FireStarter

Thanks guys!! I had a different butterfly on there first, and others suggested it looked like a moth, and one said it looked dead lmao! After looking at it a bit more I believe they were right.. so I changed it.. lol Well, I'm not quite sure yet.. I was hoping to print myself on the inkjet, but I still need to pick up a new color cartridge for it.. which will probably get rather pricey. I was also going to see what it would cost to submit the design and have it done by someone else.. but that's a good thought about using black labels.. hmm.. thanks for the idea!! I hadn't thought of that route! Like most others I have limited funds so that's probably a more efficient method...

Okay.. I posted a label a few days ago and asked for opinions.. got em.. and made some adjustments according to what you thought needed changed. Here is the revised edition. Thank you guys so much for all of your input!! It is greatly appreciated. :yay:Let me know what ya think.

Congrats on the newborn!! Id be willing to test for ya.. Im a newb so my feedback wouldn't be too painful.. and might actually teach me a thing or two! Hah!

I don't use your wax (I use GW444), and I think my jars are bigger than the ones you are using, if you are using the 10 oz apothecaries you mentioned in the other post.. mine are 16 oz Apoth... I use 6% stearic as well.. which affects the hardness of my wax when its finished, I am testing one right now with double LX-24 and it seems to be doing pretty well. However towards the end of the jar, the flames aren't as bright and big as they were at the top.. but the sides of the jar are clean and the jar isn't really hot at all.. i can pick it up and move it around without thinking twice.. haven't tested it with FO yet.. that's coming this weekend.. :rolleyes2 something tells me though that I will have to wick up. But I am liking it so far I've also found that double wicking with HTP 104s work pretty well with this size jar, but again no FO yet. The 105s work too, but my wicking was wayyyyy off center on that one so i need to start over as one side of the jar was smoldering and the other was untouched. I would think that an HTP 83 or 93 double wicked might work with the 10 oz apoth.. I know the single 1312 works very well with my 16 oz, but the jar does get a bit too hot for my liking. The 1212 didn't cut it.. so i skipped those and tested the LXs and the Cotton Cores - I am liking the double C80 so far.. but only halfway down the jar right now. I mentioned the HTP cuz in your other post you said you wanted to go with the HTP or LX for local accessibility. HTH!!

Palm Stearic also aids in hardening the soy wax. I use it to smooth out my tops, but can't say for certain that I've noticed a huge difference in burn time though..I usually get about 80 - 100 hours out of my 16 oz colonials with 6% stearic, which was about the same before I started adding the Stearic. Sorry if that didn't offer much help.. :embarasse I would listen to Stella.. she's super smart!

I have had luck with Palm stearic acid helping to smooth out soy... I use 444 and the Palm Stearic from Peaks... I use about 6% per pound (they recommend 1 to 3 tbsp per pound) and it seems to help quite a bit.. I could probably use to up it to about 7% still, because I still get a few rough spots after a few burns, but overall it has helped significantly.. HTH

I wanna eat it! I love blueberries! Lol.. Fabulous job! Now..... off to find some munchiesssss.... :tiptoe: Lol

I like this label too. Better than the other one.. I think the Oval in the middle surrounding all of the wording emphasizes the whole thing a bit more. The other one draws me directly to the scent name, and I somewhat forget to read the company name... but I really like this one. It forces you to read the whole thing. That and I'm partial to green.. lol. Kudos!! Nice work!

Thanks Ring of Fire! Well I think if I can learn Photoshop, anyone can.. lmao.. I have a short attention span and not much patience haha!! But making candles has taught me a lot of patience I have to say!!! Lol.. Thanks again! You all have great feedback!!

Candybee - good suggestion on the Font size. I did fudge around with that for a bit to try to get it to fit, but I'm sure I can probably go up a few more sizes without it being too large. SockMonkey - great suggestion there too with the direction of the butterfly.. I have one brush that I think will fit much better than the one on there, and it faces more of an upper left direction, with his back to us... And with the different fonts too.. i have i thought about that as well, and would like to stick with just one or two.. I do like the idea of the name being two fonts, then the rest of it should probably be just one. I will work with that as well. I'm going to take all these suggestions and mess around with it a bit more tonight or tomorrow and post again for more opinions... You guys are great!

