RichardLOZ

We have had mixed success with the crystal potpourri. When we were on the west coast in Perth it actually sold really well for us, however so far here on the East coast back in Sydney it just doesnt seem to move. May be the time of year as it summer here, so it may just sell much better in winter. We used to mix out rock salt with colour and scent and then lay out on a tray and dry with a hair dryer before we had our heat gun. Now we would use the heat gun to dry and its very quick. We used to package in small organza bags and sell for $1.50 / bag or 4 for $5.00. Organza no longer fits in with our look, so we will need to think of a different style of packaging if we are going to continue with it next season.

Friends, family for starters. You could also try freecycle which I think you guys have over there. HTH

Thanks to all for the comments. I am expecting the cards to arrive tomorrow, which is a 4 day turnaround. Definitely cant complain about that especially for the price

We had our first candle party here on Monday night. A woman who had bought from us at a local market a few weeks back, called and asked if we did parties. We had never done one, but as you do, said "yes of course we do", so she went ahead and booked it Got there Monday night and she said she had about 8 or so people coming, so I didn't think it was going to be all that successful. How wrong was my thinking....LOL. They all went mad and we ended up selling over $600, all paid for and taken on the night. It looks as though we have also picked up 2 further parties from this one, but they will not be till March. We are getting a mobile machine for taking credit and debit cards and the 2 people who booked the parties want to wait till we have that as then people can spend more.....LOL Was crazy and we are still having trouble comprehending the amounts that people were spending on candles. Bring on more parties I say...LOL

Michelle Thanks for the comments, even if they are about matching clothes...LOL The 2 fonts are called Amalgro and All Caps. If you want them I am happy to send to you, just let me know and make sure I can find your email address and they will be on the way

We use the craft labels and buy them from Labels By The Sheet It actually works out cheaper for us to bring these in from the US as opposed to buying locally, not to mention that I cant find craft labels anywhere in Australia anyway. HTH

Love the jar and the label. They should sell really well for you. Personally I would leave the lid label free. The labels on the jar look great as they are. Thats my opinion anyway

We had similar issues, although we were only taking to markets. We didnt want to shrink wrap as pretty much everything on our stall is either glass or recycled cardboard. We ended up cutting votives from out range for a while, and have only just now put them back on, but we display them unwrappped and just put them in a small bag if people choose to buy. Maybe you can find some small cardboard boxes and the right price that would hold 2 - 4 votives and send tham out that way. Packaging seems to always pose the most difficult challenge along with labels of course. Good luck with finding the right solution for you.

Comments please, good and bad Have just sent this to the printer to get 1000 run off. Up till now we had printed our own at home and they just don't look professional. This will be gloss on the front, and we have left the back plain white so that people can write prices / dates etc for parties and such. We will see what reaction we get to this card. Flyer's are the next thing we have to look at, but as the candle season comes to a close here for the two months over summer we have some time to work on that. The fonts are the same as we use on our labels. We have burgundy cloths on our tables at markets and parties, so the card's should tie in nicely with our stall overall.

Well I finally got around to pouring some tester for the wood wicks that I purchased about 3 months ago. 2 x 3" Cookie jars. 1st is NG cucumber mint / large size wick. Flame is very large, but the crackle is awesome! 1.5 hours into the first burn and full melt pool about 1/4 inch deep. This is in glass glow palm. Looks and sounds great, expect that the flame is probably too large and the jar is getting very hot. 2nd is from a local supplier - Autum Harvest. Used the medium size wick. Flame is much better sized than the previous. Nowhere near as much crackle, and jar is a little cooler, although not much. Nowhere near the throw as the larger wick (and this scent throws really well). No full melt pool as yet. Still of course way too early to tell how it is all going. The cucumber mint may develop a smaller flame when the wick is trimmed again before the next burn. Will definitely be interesting to see how this pans out. I now have one of the local shops wanting me to supply as they cant get any genuine woodwick candles till late Fed / early March due to a change of supplier here, so a definite opportunity.

We experimented with EO's for a little while, lime, lavender & peppermint. We found that the throw was not great and most people are not prepared to pay the additional cost of the EO considering how much more expensive it is than FO. Based on this we quite our testing and juts stuck to FO's. In the overall scheme of things the number of people who request EO candles in very small. I think in the past 12 months we have only been asked once or twice if we can do EO candles and based on that number of requests it just not worth the time and expense. HTH

Their Lemon Meringue Pie is awesome and strong. I have nothing but praise for them as well as it only takes about 6 days to get stuff to me here in Australia. Thats faster than some of the local suppliers........

