Draco

I got mine with the spigot allready instaled on E bay and I love the thing! My was even used and still works great. Having just dumped hot wax all over my hand tonight as a mater of fact, I think I will keep my hands clear and use the spigot. I can just imagin what my clumsy butt would do with a ladel or trying to por the wax out of a full pot!

I have about 50 of C&S used metal votive molds and I would never buy a new one. I hardly need and release and they come out great. Cleaning in the oven is really the was to go, who has the time to to wipe them all off?!

I am glad I am so close to the shop. I have to say wereas I did not get to take any classes this year, I love the ladies at the shop, they have always been helpfull and infomative.

Does anyone know where I can get this FO at a resonable price? I had one Ebayer that had it, but they do not have any right now, so I have been trying to find it elsewhere for now.

I seams to me from reading posts here and elsewhere, that a lot of candle makers are pulling away from soy, when due to cost or something else. I personally just don't like the way soy preformed for me. I will say that I only tried it once, but for me, that was enough. I prefer the look and versatility of paraffin.

Oh, and off topic tootie, I love minpins to, I wish I could have one, but sadly, no-pets apartment.

We have done that in the past when we first started. I mostly make votives and tarts and have tested both in full. I feel as though it is being assumed that I do not test at all, which is not the case. All we are trying to say is that we do not believe in testing every FO and every batch we make. I have been using the wicks and the same wax, so I know at this point that my wicks work with my wax, burn safely and sent well with the FO I have tested. For the small batches that I do, I feel this is good testing. We all seam to have diffrent opinion on this, and I like that, I really do.... i just do not being told that I am "wrong" with my way of doing things. That is like telling me my fingerprint is wrong. IMHO

I see you and I have a diffrence of opinion here that is not worth arguing about, as I do not wish to continue the argument. I will say this however, you might feel diffrently about Beth's tone if it was directed at you, or if you had a diffrent opinion then her, or if you were new to this craft and this site.

Ok now, this is getting kinda nasty. Beth, we all have different points of view, and I do not appreciate you trying to tell me that the was me and dru choose to do things is wrong. We are not selling hundreds of candles at every chance we get. I do not consider this a business, this is my hobbie.... if I can set a votive or two (which I have tested 'top to bottom') to a coworker or two, so be it. It is not very economical to completly fill a large container, burn it day and night till you believe that it is perfect, then do I all over again. It is a waste of produce, of time, and not realistic for me who works a full time job, or for dru, who is a full time student. IMHO, sometimes I have been attached like this on this site by some, that that saddens me, because most of the people here are not like this. But sometimes, people treat my posts like I am an ilresponcable business woman, not just a hobbie. Now that dru have left the site, I do hope we can all be civil to each other again, as apposed to this rant. We all have different ways of doing things, and that is way makes this such a nice site to share ideas. If we all did this the exact same way, this site would be a bit useless, would it not? Again, IMHO

You mean this FO is not suposed to just stink? LOL, The only one I have tried was from an eBay supplyer and boy was that bad, I think, if possable, it is better to go to the store to smell test then to buy online first.

I thought the 1st lesson was that the pore pot is hot, and stays hot, so trying to grab it without a oven mitt is a bad idea.

I have to agree here, I think that 8% FO load is a bit high. I typicaly use 3/4 to 1oz per lb of wax no mater what wax or FO I am using and have not had this problum myself.

Me and dru started with that wax, I must say that now that I have used some more specialized blends, I would not go back and use that stuff IMO.

They don't have Saturday hours right now. We made the mistake of not reading their hours to find out that they're only open on Saturday seasonally. If I remember correctly, the last Saturday they were open was the last Saturday of February. They may make an exception for that weekend though.

Stealing Draco's handle again (really should create my own)... Draco and I only found out about those workshops a few weeks ago and most of what we were interested in was booked up, but since they're less then 30 mins from us, we're hopeful for next year. Hope you enjoy the classes.

I have not heard of the company or the store myself, but you are further out in PA than I am, I am in Eastern PA myself.

