Mtngrl

Excellent 'cane ... what's on the other side? The color you got for the pumpkin container looks perfect. Well done on both projects. :highfive:

Hi Kay, welcome to the board. Any time you have any general questions to ask, it's better to pose the question in the general candle-making section .... http://www.candletech.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2 ... rather in the gallery which is aimed at showing rather than telling. I don't make melts, but if I did, I would use the same wax as I do for pillars. How much FO you add to the wax will depend on how much FO, usually as a %, a wax can hold. Typical amouts are in the range of 3-6% for gen'l purpose paraffin commonly used in pillars. Some ppl might say that the more FO you add, the stronger the FO "hot throw" (loosely, what we can smell when the candle is burning; conversly, a "cold throw" is what we smell from an unlit candle). While there may be some truth to this, the reaility is that some FOs are stonger than others, some waxes can hold more FO than others, how air moves in one's environment may have an impact, as well as how large the space is, etc. There are several members, myself included, who would strongly encourage you to do a bit of reading to understand more about the general process of candlemaking. You can refer to this website for gen'l info for beginners .... http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=698. It's not that we don't want to answer the questions, but the basics have been gone over ad naseum, & all you have to do is some reading on your own. You'll be amazed at the amount of info available to you w/ just a little bit of searching. :smiley2: And for reasons that I can't fully explain, there seems to be a resistance from some of the more experienced candle-makers to spoon feed info, saying that you'll be a better candle-maker if you subject yourself to a sequence of trial & error projects. Perhaps it's tiresome to answer the same question over & over & over ... to the point one just doesn't bother with it anymore. You'll find them (the more experienced candlemakers here) will be more receptive to your questions if you show some investigative initiative before you start throwing out your questions. Ask me how I know.

Wow, what a collection. Once you get into making your own candles, you'll have THE PERFECT shelves to store them on. Have you read the riot act about testing your candles before you start selling them? Sorry to ask .... for some of us, I think we just can't help ourselves. :rolleyes2 I like the idea of having labels that would stick on your lid. While I have no real issues w/ the tag, it's a sleeker look to have nothing, or very little attached. But that's just me. I would prefer getting mixed FOs in melts. I like choice ... one FO may lend itself better to a particular mood/occassion than another FO. But, it would be such a small thing to also make bags of just one FO, maybe in different shapes? for those who want all of one FO. That's the great thing about melts, the testing is relatively easy & straight forward. Seems like a good place to start. I was wondering, if you wanted to go clear label around the container, have you considered a label just a little less wide than the fat part of the container, & then maybe shrink wrap it so it will be a tight fit? I don't think I said that very well, I hope you know what I mean. Might have to recommend that the label be removed before burning (another good reason for lables on lids .... they'll always be w/ the candle .... unless they lose the lid). I think melts are great ways to test your FOs. I agree that you'll want to perfect the look of your votives. When one considers how much they'll spend getting to the point of selling voitves & melts, the $1.79 price might sound ok. If you wanted to one-up'em, maybe a 3 pak for $3? You'll have to figure out what your market will support. Good luck. Can't wait to see those shelves again when they contain all YOUR candles. Good luck.

Beautiful pear .... love the glitter. I'm sure that must be a type of glitter safe to burn. At what point of the process do you apply the glitter? Do you use any kind of glue or ....?.... to make it stay on?

From what I can see, those look nice. It looks like you used the flash, or else that's light reflected from a light source elsewhere in the room. The best way to photograph those would be in indirect sunlight (to avoid bright highlight glares) or open shade. Do you have a scale? If so, weigh each shape filled w/ wax, then weigh an empty one, subtract, & there's your solid volume. weight of filled container -weight of empty container solid volume

Those are ALL great 'canes. How do they look w/ something lit up inside? I'd be worried about copyright issues, too. If the team, or whomever, were to sue you for infringement, would it be worth it? I wonder what you'd have to do to get permission to use the logos & then sell your 'canes. Since you're working as part of a "cottage industry" (work done at home), I wonder if you could get some kind of special pricing based on % of sales rather than a flat fee (I'm guessing that's how it works).

A lovely log candle to be sure. I bet it lasts all winter long, too. Nice ideas, Candleman.

... Snowman Boobies ... Hey, it just goes to show there's a need for some snowWOmen.

Wow, that is pretty. Are those natural leaves or ....? If they're natural, do you do anything to them so that the color will be preserved? I'm just wondering if they would fade over time, though it's probably too early to tell that.

Very clever. Love the name of your company. Wish I could have thought of something like that ... it appeals to the geologist-wanna-be I harbor in my soul.

