizes, I tend to get black smoke unless the wick is super super short, and I can't expect my customers to walk by and trim those wicks almost down to nothing. I currently use mostly low smoke zinc wicks, or the CDs in my votives. I'm testing LX28 and LX30 in my pillars to see if there's a better burn and no smoke. They seem to do wonderfully in my mottling wax, not so much in my OK6228 pillars. Oh, and if the person who recommended TriState candles for OK6228 happens to be reading this, thanks again for the recommendation. They are cheaper than the other carriers of this wax and the shipping much cheaper. They just went up on the wax by .04 cents per lb, but it only made a $3 difference in 2 cases of wax. My last shipment got here in about 2 days (I'm in DE, they're in W.Va). DanaE

My husband bought a respirator and a bunch of cartridges for me probably 4 years ago and I still haven't taken them out of the box. I look like an alien , it squeezes my face and makes a mess out of my long hair. Right now my method is to hold my breath while I'm stiirring I have gotten congested on quite a few of the scents, and when I have bronchitis I can't even consider making candles, so maybe I should break down and get over the vanity thing and how scary I look wearing it. I'm sure it can't be good for my lungs in the long run to sniff this stuff day after day in huge quantities. Perhaps I'll go on a hunt for it this morning and see what happens. DanaE

Yeah, that's the only thing I won't buy from ebay. There's just no way to know if the scents are any good, or if they're 12 years old or something. I actually found candlechem.com and candlesandsupplies.com via ebay. I was looking for a bunch of stearic and some more pour pots and they had incredible prices if you bought 4 pour pots, which was what I needed, and great prices if you bought the stearic in larger quantities (I usually buy about 20 lbs at a time). I also found my shrinkwrap supplier through ebay. Shrinkwrapstore.com I believe. Now I just go directly to their store to order, but I was so impressed with the fact that I go the shrinkwrap bags in about 3 days that I checked them out closely and found out they had a store (ebay doesn't allow the sellers to advertise the fact that they have their own websites....which is a bummer now). The one and only time I purchased FOs through ebay I ended up throwing all of them out. They were horrible and weak. I learned my lesson quickly and stay with the known suppliers for FOs now. Oh wait...I found a few of the silicone mold makers at ebay too. Scottscrew.com was one, can't think of the names of the others. I LOVE my Scottscrew molds, they last forever and come with their own storage containers to keep them dust free. But then I'm a silicone mold freak and have probably 10 I've never even used My other favorite silicone mold maker is Ginger at Flexible molds. She's never let me down and all the embeds come out looking like the real thing. DanaE DanaE

I've purchased color chips, hundreds of shrinkwrap bags, aluminum molds, silicone molds, stearic acid and various other items and never had any problems. I usually don't buy wicks because many of the sellers list them like -medium sized 7 wicks- what does that mean? I'm too lazy to email them, so I just buy my wicks through my regular suppliers when I need other items. I've never had a problem getting the orders and usually get them very fast. DanaE

Those are beautiful! Okay....spill. What type wicks are you using? I played with crystallizing palm container wax for a while and although they were gorgeous, they drowned out every wick I put in them. They had a kicking scent throw and I still have about 10 lbs of the wax left I'd love to use. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! DanaE

Sounds like she needs a trip to A.C. Moore .... They have various sizes for votive cups, and I keep several different designs on hand for different votives. When I make cinnamon bun votives, they are almost 3 ounces and slightly wider than a regular votive, so they can't be burned in a straight sided votive cup. When I grubby the votives there's no way in H*LL they are fitting in the straight sided cups or even in the same cups as the cinnamon bun votives, so again, I buy a different size/design for them, but all of them are still votive cups. (I test to make sure the votive cup is as tight fitting as possible, so they don't have wax running down inside the cup). Whenever someone orders a votive from me that isn't a standard size, I always throw in one of votive cups that'll fit that votive. It's my way of hinting "put the darn thing in a cup...don't burn it freestanding!". You wouldn't believe the number of people who think if the votive is grubbied or if the votive is wider that you can treat it like a pillar *sigh*. DanaE

No water bath here either - I just use a lot of stearic and pour around 155 into room temperature molds. Did take me a while to get it right and I have no idea why....I think I held my head the wrong way and didn't say the Saint of Candles prayer first. DanaE

