raginabr

If your goal is simply to get the oils gone then you could always post them on the classified boards. From what I have observed most oils move pretty fast. Just a thought.

Most of the bags that you can buy at the grocery store are made out of polyethylene. Some freezer bags are the only ones that I have heard that are made out of polypropylene. I still only store unscented wax in the freezer bags. Polypropylene is the one that is okay to store scented products. I hope this helps.

Right now I am putting mine in cello bags and then putting on a tent label on the top. How I am going to display them I am not sure. There is room on the label to punch a hole at the top and put them on a spindle. :smiley2:

I turn my votive over and place the pin on a hard surface, then holding the votive I push down on the votive. They release fairly easily and I have not had any problem with the bottoms breaking. Maybe some extra mold release or cooking spray on the base of the wick pin would help (if you hadn't already tried that). HTH

I am really glad to see this thread posted. I wasted money by ordering from some suppliers. I am happy to see some of the names that I was considering ordering from popping up again and again.

As for my choices

Peak's

Lonestar (but I have ordered only one scent from them)

I haven't used the Astrolite waxes, so this may be helpful or not. I was trying to achieve a pastel blue a while back and I could not get it to come out the soft shade I wanted (I did come up with a shade that I called arctic ice). I did a bunch of research and found that adding a light pink color would help make the pastel blue that I was looking for. It was something about the hint or hue and adding the opposite color. It has been a while and I have stuffed a lot of information into my head since that time. HTH

I have found that if I have any fragrance left over after I clean my molds and pour pots, etc that if I wipe them down with an unscented baby wipe, it gets rid of the smell. Baby wipes are awesome.

Hopefully your sense of smell and sickness will end at the end of the first trimester. During both of my pregnancies I had morning (all day) sickness for the first three months. Couldn't stand the smell of my toothpaste, had to go get something different.

If your sense of smell returns to normal, then you will be able to make candles again, at least until your back and feet start hurting too much to stand.

When the baby comes, you will almost forget all the bad times you had during the pregnancy. I say almost because you will remember but you will not remember them as strongly. I guess it is nature's way of making sure there is another pregnancy.

My hurricanes are not real smooth on the inside either. Now I am relatively new to hurricanes so I may be making the same errors that you are or (we can hope) that this is just the way they end up.

I have to agree that poking relief holes is a pretty quick and easy way to prevent a problem. Could be that since you have been pouring all of the test candles under the same conditions that you are experiencing any problems but when the weather changes (less humidity, etc) that you may find the candles react differently. HTH

Nothing scientific here, but it always seems to me that the second (third, etc) burn is different from the first. I would add a third burn to the mix and see what results you get from that. I would use the totals and figure from there to give you more of an average burn. HTH

I, too, got mine from OldWillKnot. I thought the price was reasonable and I was very pleased with the speed with which I received my scale. HTH

I have also had the "opportunity" to remelt some candles that had crud in them and found that the crud would melt if heated long enough or hot enough. I have been adding my chip to the wax in my pour pot and then putting it in a double boiler to get it hotter. I have decided this is a royal PITA though and I am going to try some of the ideas listed here.

I place my Pyrex measuring cup in an old pot for a double boiler method. I used a metal lid from a pickle jar so the Pyrex cup isn't setting directly on the bottom of the pot. HTH

Welcome to the board Charlotte! I was thinking of using a PVC cap that I had purchased for centering wicks and just turning the mold on its side. I just purchased a 5 foot piece of PVC pipe for another project so maybe I will give it a try your way.

Glad to see that you got it figured out.

Here is a link that might be helpful.

http://www.candleandsoapstuff.com/Suppliers_by_State.html

I have had a couple of successes, but many more failures. I thought that I had mastered it when I got a couple to turn out then, BAM, I was having a bunch of problems again. I had bought cheaper paper (only 84 brightness) and I started having all kinds of problems with bubbles. I went back to the paper that I had purchased previously, then we went on vacation and I haven't tackled the hurricanes since we got back. Have to get started again, just have been busy working on another project.

I am pretty much a newbie to votive making too. I printed off the instructions http://www.candletech.com/votives/ from the old candletech site on making votives. I followed the instructions except sprayed the molds and pins with cooking spray prior to using. I just dropped the pins in the molds and then skipped the step about adding the wick. The votives were pretty simple. They unmolded well and looked pretty good, too.

Also if you have a small ridge from were the pin wasn't flush against the wall of the mold, it will be the bottom of the candle. HTH

Thank you everyone for your replies. I guess I have had so many failures with my pillars that I am now conditioned to look at everything as a flaw. Thanks for letting me know that I am on the right track.

Good, I am glad to hear that. I really didn't want to start fighting the wick battle with votives. Thanks for your quick response.

Ok, maybe I have been working on pillars for too long and so maybe I am being too picky about my votives. I am burning them in a tight fitting votive holder. After about an hour the wax starts leaking down the side of the votive and into the holder. Should I have a "blow out" of this sort with a votive? I am pleased with the length of time the votive burns (about fifteen or so hours) and very pleased with the hot and cold throw. I am using IGI 4794 (I believe that is the number) and the wicks 36-24-24 zinc cores which come with the votive kit from Peaks. Thanks for any help you can give me.

I would have to agree with seafoam which as far as I know is a very light green color with just a tint of blue. HTH

I purchased some samples from CSC (only ones that Peak didn't have), I wasn't real impressed. I haven't done a lot of testing with these mainly because I wasn't real impressed with the smell out of bottle. Then I purchased a sample pack from Peak's. Even my DH remarked on how much better these samples smelled.

I don't know how I got so lucky to find Peak's for my first supply order, but boy am I glad that I did.

I found (after someone finally suggested it to me) that a small wastebasket, like a bathroom trash can, works very well as a waterbath. Of course, if you are making a really large hurricane it might not be large enough but just an idea.