markewallace

Well, the big day (wife's birthday) came & went yesterday. My girls and I presented the two `canes to her and her dad and stepmom yesterday, and they were all very pleasantly surprised. The best part might have been the looks of pride on my daughters' faces when they got huge hugs for the nice gifts. It was a sweet moment. Thanks for all of the advice in getting these things done. I would have made lots of mistakes had it not been for y'all. Cheers, Mark

:tiptoe: Better keep it a secret. Wouldn't want the Feds to come after you. :rolleyes2 - Mark

Well, sure. Same as just about anything. These two candles were for specific occasions, so I'm not really sure just how many more of them I will be making. They were fun and all, but I have the feeling that I will more often be making wicked candles.Thanks for the rest of the tips. My mistake was just in not pouring high enough. Just about every other aspect of the `canes, aside from the blurriness on the second one, is okay. Thanks. I appreciate that. I'm reasonably happy with my first two shots at this. Now if I can just figure out how to get a wicked candle to do something other than burn a deep hole in the middle. I'm sure I'll make some more eventually. At the very least, I still have enough wax left for at least one more cane.Thanks for all of the support and advice! - Mark

Yeah, well, I think I'll just leave this one as-is. I'm no surgeon with the heat gun, and I'd prefer to not make it worse than it is. - Mark

Too late for this one. The pic is so high up there that leveling the top would result in exposing the picture itself, and I'd rather not then deal with having to trim the pic back. I'm familiar with the process though. The top of both canes have been smoothed using the cookie sheet / double boiler process. They're just not inwardly level, but that's okay. Cheers, Mark

Well, I must admit that I was kinda wondering about that. Certainly the two that we have done are quite a long way from being perfect, but I'm still pretty pleased that we didn't totally mess them up at some point. Somehow, I'm guessing that that's not exactly true.... :rolleyes2 And, trust me when I say that these `canes aren't going to make anyone look bad. Cameras hide flaws if used properly.... :smiley2:- Mark

Here's a pic. The blurriness is due to the wax between air and the pic. Still, not too horribly bad. How does one go about keeping the inner wall the same height as the outer wall? If you look closely, you can see that the wall angles inward. Do you have to pour it really high and then melt it back down to being level? ">

I used maybe 1/8th of one of the little Peak dye chips, in ~ 4lbs of wax; probably not even that much. I'm pretty satisfied with the tint. That's where I hosed it. I didn't pour high enough. The pic isn't above the wax level, though, so it's fine. I'd just like it to be a little lower. He will, until he sees how my wife's candle came out. Then he'll be pizzed that his isn't as good as his daughter's. - Mark

Alright...well...good news & bad news. The good The candle came out very easily Most of the cosmetic issues from last time are gone The slight blue tint worked okay. Perhaps a tad too much blue, but that's okay. This is another that probably won't get much time with a flame in it.The bad I guess I somehow didn't get the picture up against the mold well enough or quickly enough, because there's a definite layer of wax between air and the picture. I didn't pour the wax high enough, so the top edge of the picture comes right up to the top edge of the `cane.Oh well...rookie errors. Thankfully, both `canes that I've made still look pretty decent for a first and second try. I'll see about getting a pic of the second one up here soon. Mark

Well, second `cane is in the can (the mold, not the toilet) right now. We'll see tomorrow night how well/badly it turns out. I added a very slight blue tint to it (grandpa likes blue), hopefully not so much as to affect its translucency. I think it should be okay. (crosses fingers) - Mark

uh.....maybe one of them, and even then, only sometimes. Will do. Still can't get my daughters to agree on which picture(s) to embed, but I think we're gonna try to do it tomorrow while the wife is away.- Mark

Makes perfect sense. Thanks for the tip. We just did this last one with complete disregard for the seam. Thanks yet again! - Mark

Thank you very much, on both counts. - Mark

Then I think we'll be fine. Thanks! There may be a smidge of dust in there (forgot to cover the pot back up for a while afterwards), but I think it'll be okay. Not sure, really. I was kinda thinking to go with regular tealights in order to avoid the melt issue from votives. Personally, I can't stomach the idea of putting all this work into the `cane and then going with an electric light source.And I'm definitely putting something (probably either a cork or glass disc) in the bottom of it. Ironically, after all of this, the truth of the matter is that my wife isn't much of a candle person, so the `cane is really more of a keepsake than something to actually be used. If anyone is going to use it, it'll probably be me. - Mark

Well, thank you very much. I am proud of how this turned out, and I look forward to the next one so that I can correct a few of the minor mistakes. And thanks for the kind comment about my girls. I love them dearly, and just seeing their smiles in that pic makes my heart skip a little. Question: All of this remaining wax from the pour-off...do I need to do anything special with it to ensure its quality when I go to use it for the next hurricane? From all I can tell so far, all that I need to do is remelt this wax and then add some more to bring it back up to the right amount for the next one. Is that right? Cheers, Mark