RichardLOZ

We are now just experimenting with some tiny molds to make wax fixins. Rosehips, cinnamon sticks etc. Given the fact that the rosehips are really quite small, how do you successfully pour into these molds. The pour hole is not very big at all and I can only imagine that I am going to get more wax on the top of the mold and on the table than in the actual cavities. Would love the advice from anyone who does fixins or small embeds the size of rosehips. Cheers Richard

Thanks Judy. Its real nice to know that someone also thinks the way that we do. I found the same issue when I was looking at all of the available molds in this range. They were either too big or too small. Ours are approximately 1" in height and just over 1" in diameter. If I recall they weight about 1/2 oz or perhaps just a touch more, so they do fit nicely in the 1/2 lb tin tie bags. I want to experiment with a rosehip cavity and a 1" cinnamon stick cavity to make wax fixins. The only problem I can see with those, particularly the rosehips will be the pouring. How do you pour into such small cavities without making one hell of a mess everywhere, while actually getting the wax into the cavity to begin with....LOL. Cheers Richard

Linda Modge Podge (sp?) is what you guys have over there is the States. For us poor Aussies we just have plain old clear craft glue (which I guess is the same or similar anyway). We first lightly spray the tins with a brown / rust coloured spay paint. Once dry we mix up some of the modge podge with various ground spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and coffee. The amount you put it determines the end colour, remembering that as the mixture dries it also get a little darker. Once this is mixed, it is pained onto each tin with a paintbrush and then left to dry. We do not do anything to the inside of the tins at all. The label goes onto the tin after the spray painting stage, while the paint is still wet, which helps it to stick better (we learnt this by trial and error), and then the spice mix is painted around it. The handles on these were made from fencing wire, which was also painted, but we have now got some authentic rusty wire to use for those instead. HTH Richard

Jenny Pillars are from feathering palm wax. Poured at the right temperature results in the natural feathering that this wax is known for. The cow candles is the same wax, however is poured at a different temperature to reduce the feathering for a totally different result. Cheers Richard

Hi Linda Tins are mainly cat food Some tinned veggies too I think. Through the dishwasher, dried and then treated to look rusty. Yes, we do our own labels as well. Thanks for the comments. Richard

Thanks for the compliment although I would definitely not consider label design to be one of my strong points. If I can get that damn border to play then I may be in a much better frame of mind, but until then I am still just about ready to tear peoples heads off if they ebter the room while label printing / designing is in progress.....LOLOL Richard

Very realistic looking pie. Good enough to eat. How does it burn may I ask? Cheers Richard

Dont know about going into the mold making business as there are many more talented people that us already doing that. I can tell you however that after experimenting ourselves I can definitely see why people are charging what they do for a silicone mold. For example the mini cini buns mold is about 450 gram, which doesnt sound too much until you look at the cost of the silicone. We are just experimenting at the moment to see what sells and what doesnt before we go down the path of further molds. Still have about 8 1/2 kg of silicone here to play with when the time is right Cheers Richard

We do make our own labels, and I cant even begin to tell you how damn frustrating it actually is. I have spent literally hours trying to get the damn borders right and aligned. They are close but not perfect. For some reason they just dont seem to align properly, nor will it print well right to the edge of the label. Well the printing part is not quite true...LOL. I can get printing to both the top and bottom edge and nicely on one side, but for some reason the other side just wont print properly, hence why the left and right borders are in somewhat. I think it still works, although I would be so much happier if the printing would play properly. BTW I am using Avery designpro and labels supplied from Labers by the sheet, with my own custom created template. Cheers Richard

One more here to add if I may. These are Raspberry tartlets, again with the original model hand molded by Tracy and then the result made into a 6 cavity silicone mold by me. We have also done these in Lemon Meringue and Blueberry, and may yet do some in Strawberry Rhubarb. Thanks for looking and the comments Richard

We have been working on some new lines for the summer season and Christmas here, so I thought I would put some preliminary pics up for comment. The Christmas pillars are obviously feathering palm and are unscented. Was figuring that if people wanted to use for a table decoration, unscented would work better. The Christmas tins have been rusted using spices, glue etc. The mini cinnamon buns have been done in a mold that we made ourselves. Tracy hand moulded the initial mini cini out of modeling clay, which I then used to form the silicone mold. Some are iced and some are sprinkled with cinnamon for a different look. Feathering palm for the buns and pillar soy for the icing. The cow candle is again feathering palm, which was poured at a temperature to restrict feathering. Scented with Fresh Cut Grass from NG. Our new jars. This is not the correct label for this size. The label should be 1/2" larger but I am still waiting for my next order to arrive. Although the label says Black Magic, this one is in fact Snow Angels from NG. Just wanted to get a look at the jars with the label, gingham & rusty star. Glass Glow palm in this one. Suggestions and comments most welcome, both good and bad Cheers Richard

