Pam W

Tie dye..........well, I'll have sober up before I can address this question.........lol.

I'm confused........what is a volcano supposed to smell like? I can't see that a volcano scent would include any orange scent......but then I've been drinking tonite so maybe I'm outta the loop :-).

Ok, here is a brief tutorial......keeping in mind that I've two adult beverages.... and working on my 3rd....lol. You heat your wax in the pour pot and add any FOs and/or additives...as if it's ready to pour... then you take that pour pot and set in the sink filled with cool water....as the wax cools, you stir the wax and pay special attention to scraping the sides of the pot.......you keep this up until the wax becomes consistent with cottage cheese, then you remove from the water and add some liquid dyes...a drop here and there on the top of the wax,(a drop here and there on the top of the pour pot...3 or 4 drops) then take a knife type instrument and GENTLY stir/swirl that color around..........GENTLY. Keep this to a minimum. Then pour into the mold..the wax will be cool so you'll need to bounce/bang the mold on the counter top to ''settle'' the wax so that you don't get air pockets. Once all the wax has been poured into the mold, take your heat gun and heat up the sides of the mold (basically to eliminate any air pockets and give you a smooth surface )........then let that baby cool and de-mold several hours later. There are pics in the gallery of this type of candle and I think there is info in the tutorial section.........but the trick to this is that when you add the dye, GENTLY swirl it before you make your pour or you will end up with a totally colored candle. A marbled candle is fairly easy to make but it just takes time to cool that wax in prep for the final pour.

I'm with you on this. I've never had a candle made with EOs that produced a room-filling scent but I do use them in B&B products, i.e, lotions, sugar scrubs, room sprays.

I'm with the others on using the 4630 paraffin wax...it's pretty easy, doesn't require additives and for me, has always produced nice results. And like Sarah said, it is a good wax for a beginner and once you master/understand all the ins & outs of container candles, then you can venture out to other waxes & jars. I use Eco wicks (4 & 6) in most of my jars.

Got a challenge for you: next time you pour a pyramid candle, try doing a marble. I'm guessing the method will be the same with soy as paraffin (?) You read my mind....hehehe. But, of course, I'd have to bring one of mine to make it a fair trade.

I like doing the q-tip method. I've done some that I really didn't like the combined smell and just tossed the container aside and have come back months later (usually while cleaning up my work table) took another sniff and OMG.....I created something wonderful but by then I'd forgotten what the heck I was blending 😞

Off topic but another TIP: Never, never, never set down a bottle of liquid dye without putting the lid on it first.....(don't ask...)

I have used Kaolin clay in the past -- even have some in my stash but forgot about it. I do have another 4lbs left to play with :-) The bars that I have curing were feeling a little oily but that seems to be going away, the longer I leave them alone (I don't think I have ever waited for a full cure cuz I'm so impatient but I might make it this time.

I agree that it stands for tablespoons.........but if you making candles, I'd suggest that you do your measuring by weight rather by volume because 1 oz of vanilla FO may not weigh the same as a fruity FO.

Same here.......it's rare that I pour 8 pounds of the same scented wax so I just melt the basic wax, add my stearic to it and then scoop out what I need to work with into a pour pot and go from there............so anytime I want to make a candle or two, I heat up the presto, scoop out what I need and work with the pour pot. If, on rare occasions, I need to pour 8 lbs of the same scent then I do all the mixing in the presto pot and when I'm finished, I simply wipe it out with paper towels.........no major cleaning needed.

I agree with everything posted above :-)

Just a personal preference..but I absolutely hate tin containers......pillars and glass containers are my passion.

Any/all FOs I've purchased from CS have be good....I never question their quality as far as FO scent go.....yeah, I may run across some scents that I don't like but their scents are right-on, their prices are ok and their service is right-on........JMHO

Just keep pouring those babies and highlighting our lives.............. A

Just pour them and we will love everything we see.............(candle addicts that we are)

yes, you will get better as it goes.......after you pour several candle, you get the hang if it and venture out into other scents. Just keep up the experiments and in the end run, you'll be patting yourself on the back for producing a candle that smells amazing.

Hopie: I so want to get my hands on that pillar and hug it in the appropriate way just to show you that you have not created a monster but created a wonderful candle (with the appropriate hugging techniques)

This is exactly why I went exclusively to liquid dyes ...the dye chips always caused problems which I didn't want to deal with!! I heat my wax to the appropriate pouring temp then add the liquid dye. Once the dye is added, I then pour a tiny bit into a melt=mold to check the color.....if it is what I want then I proceed, if NOT, then I add a little more dye (using a toothpick in the dye so I don't get too much) until I get the color I'm looking for. JMHO.....dye chips are a PITa.

Ya know, there doesn't seem to be anything that you create that doesn't make us (me) drool.

Update on my soaps: the bars are still curing but they do feel a little oily on the outside which really doesn't bother me but I'm being a good girl and leaving them alone for a little while longer. I have extremely dry skin do to a thyroid issed so maybe the extra oil will help. Hubby's shaving soap: the minute he puts the brush to the soap, it's instant lather.

The 1274 wax is a pillar wax and really doesn't burn good in containers. But if I had that candle, I'd lite it up, let it get nice and hot then, fold those corners inward so that you have basically a nice even top to start your next burn. Anytime I burned a square pillar without doing this, there was always a side blowout down the road. By folding in those corners, I always got a complete burn all the way to the botton.......talk about feeling accomplished!!!!

I was starting to miss the postings of the members candles .... those pics are what motivated me to try something new. I've been in a rut for a while and by browsing the gallery, I think I have lit the fire again and hopefully inspired others to get creative. IF YOU CAN VISION IT, POUR IT :-)

keep it up,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,we love to see your creations.........

We had a motor home for several years but since DH has had a couple of strokes, 4 open heart surgeries, etc...I didn't feel comfortable with him driving long distances even tho he was a truck driver for his whole career.......so we sold the motor home and basically retired. (But all that said, I can imagine producing candles in the RV environment and traveling to different shows in different states)