jagerboy

I would be curious to see how this show does. I do some of the Events Management shows and actually taking off this year due to time restraints. I keep in contact with many crafters that do the same big shows as I do and so far the shows they have done this year, just are not doing well. Of course they aren't candle people, but these people usually do extremely well. The only people that are giving me good reports back are those that do food and I still have issues with that since they are all made in factories. I attended a festival last week and noticed that the consumers were there, just no one was buying. Spoke with some crafters there that I know from past years doing smaller shows and they were having difficulty making the booth fee. This was a 3 day event and the booth fee was under $ 100.00 which is nothing. I was stunned to hear them not even selling that much. As far as the shows like this one in Roanoke, there is no doubt they get the people in, but when you go, you better be prepared to have your inventory made up and your prices set right. If you have that, you got it made in the shade.

I think your biggest problem is using a 7 watt bulb. I have made and sold thousands of flameless over the years and have never had any problems, with the exception of one candle that was returned after 5 months because the cord did stop working. I have some flameless in my house that are 4+ years old now and I keep them on non stop and still no issues. I use a 141 mp wax but have actually used a votive wax in experimental ones and had no issues with them.

I would love to find some lids for these also. I bought several cases from Dollar Tree and for now have just been using the clear wrap to seal them some. It is time consuming, but it helps. I will have to check with some people, maybe if enough are interested we can get some made and do a co-op on them.

The only time I use color is in my votives and tarts. My soy containers I leave natural and I have never had any problem selling them. I do however dress my containers up, insted of selling just a jar. As a landlord, it gets tiring going into rental units and seeing spilled wax on carpets. Usually it is red, blues and greens and the dye stains the carpet, even if you can get the majority of wax up. One thing with a natural color wax, you don't have the bad stains. We have done some experimenting with this where we took an old piece of carpet, poured hot wax on it and then tried to clean it up. The soy wax always cleaned up with no lasting effects. You could always use that as a selling point if need be, but it never came to that.

I know that at one time Yes Supply had a smaller snowman container, you might want to check them out.

I basically have used all of the scents some time or another that you listed. I mainly do soy candles and have had good success. I have always gotten good service from them over the years and still use them for fragrancesas well as other supplies. When I first started making candles years ago I would go with the Grade A scent. But then I did some testing with the Grade B scents and could not tell a difference. One of my best sellers is from there and called Spiced Plum. At first OOB it doesn't smell to great, but put that in a candle and it flys off my shelves.

If you are planning on doing a lot of candles, you might want to keep an eye open for Turkey Roasters this time of year. They are great for melting larger batches of wax. I never hooked up a spigot on my presto pots, I just got a large commercial soup ladle and that works great. Also, thrift shops are great for finding presto pots. I got 4 of them that way and didn't pay over $ 5.00 for any of them.

Maybe they think every hit on their website is going to be a new consultant?

I have used them for years and have never had a problem with any of his scents. However, never tried the one you were asking about.

I have bought from them in the past and everything was OK. If I had any questions they always answered quickly.

Just a quick note on labels on the candles. Up until 4 years ago I used to put labels on every jar candle I made. Put lots of time in setting them up, having them printed etc. As I started to hit larger craft shows, I heard customers talking about how they would like a candle with no label so they can reuse the jar, decorate themselves etc. So the following year, I did a test run and made some apothocary jars with just hang tags and warning labels on the bottom. I haven't looked back and now do everything with hang tags and no fancy labels. I instead decorate them up with a ribbon, or glue some dangly beads around the neck of the jar etc. I am not saying this company might do this, that is why there are no labels, but just a thought. But you would think that a new company like this would have labels on atleast for their website to get their image out.

Those are some neat looking candles. Good Job.