Wow Richard! Your set up is absolutely beautiful..!! I totally love the frosted jars, especially the shape of the smaller ones. I would have definitely purchased from your booth. Outstanding! Thanks for sharing your pictures! Keep up and keep on.. I hear it only gets better! Kudos!!!

Thanks so much for your input guys! Yeah you know after looking at it a while I kinda thought it looked like a moth too, lol! I have a few other brushes I can try out that are more butterfly-ish. I will play around some more and see what comes up.. I'm going for simple ya know? As far as working in Photoshop.. if you search on google "photoshop tutorials" they have a ton of information and tutorials available.. That's where I learned to do that, and they have sites you can download free brushes from.. and most of the time they don't mind you using them for commercial products as long as you give credit where it's due.... some require a small fee, or purchasing of a licence from them, others wont allow it at all. But they do make it look so easy.. this actually took me like 3 hours to do.. I have no experience in photoshop.. :embarasse Keep the suggestions coming! I'm all ears!

Hey everyone.. I whipped this up in Photoshop the other night and wanted to get opinions. I'm not dead set, more or less just messing around for now to get a feel. What ya' all think? :smiley2: Honest opinions and/or suggestions please, like I said, just experimenting.. Thanks!! ETA: Sorry, I mean label, not logo.. lol.. the logo would be just the name and the butterfly.

Arizona, especially Phoenix, is super hot. I live in Southern Arizona.. about 15 minutes from the border, but have lived in Tucson for the past 13 years, and have family in Phoenix.. It really is a beautiful state, but it can sometimes be difficult to acclomate. Alot of people come from the east, and suddenly have MAJOR allergies.. the climate is so different. As far as crafts.. this is probably one of the most craft-friendly states that I know of, aside from Texas. Texas is where I would like to be, or Wyoming.. lol.. However, yea, the heat here.. OMG. Even after living here for so long.. from about May through August.. I don't bother leaving my house unless I absolutely have to.. Tucson is nicer.. doesn't get nearly as hot as Phoenix, and the Sierra Vista/Bisbee area is even cooler, by about 10 degrees on average.. and SV/B is pretty retirement friendly as well, and oh my, Old Bisbee is to die for.. we have Tombstone just 15 mintues from here, and Bisbee is 15 minutes in the opposite direction. Bisbee is also an extremely art/craft friendly town, in fact Old Bisbee is made up of mostly SBO's with some form of arts and crafts. I did find that Bisbee shops don't have a lot of candles though, so I plan to attempt to tap that market soon.. and there is also a local Farmer's market where you can sell candles and whatever you like.. its more than just a Farmer's market.. lots of crafts and handmade things. Oh, and before I forget, Tucson has the 4th Ave Street Fair, which sells a TON of crafts twice a year, lots of hippies and retirees love to attend these, as do I.. we have the rennesiance festival in upper phoenix, and there is also octoberfest, and the Gem show is every February, where you can also get a booth and sell candles. I'd say, if you want to move to Arizona, and you can tolerate the 110 plus degree weather, and want to be able to sell your candles, Tucson or Sierra Vista are the places to be. I personally can't live in Phoenix because of the heat, but if you can wing it.. go for it.. just remember to leave your windows cracked in the summer time.. or they will shatter. and don't drive a car that has black leather seats.. lmao! And window tinting is an absolute must. Okay sorry for rambling.. lol

Okay well I guess I am going to get some CDs and possibly also some ECOs since others seem to have better luck with them in this wax,, I may also try double wicking with a smaller LX... or going up a size. but I am still curious as to why I would get a full MP on the first burn, but not the second? Any ideas?

Im sorry.. sometimes they are just so difficult to deal with. Some people are just never happy.. you could probably replace 100 candles for him and he would still complain. :rolleyes2 That's a sticky wickit there.. On the other hand.. maybe coming in to trade in candles is one of his few sources of socialization.. I've known seniors to do that just to interact with other people, especially if they have no one to talk to on a regular basis.

Stella, being new to this, does this apply to all soy waxes? (Sorry if that's a stupid question), and what is tempering and retempering? So when you melt the wax, do you heat it to the recommended heat point, where you would normally add the fragrance and oil, but instead, let it cool and harden again completely, and then remelt to the same temp? I am interested in this process.. have not read about it other than what you have stated. If you could explain this I would be greatly appreciative... also what affect does this have on the wax, I.E. does it change it in any way? I guess what I am trying to ask is what is the benefit of doing this? I am very curious now!!

This is true and I agree, but in the case of this particular customer, as much of a pain as he seems to be and as much stink as he is causing.. what happens when he burns his house down because he refuses to read the instructions and decides that because he feels your candle "wasn't burning properly" (though due to his own ineptness) he is going to sue you. Granted that is what insurance is for, but that, I think would cause more negative publicity than refusing to take back a candle that he refused to burn properly. It seems he is just trying to get free stuff anyway. Don't mean to sound rude, but I would say good riddance to this customer. Just my 2 cents..

I saw some candles at my local Frys grocery store that looked like Palm wax too, but the labels didn't say anything about them being Palm. I wonder if its that crystalline paraffin.. I read about it somewhere recently, but can't place it. They smelled okay.. I was tempted to buy one just to see what it was like. I haven't seen the Glade soy yet.. I'm grocery shopping tomorrow at wally world so I will look while I'm there.. hmmmmm. Funny that we go into the stores scouring the candles on the shelves.. lol.. my DH just laughs, shakes his head, and goes on shopping.. leaving me in the candle aisle to investigate haha!

Okay I've been testing RRDs and LX series' for about a month now.. new to all this so I've got a lot of trial and error of course. I am using GW444 and pouring into 16 oz Colonial Apothecary jars, 4" in diameter. Following the usual instructions for temps when heating, adding fragrance (8% using Creamy Praline Pecan) and color, and pouring. I wicked a few jars the other day, and I really thought I had finally gotten it with the LX-26. The burn was perfect, aside from mushrooming (for which I have decided I will try and decrease my FL to 6%). Had a full melt pool, no smoking, no issues, let it burn for just over 4 hours, then put it out. The jar was definitely cool enough to handle for any length of time.. I loved it. Went to do my second burn today and I have a 3/4 inch hangup all the way around the jar... Why would it do this? I am wondering if the FL has anything to do with it? I did trim the wick, still getting mushrooming so would the mushroom tend to inhibit the heat from the flame any? Is this typical for a second burn? Should I try another size up? Peak's wicking chart in their catalog suggested an LX 24 for this size jar, but to wick up with soy, so I wicked one with the LX 24 and one with the LX 26. The LX 24 is doing exactly as I figured, I have about 1/8 inch of hangup all the way around after 4 hours of burn time. The RRD series just didn't cut it with this wax for some reason.. I tried double wicking as low as the RRD 40s, and single wicking all the way up to RRD 55. The RRD 55 never got a full MP and the double RRD 40s just got wayyyy too hot. Excellent MP but I couldn't handle the jar at all. Any suggestions??? TIA!!

Welcome to the fun!! I'm also new but have found this site and the people here to be most helpful! It does seem a bit overwhelming at first, but you'll get the hang of it. Just jump in with both feet, and most importantly, have fun.

I used their Spiced Cranberry in IGI 4625.. doesn't throw hot for me very well, but the CT is pretty good.. I love the scent! My other favs from them: Creamy Praline Pecan Hot Cocoa - a definite fab IMO Fruit Slices Capp Hazlenut Honestly I haven't tried any other suppliers FOs to compare.. I started with Peaks and haven't felt the urge to switch yet.. I really love their scents.

Oh gee I read, but apparently didn't pay attention that you made tarts lol.. sorry! I haven't made tarts so I'd listen to these other folks instead of me.. hah!

Thank you all for replying! I really love hearing stories about how others got started, and their progress! My testing phase is still ongoing as I too am a bit of a perfectionist and want to make sure everything is just right... with every test, I have a new idea, and I think I will probably be testing for a long while. :rolleyes2 Keep the stories coming! This is wonderful!

Hello and welcome! I am new too so I will help the best I can.. The sinking in the middle is from the shrinkage of the paraffin. I have not used a heat gun during this part of the process... i just heat the remaining wax to about 10 degrees hotter than the first temp you poured, and pour in to fill the cavity in the middle.... after you poke relief holes of course. You need to poke holes around the middle near the wick.. but not all the way down the candle.. just enough to let some of the trapped air out. Then do your repour, and let it cool. Some waxes you may have to do this upwards of 3 or 4 times, just depends on what wax you are using. As far as when to take them out of hte molds, when they are completely cool to the touch, is my best suggestion. Others are much more experienced and may be able to help more.. but there's my 2 cents! HTH Happy candlemaking! And congrats on your first candles!