ONly if you wish to dig out your electric drill to first drill a hole into the centre of the candle Palm sets extremely hard so you will have to wick before pouring. It is a difficult wax to work with from a wicking perspective, but once you do get it, its a great sense of achievement

Palm wax is a temperamental beast to wick I do have to say. Vastly different from soy. Palm does tend to burn down the container and then after a number of burns will start to catch up. Unless you have a flame from hell which is usually caused by either over wocking or a cavity in the wax, you cant tell how well your wick is going to perform untill you are numerous burn into the candle. I have just finished a 3rd test burn in a cookie jar and the top on one side is only just starting to melt. I will know more in a few more burns. Any candle, especially palm must be burnt right to the bottom on the container before you can really tell how well your chosen wick is performing. Good luck with it, as it is definitely a frustrating thing to get wicked correctly. We also do soy, and besides the temperamental nature of that wax, with its wet spots and frosting, it is so much easier to wick. "Generally" if my melt pool in a palm container is deeper than 1/4 inch I may have to wick down, however that is not always the case. Keep testing till the end and you should get a better idea. Might be good to put some pictures up so that we can see how it is performing and could then maybe advise further. HTH

Here is a test form done in excel if anyone is interested in using it. It has some fomulas contained within it which will calculate wax burn rate / hour in grams. I do have a later version which will also graph the results, which if anyone is interested I can post as well. Excel Burn Test Template HTH

I assume this is a soy wax? If so try a cdn 22 or perhaps a 24 depending on the oil you are using. I use the 10 oz apothecary jars and most oils wick very well with a cdn 22, just some of the heavier scents require a 24. Not knowing what oils you are using its difficult to advise. The fact that I am in Australia may be another point Perhaps when some of the people over there are available they can offer you some better advice. In the meantime may I suggest that you post further information on your wax, scent and wick combinations that you have tried so far. HTH

Yep 10 million, which is the minimum that they will insure you for here. I did have the option to take a 20 million cover, but figured that I may not quite need that much, although I don't think it was all that much more expensive though.

We are ordering them from Factory Direct Craft supply. They are pretty good and delivery (even to Australia) is pretty quick. Factory Direct Craft Supplies HTH

I am here and its about 5pm Sunday afternoon as I post this one I have not experienced any strange smell from buring the palm, no matter what wick I have used. I did do a couple of double wicked jars some time ago and the wicks were way way too big for the jars. Full deep melt pool in quite a short time. I still however continued to burn to the end and besides the huge flame and extremely reduced burn time it was all good....LOL I have not tried with cinnamon in the palm just yet as I have been mainly working on summer scents at the moment, rose, lilac, frangipani etc. The damn palm in a 4" jar is sooooooo frustrating, but I am determined that I am going to get it and not let this damn jar beat me

SOunds as though you guys have to pay heaps for your insurance. We have recently taken our poilcy out for both public liability & product liability and it cam in at $275 for the year to cover us for 10 million. Cant complain about that cost for peace of mind. Its a real sad world when you have to insure yourself against other peoples stupidity!

Linda Tell me about it. I am currently trying to wick a standard 4" apothecary jar using the glass glow palm and so far have gone through 9 jars in a combination of various single wicks and now double wicking and still havent got it right. I am close, but no cigar as yet. Am considering going to a triple wick, although I have not yet worked out how to keep my wicks taught and straight in the jar when I pour with a triple wicked jar of that size. I like my candles to have anice clean burn with no hangup around the sides. I reckon I could go up maybe 1 or 2 sizes more than I have so far and possibly get away with a double wick, although that is going to reduce the burn time by a fair amount I think. With soy I am usually getting around 45+ hours from a 10 oz apothecary, so I think with double wicking the palm that would probably reduce to about 35 hours with a nice clean burn. I use CDN's as well as some locally made wicks, and so far have tried both and get more and more frustrated each day...ahhhhhhh

We use a custom blend of 464 and no crystalising container palm (which lowers the melt point). 1 oz / pp and get an awesome hot throw from pretty much every scent we have chosen so far. We use some scents sourced locally here in Australia as well as some from NG. Havent yet tried the NG scents in soy, but they all throw very well in palm. Will wait till our spring again before testing them in soy.

You are sure going to have fun with an outside stall tomorrow. We have a break this weekend. No markets at all, and I now have to work next Wednesday so cant do Penrith On a positive note though I asked the customer I was with today if they would mind me bringing a selection of candles down to put in their luch room for people to order before Christmas. They agreed, so I will take those down next week with a stack of order forms. There are almost 250 people working there, so hopefully we will get a decent sized order from them. So much easier than going to markets

We had 26 x 1 lb bottles shipped down here to Australia in very good time. Customer service was great. Out of the 26 bottles, there may be a couple we would not order again, moreso because we didnt really like them, rather than anything else. Some of their oils are really strong and some are quite mild. For example Fresh Outdoors does not have a whole lot of CT in palm, but the HT is quite good. Torrential Rain has a really string CT as well as HT. Cant comment on the fall and winter scents as we are coming into our summer here, so have at this stage ordered that range of fragrances. Overall we are very happy with their oils and will definitely be ordering again from them.

Feather palm is just so nice to work with. Great candles especially considering that its your first batch of pillars etc. Display looks awesome also. Trapp Feather palm in containers works ok, except for the rattling around I am still trying to work out how to make one of our cow pillars into a cow container...LOL. Will definitely experiment when I have some free time I think.