I have a picture in my mind ... it's hard for me to convert image to words, but I'll try. Based on your pix, it looks like you butt one table up to the other to form a "L" shape. So the corner riser would be like a wedge w/ the two back pieces at 90* angle to each other, with connecting shelf pieces at a 45* angle. You could even "cut" the ends to have a flat edge so that you can then butt up long risers on either side. If you have your email addy in your profile, I'll send you a pix that I think I can make in a word document. (I'll try, anyway). HTH. Ok, I did it ... created a table design & emailed it to you. It was so easy in Word. Wish I could do it in such a way to save it as a jpeg so I could attach it here. Oh well. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Ok, WHO is this artiste painting on the jar? I'm so impressed I can hardly stand it. WOW, just W-O-W.

Wendy, what the heck is NOT to like? Oh, I know, the fact that I don't have any. Those are all very lovely. Really like the one w/ the fishing figure perched on the edge. Thanks for sharing. What does one have to do to make the gel wax bubble free?

Girl, those EFFEN ROCK. I was so impressed it brought tears to my eyes ... no foolin'. What about some glow in the dark colors? You are on a roll. Now what about the other 2 - the one on the right & the one on the left? ? lol Love the witch one.

Sorry to hear you were disappointed. :embarasse It certainly wasn't from a lack of effort on your part. Reading the rest of the post did give me some ideas for the next show/s .... (1) you might want to have a buddy look around (or a buddy you can trust to hold the fort down while YOU look around) at the fair in general to see where you're situated in relation to other booths/products, other candle makers, & main entry/pathways. (2) When checking out the competition, you might want to make a mental note of what the others are doing to see if there's something you can do to make your products stand out from theirs. (3) Also, check their pricing. If your candles are significantly priced higher than others, you might want to reconsider your price points. (4) You might even want to chat w/ the competition to see how they're doing & maybe get some new ideas that might help w/ your sales the next go round. (5) I think I read something that another crafter does .... make scented melts (is there any other kind?) or even votives that you can sell like 3 for a buck or something, maybe a variety package, so that ppl can check out your scents at a very low price. You could include a business card or something similar as part of the tag so if they like/love it, they can contact you directly.

I mostly like your display. The main thing I would suggest would be to have a riser made for the corner section, which would make it easier for ppl to reach those products than having them all the way back where it's hard to reach becasue of the width of the tables. I hope you know what I mean. Wish I was a comp wiz like Mari so I could do a visual aid, too. I have to agree w/ the risers for the products on the left side. I think risers add a visual appeal that's more engaging then stuff just sitting on the table. How did you make out at the fair? Too cute. I just love how you put your suggestion to good use w/ the visual aid.

Great palms. Now, if we could just get those pix resized a little smaller so we don't have to scroll. I don't know if this will work, but it's worth trying at least once. Notice on all your palms how you have the obvious refill lines? What if, when you pour, w/o filling all the way to the top, but rather you swish the wax all the way up to the top to get a cohesive patterning. Then when you repour, probably at a cooler temp so you don't remelt the wax on the mold wall, you won't see the repour lines when the candle is finally unmolded. If you try it, perhaps you'd be willing to send me a pm to let me know if it worked or not? I haven't been getting online much lately, so I might miss a comment in a post. Seeing your candles makes me want to go make some of my own palms (& try the above suggestion). Alas, I have other fish to fry first.

Candle medium? What's that & where do you get it? Those are really cool. Any chance of getting a pix w/ them lit up?

WOW. Ok, someone should make that painter a plain, opaque shell & let them paint it up. I bet it would glow then.

That is absolutely lovely. The only thing I would suggest is decorating the outer wall ... on the other hand, if it's on a low table, no one (except a toddler ) would see the outer wall anyway. But if you had the bowl sitting high enough to be out of toddler reach, then .... I'd decorate the outer wall since it would be clearly visible & awfully plain. Just a thought.

I like your set-up but .... you have so many individual elements (each candle) that I find the table cloth overwhelming (too busy) in conjuction w/ the display. Just a thought to consider using a solid color ... maybe like a light sage green.

Nice chunks. I'm sure it's a little less time consuming to have a chunkie mold. Resess (sp?) is probably a copyrighted or a trademark name.

Julie, you always amaze me! Are you selling your candles? If so, I was wondering how that was going. A few short weeks ago there was an outdoor art fair near me. I saw a tent for a candle-maker (I probably should have gone in & said hi as it might be someone who also attends this message board), but the candles didn't draw me in. Yours would have!!!! Grumpy girl, thanks for making me this morning ... I just read your "location" - closer to hell than previously imagined - too funny! & sometimes, in really BAD years, I can soooooo identify. Hope this is a good year for you.

That is so NOT what I thought, esp when one considers the FO - head shop. So, how would you describe that FO?

You go girl! I love that you're showing us your progression of improvement. Nicely done! I now feel there's hope for me & rustics ... one just has to keep working it.