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Hi, I was wondering if anybody has made dried homemade potpourri and how you do it. I have been reading up on it but do not really understand what they mean when they say for example (add dried orange peel) does this mean to dry it with a dehydrator like you would apple slices or just let it dry up and get old. All the recipes I have seen tell you what to use but not how to actually dry the stuff. I would appreciate any input you could give me. Thanks a lot

Thank you everyone for responding to my question. It is nice to know there is somewhere to go to get some good opinions.

I am not a real experienced candle maker yet but I do know that when using tarts in a tart burner the wax melts in the little tart holder and when the tea light that you used to melt it goes out the wax from the tart just hardens into the shape of the holder. Most of the time the hardened wax comes out easily and if not popping it in the freezer for a bit will make it just slide right out. Hope this helps. Joy

Stella, What type of scale do you have sounds like a good one that you are able to put your hot wax on? The ones I have seen and have are plastic and I would be afraid to do that. I am going to start using glove all of the time also since I broke out in hives 2 weeks ago. I always seem to get the fo all over my hands. Today is the first day I have not had a break out.

Yes I have been to the doctor three times. Once to a dermatologist and twice to my family practice. Don't you think they would be able to help? Sometimes I wonder what good some of these doctors are.

This question my seem silly but has anybody here ever developed hives at any time during your candle making days. I have had hives now for almost 2 weeks, have missed over 1 week of work. I am hoping that it does not have anything to do with my working with new FO's. I would like to be able to put that idea out of my head. I would hate to not be able to continue learning about making candles. It is so much fun. I finally found something that I really enjoy and you all are so helpful and nice. Please tell me that this could not be what has caused my problem!

I don't know if you were directing the question to me about how long my wax stays in the melting pot or not. I only do 1lb at a time and as soon as it is melted and I add the FO and dye I pour from my presto pot into a pouring pot until the temp is right to pour. The spongy look I am seeing is on the sides of the jar not the top, it just looks funny.

You know come to think of it looking back I do stir kind of fast, I will have remember that. Thanks:smiley2:

thank you for you responses i will have to try that. What I don't understand is that it just started happening the last 2 times and never did before and I am doing the same things

can someone please help me and tell my why the candles I made today look spongy? If you look at the jar from the side the only way I can describe it is spongy. I used 1 lb of soy GB464, 1 oz pumpkin souffle fo and a little bit of an orange dye chip. Heated to 190 and poured at 129. They were cooled on a cookie rack under a box. This is not the first time I noticed it. I would appreciate some help from all you expert candle makers here. Thanks and have a Happy Easter.

I have been searching in this forum about repouring. I found a lot of opinions about it but what I could not find is what temp to you do your repour at. For example say that I pour my wax at 140. OK now if I have to do the repour then what temp. do I do it at? Happy Easter everybody:) Joy

I made tarts, tea lights, and a 2.5 inch jelly jar candles with GB 464 (1 lb.) cranberry chutney FO (6%) and some wax dye, and 1 tablespoon universal soy additive. My question is the tarts and tea lights have a good hot throw but my jar candle does not seem to have it. I am using a ECO 4. Any ideas as to what I did wrong. It seems to be burning nicely no flickering and all of that stuff. Thank you.

Hi now I am confused about the burn test. I thought you were suppose to burn the 1st burn until you got a full melt pool to see how long it takes to achieve this. That is what I have been doing. I thought if you had for example a 2.5 inch diameter jar you should burn for at least 2 1/2 hours to see how far along your melt pool is. Have I been wrong in doing this all along? I get quite confused in reading all these different suggestions. Thanks.

Can somebody please tell me where I can find all the abbreviations you all use for suppliers. I know I saw it somewhere but I will be darned if I can remember where! Thanks

Can somebody please tell me what phthalate free FO's are. I have seen this mentioned more than once now and do not know what it means? :rolleyes2 Joy

appreciate you quick reply thank you very much!

Do you use the chicken wire and then weave the greens in and put the florist block on that. If you don't then what do you do with the florist block after you have decorated it. How do you secure it and where do you secure it by the grave? thanks

Hi, has anybody ever made a grave blanket? If so can you please tell me how to go about doing this. I am not talking about the ones that sit on top of the stone, I mean the ones that you lay on the ground by the stone. thanks :smiley2:

I made a cargile C3 candle and some tarts. I used 1 oz. of peak spruce christmas tree fragrance oil, 9 drops of C&S christmas tree green dye, and 1 tablespoon universal soy additive in 1LB. of wax. I heated it to 175 and poured at 140. Cooled my candle on a cooling rack under a box. My candle and tarts turned out very different than from the first batch. My candle never really got that hard and I could stick my finger in it, when I did it felt like sand, real gritty. The tarts felt oily and the candle did too. I only added 1oz. of FO, I weighed it out the same as I did earlier today with my first batch. With the first batch everything was the same except I heated it to 160 and only added 6 drops of the dye. I was very careful both times and stirred everything carefully. I have not had much experience at all with this so I am depending on others to PLEASE help me out here. :confused:

thank you everyone for your answers I am always afraid to try something new I guess I should just dive in and try things and if it does not work oh well I learned! Have a great weekend!

Well thank you everyone for helping me out. I was so happy about doing this and then when I got the results I did I was so disappointed.

Does anybody know if you can use the candy molds wilton (they are plastic) to make different shaped tarts in. It would be nice for the holidays and fun too. I would think it would be OK since the chocolate is very hot when you put it in them. Any ideas am I right or wrong?

I read somewhere that you can dip pine cones in wax and make them look pretty. Well I tried making yellow pine cones from my old tarts and the wax does not stay on them. I dipped one pine cone in the wax 3 different times and it looks just like it did before it got dipped! Let me explain I did not dip and dip and dip. I dipped and let it sit for a while and then dipped again. Anybody ever done this and if so what the heck are you suppose to do? I feel like such a dip. Thanks, Joy:wink2:

Please can you give me some info on what you all prefer for paraffin container wax!!!!!!!!! There must be a lot of opinions out there.

I would like to make some paraffin container candles or should I say try! My question is which type of paraffin do you all like to use. I know everybody has there own preference but I would really appreciate your input as to which you like and why. There are so many to choose from and I find it very confusing. If you read the descriptions they all sound like they are perfect. Thanks, Joy:wink2: