doris

Where is a good place to get beeswax sheets? I'm in Canada, but am willing to buy from anywhere, as I need some in a hurry. I've been looking online, there's not a lot of places that carry them. The best so far seems to be candlewic, but it seems they only ship by courier, which makes shipping to Canada a killer.

It will take you a while to figure out what you like, buy whatever you like or is cheaper. I keep hearing people say that bamboo is so wonderful, I personally hate most of mine, and usually knit with metal (for smaller needles) or plastic. I personally don't like circulars either, except for huge items like afghans, but a lot of people love them. Just get started with something, and you'll soon find what works best for you.

There is a huge knitting forum called ravelry, and another called knitting help. If you are interested in knitting, you might have fun going to those.

We do consignment. We allow the vendor to set their price, after all it is their stuff, then we take 1/3 of their selling price. If they think an item should sell for $15, we get $5 and they get $10.

Sometimes they don't care what it sells for, they just know what THEY want. In that case we add 50% to their price to get the selling price. They want $10, we add 50% or $5, it sells for $15. It comes out to the same thing.

I'm sure that there are vast differences between stores. You have to find out what your store does.

Get a good quality, but BASIC machine. You don't need a billion bells and whistles. You need a good straight stitch, and zigzag stitich and a buttonholer (God's gift to sewers). An even feed foot is a real help.

There are learn-to-sew patterns available from most pattern companies. They all have websites now, so spend some time browsing on the web before you spend hours in a store. If you have a sewing and/or fabric store in your area, they will likely help you, but I would suggest not showing up looking for free help when you've bought your fabric at Walmart. If you have a good and helpful store, the little bit extra you spend there on fabric will be well worth the free help you will get.

Cotton is the easiest fabric to sew on, bar none. Not poly cotton, which is much cheaper, but cotton. Neither I nor any of my machines like poly cotton and therefore I seldom buy it. Save your sanity and don't start off on a project which involve knits, velvet, satin, or fake fur. Find youself a nice easy pattern that involves cotton, and you should be fine.

Once you get going, make sure you have a good supply of needles in different sizes. The slightest nick on a needle, or a blunt needle, can make you want to hurl yourself and the machine out of the nearest window. Often, just changing the needle will clear up all the problems.

DO WHAT THE PATTERN TELLS YOU! I've known people curse the pattern, the machine etc etc, and then when you take a look, you see that the pattern says to use a certain fabric, and the person with the problem decided to use something else. Patterns are made for certain fabrics and notions, and you can't always substitute. Use the correct needle and thread, and make sure your machine is cleaned and maintained on a regular basis.

I can't recommend a good machine, my favourite is a Kenmore that is now about 18 years old. It does an amazing satin stitch (I do a lot of machine applique). My other machine is a heavy-duty Singer. I've heard that a lot of the cheaper machines are mostly plastic inside, and will not hold up, so be careful. If a machine is really cheap, there is likely a reason.

Good luck and have fun!

Almost any email that addresses me as Sir/Madam gets the boot. The next 3 lines would have sealed its fate definitely. I get emails like that all the time, and I don't even sell online.

Baloney! You're not dealing with food and the items you are ordering from a supplier aren't gifts. Your supplies aren't finished products.

When I receive a shipped gift in a pretty designer box, my first thought is that I wish they'd have foregone the pretty box and packed more gift, be it candy, fruit, whatever.

You're talking about raw supplies, and presentation isn't important. Your presentation to the public who buys your finished product is important but that's not what we're talking about.

Many stores have uncrushed boxes available to be picked up. I've picked them up everywhere from Dollar General to Office Depot. Crushed just means flattened. Who cares if they're flattened? Unflatten them and use them.

Everybody is complaining about high costs of shipping, supplies, whatever. I personally don't want to pay higher prices because somebody bought new boxes (which are most likely recycled from mouse trap boxes).

jmo, of course!

Can't believe I'm agreeing with you, but I am. 100%. As long as my raw supplies and other things are adequately packed in clean containers, I couldn't care less.

In 2003, I had a part time job at one of the largest supermarket chains on the east coast in the service deli. Most of the girls that worked that counter were young and really just did not have a clue. I mean they would open packs of roast beef with all the red juices and get it all over the floor....talk about gross. But it gets better, at close they would just spray the floor down with a hose and nothing else. Oh and those black display thingys in the refrigerator case, those get lined up on the floor to and hosed down and if lucky wiped dry. And then would say man it stinks back here. Well out of the 10 people that worked that area only 2 of us would bleach the floors, let it sit and then spray it down. Now imagine those juices fresh on the floor while putting away stock and then getting a call from the customer service desk that says a customer needs x amount of boxes, how many do you have? Do you think those boxes get sanitized like we do our work areas when we do bath and body? HECK NO! All that crap is going to someone's house. Oh to those of you who eat rotisserie chickens....they are removed from the skewers with oven mitts....THAT NEVER GET WASHED!!! They just lay them around on the counters, sometimes they hit the floor. Rotisserie Chicken....no thanks I will pass. Oh and I only go to the deli first thing in the morning.

That is totally disgusting. God knows I'm somewhat lacking in the housewife dept, but I can't imagine anybody doing that. Doesn't your State have standards and food inspectors and things like that? I'm well aware that a lot of restaurants and stores are not that great, but that is ridiculous.

I worked in a number of delis in the Montreal area in the late 70's and early 80's, the owner of two of them would have killed us if a can of pop that we had drunk from was on our work counter. We cleaned endlessly, the counters, floors, slicers and all untensils were constantly cleaned, and not just by swiping with a dirty rag either. Soap and water. Everything taken apart and cleaned every night. Freezers and coolers cleaned constantly. The other one was not as good, but even they were pristine compared to what you describe.

Most of the places I order from ship in recycled (used) boxes. Never had a problem. I don't like my new products in old boxes, but when I get a whack of beads from a wholesaler, I don't expect a fancy box from them. In fact, my bead supplier uses Snickers boxes all the time, which fit my bead containers perfectly, and also fit on my shelf perfectly, so I'm happy. As long as they're clean, what do I care. If everybody had to buy boxes for their orders, our prices would go up.

I still have a few bars of soap from I think 2000 that are still good. The scent does fade quite a bit, but it is lovely soap otherwise. Age doesn't necessarily mean bad. New soaps can go rancid as well.

You do stunning work. I have done a lot of sewing in the past, and I am impressed!

You can do a buttonhole stitch to join them along the edges, it would mean you don't have to punch holes, and would look similar to crochet. All you'd need is your yarn and a biggish needle.

I personally wouldn't sew them together, but would likely make 2 separate blankets. If you just sew them on the edge, the whole centre section could pull apart during washing and mess up the shape of the blanket. If you do decide to go along with a lined blanket, make sure you do a few joins in the middle of the blanket as well, along the lines of a tied quilt.

I agree, always try to go with USPS. The brokerage fee is $5, and all I've ever had to pay was HST. The 2 times stuff was shipped UPS I nearly died.

I've made tons of beeswax tapers, and never had a problem with the wicking. I find 2/0 works really well, and never have any drips unless there is a draft somewhere. I've also tried 3/0, and it also seems to work well, with the added benefit that the candle burns longer. I've always found the rolled tapers easy and fun.

We also use wine glasses to display earrings, a set of three different ones of different heights works well. Just hang them around the outside rim.

I would never cheapen my product, in my opinion it's not worth it. I would get a few display pieces for displaying a few items. A heavy dowel on a stand will hold a lot of bracelets, and a friend of mine made a beautiful necklace display out of wood, looks similar to the bought ones, just a lot nicer. Natural wood. An attractive branch set in a pot or on a stand will also hold a lot of pieces, also antlers. I have vases of different colours and sizes that also hold a variety of things. Look around your house, you will probably find a ton of things to use without spending a lot of money.

I use tea tree and lavender on my skin ALL the time, I consider them to be extremely safe. I do think the amounts of eo listed for your "recipe" would cause problems with the way the soap hardened. 4 oz is about a regular bar of soap, or about 113 g., 1.5 tbsp of eo is about 22.5 ml, which are roughly equal to grams, that would mean 1/4 to 1/5 of your soap would be eo; that's 20-25%: REALLY high. I have never done melt and pour,, but I think the amount of eo to use would likely be less than 1 oz/lb. 1 oz/lb is sometimes too much in cp, where the lye eats away some of the eo, in mp I think it would be too much.

Unless she is buying tiny amounts, I would offer her a small discount, business to business, 10% or whatever. If she starts buying your wholesale amount, then give her your wholesale price.

Canada, $3.85/ln for natural, $4.50 (I think) for white. Western Wax Works.

You're worried about possibly losing several thousand? Are you sure you haven't lost a zero or two? We've just had some work done on our living room and so far it has cost me $3500. I don't think that for several thousand you will get anywhere near what you want.

www.aquariusaroma-soap.com, these are cello-type bags.

www.canwax.ca also has ziplocs and a "poly" bag that's the size you're looking for.

After the first 2 weeks, I usually put my soap in a more closed up box, like a plastic or cardboard shoe box. That helps retain the scent. Also, just because the scent is gone from the outer layer, doesn't mean it is gone from the soap. I've used bars that seemed to have lost their scent, and sometimes I find the inside still retains a lot of scent.

I think 8 weeks for a log sounds about right. I just made a batch of CP where I miscalculated the quantities (new moulds) and had to pour the excess in some plastic containers. The bars that I cut off the log the following day dried quickly, and were fairly hard a day after cutting; the soap in the plastic containers, I couldn't unmold them for 3 days, and then they were still soft for several days more (they are much larger than the bars). One thing to watch with logs, be sure to use a recipe that will be cuttable for a long time. Some recipes produce a brittle bar of soap, and you wouldn't want your newly cut bars to shatter while cutting.

Cut your recipe in half, but be sure to run the results through a lye calculator just to be sure. Never, ever use crayons in soap. EO's, usually .5 - 1 oz ppo. Goatsmilk is usually frozen and lye poured directly on the frozen goatsmilk. Also, people usually use it as only half of their liquid. If you don't freeze it, it can get all burnt and smelly and dark orange from overheating. Never done any HP so I can't help you there.

Why do you want borax for soap? Is it for transparent soap? I think Catherine Faillor has a book on transparent soap. I did get it a while ago and look at it, but it looks like toooooo much work. I also get 20 Mule Team borax, is there any other kind?

I only ever did one big show, and a friend of mine had 3 quilts stolen - after hours, by the "security guards". And the idiot was afraid to complain because she was afraid that they wouldn't let her back the next year. A lot of people lost stuff at that show.