I love the granular paraffin custom blend from my local supplier Candles and Supplies. It is called there "Hassle Free Production Blend" product id WAX-VB if you are interested. They have a website if you are interested in trying it and are not in the area of Quakertown, PA. I have been using it for a while now and I only have to do one re-pore. If you do not mind mottling, or would not mind using additives, I have had good luck with re-poring with IGI-1313 and MP151 in votives at least, I have not used it for pillars yet. I am relatively new at this myself, so I cannot really say I have a fav company for wax as of yet, I am still playing around with effects and such. Also, just a question as this will effect your re-pores and I do not know how long you have been making candles, are you letting your votive/pillar cool all the way (or at least most of the was) back to room temp before doing your re-pore? I know when I first started, i would get to impatient and re-pore as soon as my votives had a thick ghosting on the top and I would have my second pore sink to much as well. I do hope this helps.

Draco's partner in wax here (or well, she's more like my partner in wax, this started out as MY crafting)... She's asleep, but I'm having another sleepless night so I thought I'd update everyone on the 1313 saga. Poured the first pound of 151mp last night. Pretty happy with it, I think next pound though we'll stick with just 1/2 tsp of vybar as opposed to the full tsp. We found that 1tsp made a funny rippling effect on the top of the candles, not bad, but not ideal. The mottled candles made from the 1313 are still in our stock, we're going to try selling them as is and see how it works out. We've got nothing against the mottled look, it just wasn't what we were going for with what we were trying to make. I've got about 8lbs of mottling wax already, so another 10lb slab was far more then what we needed. There's certainly a time and a place for mottling, some of the candles we've made that mottled looked really nice. I bought some scents from a new online supplier recently that I REALLY wanted a translucent look for. Sea Glass for example just struck me as something that shouldn't be mottled or opaque (and it smells GREAT!), Pink Sapphire was another. I like some of my herbals to be mottled though, one of the first batches of parafin I made was lavendar, that looks just adoreable mottled. I have found though that some colors actually get distorted with mottling though. I did quite a few experiements before I really got Draco into candle making.

Indeed, i found that I can buy 16 cups like that at my local craft store for $2 and I just wash them out so I can reuse them.

Well, after talking to the ladies at the supplyer, the desision was made that there website needs an update, and the 1313 will in fact mottle. Time to start playing with Vybar... got some with my credit, tested a few votives, still trying to get the mix right with the 151mp I got on sale.

I made a new one today. I had a finished pillar that was sooooo stuck, so I pulled the wick pin out and stuck the straw of my can of WD-40 in the hole and gave it a good spray. Pillar fell right out then!

I am glad this tread came back, sooooooo many good ideas. Here are mine, the food trays from Stouffers etc. grease catching mettle cups from wally world for poring pots, old cutting boards and coffee pots from Craig's list curb alerts (read free stuff if you are not familiar with this wonderfulness). Hand me down wood chisel for scraping wax, dollar store rubber moon mold (soooooo cute) ultra cheep bead organizers form the craft store to hold lots of dye chips do i can see them all. And an old meat cleaver to help break up stubborn wax slabs. Deli cups to measure out send. On and one more just today, an empty juice jug for scrap wax.

I first started making candle's with a soy kit. I did not at all like the color, does not help that I was trying to make black candle's..... Anyhow, I am not much of a pastel person, so I like the color saturation in paraffin, and mostly what everyone else has said as well.

Understood, I do want that translucent look, but without the mottling. We will see about the continuing saga of 1313 as my supplier said that they have not in there tests had an issue with the 1313 mottling, so they are willing to replace my slab. I will let you all know about test #2 tomorrow after I get the new slab.

Well see, that's the problum. I got the 1313 becuse the listing they have on there website says that it ' will not mottle or snowflake'. I have tried and tried, and either they pulled the wrong wax for me by mistake, and I know that happens, or they are full of.... well.... know you the rest. I am quite upset at this, as I have a very small buget and did not intent to wate product on wax that did not perform up to spects. Does anyone know where to get the 1343N, as if that has been tested and it really does not mottle or snowflake, I would like to know where to get some.