Dang girl, I bow down to you. How in the world did you get it out of the mold so perfectly? I've used container waxes in votive molds without a problem, but never a pillar mold! I can see myself squishing it while I'm pulling it out! Burning it should be interesting - Let use know what happens. The one time I used a lower melt point wax in a pillar, the whole thing melted into a puddle (it was actually a votive wax - 4794). You have to take pictures while it's burning. DanaE

What kind of wax do you use? It looks very soft...almost like a container or soy container wax (I noticed it because I've made votives with container wax before for the fun of it). Your layers came out nice and sharp. It can be hard to pour them and get that perfect line, can't it? DanaE

It's a very pretty drape, but I think you have the candle upside down. The bottom of the mold while pouring is actually the top of the mold when you take it out. That way you always have a perfectly shaped top. I tried draped layers a couple of times but I think it takes more patience than I have. I think yours is lovely DanaE

I agree....too much playing with additives causes weird things to happen . I absolutely thought the boiling water and soap combination would do it. I may have damaged the inside of the mold somehow but since it was virtually brand new I don't know how I did it. I've been known to destroy more than my fair share of molds before though. The next time I use one I'm using plain OK6228 with a little color and FO and that's it. Hopefully no wax will be left in the mold to worry about. DanaE

Or maybe I could just consider these one-use molds! That's a thought. At least I purchased them while they were on sale. They aren't on sale anymore so I'm not wasting my money to buy more, but I sure wanted some (versus "a") 4"x13" square pillar and appropriately the same size round one. One day next week I'll try one of the other poly molds and see what happens. I'm definitely not doing anymore rustics in them! At least if I pour hot maybe all the wax will come out. DanaE

I'm absolutely no expert in the exact meaning of all the numbers. I own virtually every wick every made and although I know how to use them and in what application, I don't know all the machining terms and such. With that being said, the 44-32's are significantly hotter than the 44-20's. I've used all three sizes of the 44's before, and you can absolutely tell the difference in burning qualities. I remember a conversation here, a little while back, where several people had tested the difference in a 44-32z versus a 51z and felt that the 44-32's were hotter. I haven't tried that so I don't know. I just know that if a 44-24 works in a certain application, I can't substitute a 44-32Z if I run out of the other size..... DanaE

I appreciate the tips and I'll keep trying. I'm very good about keeping the heat gun moving (mostly because I use shrinkwrap on all my candles, and I know what happens if it's held in one place for just a few seconds too long!) so I'm not really sure what I did wrong or how to fix it in the future. I initially tried boiling water with some soap but nothing came off. Then I tried the oven, on 200 for a little while, until the mold felt warm but still nothing came out. Then I went for the heatgun and tried heating the whole mold like i would with an aluminum mold. That didn't work so I tried going for small spots at at time, zapping it with the heat gun and then trying to clean it quickly with a paper towel, but nothing was coming off. So I held it [heatgun] to the same spot a little longer and tried again. Nope, the stupid wax inside was just not coming off. Then I held it to the spot a little longer (these are very thick and rigid molds) and all of the sudden a place at the top of the mold warped. arrggh - As soon as that happened I realized that if I ever poured wax in that mold it wouldn't come out. I need some chemical that'll remove the wax without heat. I should ask my husband if he can mix something up for me.....He was a scientist for years, but now he's an I.P. attorney so he doesn't have access to the chemicals he used to. It's a shame - he could get fingernail polish off our carpet and you never knew it was there. I know he could come up with something that would clean the molds, although it might take the skin off my hands at the same time - LOL! DanaE

So what's a good temp to use on the heatgun? Mine has a dial that goes up to 1,000 degrees. When I tried 200 degrees and it still didn't work, I figured it was just operator error and quit. Obviously, 200 wasn't hot enough to melt the wax on the inside, but it was hot enough to slightly warp one piece on top of the mold, so that I'd never be able to get another pillar out of that mold *sigh*. DanaE

I haven't figured it out yet. If someone knows a way to clean them PLEASE let us know. I have several very large poly molds, and the last time I used one of them I made a rustic candle. Of course, some wax stuck to the sides, like rustics will do, but I absolutely could not get the wax off. I tried everything. In the end I took a heat gun to it and tried to lightly go over it, but I couldn't get it hot enough to melt the wax and in the process I warped the top of the mold so I had to throw it away (it'd only been used 3 times!). I did try heating it in the over on a low temp (around 200) and it didn't do anything...the wax was stuck in there. The mold was 13" tall. Oh, and I tried boiling water and soap and that didn't work. So.....I have several of these molds waiting for me to use them but I'm scared to! I had no problems with the poly votive molds but these new guys are giving me fits! DanaE