Mtngrl

I'm trying to figure out what's fugly about your candle. Loving those nice, bright colors! I think you did a good job.

Do you know what kind of plastic from which those votives molds are made? If they're polycarbonates, I'm pretty sure that using FOs will ruin the surface of the plastic ... make it opaque, but not sure if that would have an impact on shine. I think the colors you have are perfect for the FOs. The more soy candles I see, the more I want to try soy.

I've only tried rustics a couple of times w/ no success after the 1st one (have to LOVE beginners luck! ). I would be dancing a jig if I had one that came out like yours. Love the color & the pattern. My 15 y/o loves Black Canyon. I like it, too. Anyway, keep up the good work on the rustics. I have every confidence practise WILL make perfect.

Does your camera have a flash? If so, that would help greatly w/ the lighting; ergo, enhance illumination of detail. I've heard there are some digi-cams that don't have flashes ... what were the creators thinking!?! Anyway, these are better pix than the 1st ones. Bigger always helps. :smiley2:

While the blue one may have suffered ... greatly, I LOVE the color. AND, good for you for experimenting w/ some irregular shaped chunks. I'm sure these two experiments will, in the end, only enhance your ability to make better candles next time.

I like what you did w/ the 1st candle ... it's a good idea but then you have some problems w/ dripping ... er flooding. If it were me, I would use a higher melt point wax, wick down, & use a container wax for the interior. Basically, it would be like making a hurricane shell & then filling it w/ a lower melt-point wax. You'd probably avoid overflow &, as the candle burns down, you'd have some nice interior lighting for your embeds.

I haven't heard of those FOs. They sound nice. Are they a strong scent or on the lighter side? Can you attempt to describe them? Do you mind if I ask where you got them? ARe they strictly for soy wax or will they work in paraffin?

Just a thought to consider ... if it were me making a container w/ a tin I can't see thru, I wouldn't put forth the effort to marble the whole thing since the marble effect will be invisible after you start burning the candle & get a melt pool. If it were me, I'd do at least one experiment .... fill the tin w/ non-colored wax. Then when it starts to set up, put about 3 drops (more if you want a darker effect) of the color on the top, & then SLIGHTLY stir. What I did after that would be based on how it looked when solid. Another experiment would be to lightly color the wax, add it to the tin, let it set up a little, add some color, & then slightly stir.

Ditto that recommendation. That would look, in the words of my daughter & Paris, HOT! Both those cakes look really good. I say "pah" to the nay-sayers of the grubby technique. It sure does work well for icing. The pie looks good, too.

lol. That's so very true. However, I've had multiple experiences where I wasn't getting the right amt of wax (can't remember if it was over or under) when using the calculator (& I double tripled checked to make sure I was plugging in the correct numbers), which is why I finally decided to pour wax into every mold I have. That way I can be SURE. Furthermore, the calculator isn't at all helpful for odd-shaped molds like hexagons, hearts, etc.

We have a huge pillar that has 4 wicks, all of them tunnel. It looks funny to me. I think I'd prefer a single melt pool, but couldn't really say for sure until I saw it. :undecided I agree w/ DanaE about personal preferences. I have no desire to ever make a candle like that, but I think my goal would be for it to burn as if it were a "normal" size pillar in that I'd want all the wax to be consumed. As much as possible, anyway. Btw, this was not a candle I made, it was store bought (& it shows).

Your colors are fantastic. What did you do to get that fusha (sp?)? The FOs sound wonderful.

Nah, your time was better spent making those candles. Wonderful rustics!

Oooooh, I really like that mold. I wonder how much time it will take to paint. Glad it's not me doing it. I'd probably be cross-eyed by the time I got it done! I would be so tempted to pour the flowers one color & then the body of the cake another, but that would probably take twice as long as painting. Good luck w/ that, Paulette. Keep us posted on the end result. I bet it will be beautiful when you're done. I just had an idea ... what if you were to paint the interior of the mold - the flower & leaves - & then pour the wax? Probably a dumb idea. I'd be dumb enough to try it once ... just to see what happens. lol.

Do you have a heat gun? They look as if they are cooling on a non-level surface. Do you have a level of some sort, something that you might use to level your pictures on the wall (or is that just me? lol), that you can check for levelness? If it is indeed not level, then you could take steps to do something about it. Just a word about photography, something to consider ... If you have dark objects, they should be placed in front so they can get hit by direct light from your flash. I suggest using a light background for dark objects & a dark background for light objects. That contrast will help define your edges & make your images appear sharper. Photographing your candles outside helps ... just be sure to shoot them in the shade. If you shoot them in direct sunlight, you'll get some glare.

That looks really good. You said this was your first? I don't believe it!

All of your grubbies are looking really good. Are you the Queen of Grubby? I know some ppl don't like the grubby look, but I think they add character.

Love those carrots, particularly 'cuz you used two colors. How tall is that baby? Doing the icing like you did, is that a 'grubby' technique?

Those are so cute! Looks like you have nuts on top, or is it supposed to be like a crumb topping?

Congrats on your 1st upload! They sound great. Your pix are soooooooo small & dark I can't really see anything. Sent you a PM.

1. Asian Sandlewood 2. Black Canyon (my 15 yo's fave) 3. Cappaccino Hazelnut 4. Cinnamon (w/ vanilla!) 5. Cornucopia 6. Key Lime 7. Lavender (great mixing FO) 8. Red clove 9. Rose Bouquet 10. Sage & Lemongrass All Peak's FOs

6006 is touted as being a "low-shrink" wax, which is not the same thing as a "one-pour." Close, but not quite.

Do you have some sort of photo-editing software? If so, one thing you could do is use the HELP feauture & search for "resize image" or something to that effect. It's really just a matter of going into your program, opening the specific pix, & then resizing it, perhaps under EDIT (might depend on which program you're using). I find that I often have to resize mine down to 25%, which usually gets me under 100 kb. If there's an option to maintain proportions, select it. Lastly, save your image as a .jpeg. Gif is ok, but I never use gif 'cuz it has a much smaller color range & I just don't want to lose that much detail in my images. Another thing you can do to get rid of extraneous 'stuff' is to crop your pix so that you have just your candle & a little bit of background. HTH.

Yeah, I know ... too much math! What can be easier than melting, pouring, waiting, weighing & making a note? See, no calculator required!!!

Let's see if I can include a picture .... I am so sorry! That is so huge, but it's already only 50 kb. Hope you don't mind. The great thing about using the DRAWING toolbar in Word is that you can play w/ the number of circles to use, different diamters, until you get a combo that you really like.