Thanks Sharon. In a 3" JJ I am using CDN 14 and CDN 16's which seem to work pretty well so far. They start slow and then do catch up to the point where the jar sides are totally clean, which is nice. I am getting 50+ hours burn time in these jars. Just about to put a pic up in the gallery so you can see just how unexciting these jars are, (well to most aussies they will be as they don't understand prim.....LOL) Cheers Richard

Thanks for all of the information. Yes I did consider triple wicking, perhaps for a nano second before discarding the idea. Double wicking is a total PITA, let alone triple wicking. I have some CDN 26's and 28's here which I may just try to see how they go. If all goes well then great, and if not, I guess those particular oils will just have to go into the plain old jelly jars. The problem with that is that here in Australia, prim is just not known or understoood by too many people, so despite all the deco making the jar very prim, people here will just see a plain old jar and wonder why we want to charge so much for it. Ahhhh such is life............ Richard

I am hoping that perhaps someone can answer this question for me as it it beginning to drive me crazy. I think that Stella uses this wax, but I do not know too many others who do. With the summer fast approaching here (it was 100 here one day this week), soy isn't too much fun to work with, so we are currently experimenting with the Glass Glow palm for our containers. We use mainly 10 oz apothecary jars for the bulk of our stock as the larger jars just dont seem to sell here at all. We are also using some plain old jelly jars for a more primitive line that we are doing. The jelly jars are fine and I pretty much have those wicked to the point where I am happy with them, however they are not going to be to everyone's liking, hence the reason for also carrying out apothecary line into the palm wax. They are standard apothecary jars, approximately 4" diameter in the main part of the jar with a 3" mouth. Current fragrance selection is from NG, with a few local oils as well. We use CDN wicks for these jars. I would really like to be able to single wick these, although this is proving to be extremely difficult. Using a CDN 24 in the heavier oils is going nowhere near forming a full melt pool and just tunneling. I can go as high as a CDN 28 if I am going to persevere with the single wicking. I can also double wick if I really have to, however I would usually avoid that option like the plague. I have just poured 4 more jars using to light and 2 heavier oils and double wicked those with 2 x CDN 14's and 2 x CDN 16's respectively. Will let cure for 24 hours and then begin to test. Has anyone managed to successfully single wick these jars with this wax or is double wicking the only way to go with these, besides a smaller diameter jar. Any advice much appreciated. Cheers Richard

While this old thread is being revived I thought I might pop in with a question. I have a dozen of each of the medium & large wooden wicks which I am looking to try. I have not as yet as the jar I am looking at is currently out of stock at my supplier here. We do both soy containers as well as palm containers. Has anyone tested these in glass glow palm, and if so how did it perform for you. I would really like to stay clear of soy over the next 4 - 6 months as the temperature here just gets too hot and it becomes problematic. The palm holds up so much better in the heat. Thanks Richard

We use a blend of 464 and non crystalising container palm in our jars, and the bulk of the scents are wicked with a single CDN 22, with some of the heavier scents wicked with a CDN 24. We find that this works very well for us. Unfortunately due to the high temperatures here in Australia, we are now going through the entire testing process once again with all of our fragrances as we are switching to crystalising container palm for the summer, not to mention the 26 new fragrances that we inported direct from NG Cheers Richard

Hi there and welcome to the forum. I am sure that you will continue to find loads of useful information here on the site. Where abouts are you in Sydney. Great to see another Aussie on here Cheers Richard

Barncat Just looking at things such as minimum order quantity total as well as how many jars of each scent minimums etc. Just have one shop we are supplying trying to stop us doing markets, party plan or supplying any other business even remotely close to his, by suggesting that if we were to do that he would have to think about whether he is going to continue to carry our line. Pretty restrictive really and kind of limits us from expanding. If we do private label for him it may solve the issue somewhat, but it would have to be minimum amounts etc. Cheers Richard

Hi there. Just wondering if anyone may have both a wholesale and a private label contract or agreement that they may wish to share. As per one of Tracy's posts a week or two ago in regards to this one shop we are supplying, I would like to have a more formal agreement in place to protect both us and him, as well as for future accounts. I would most appreciate any advice on this one as it is something that I guess we are going to run into many time as we attempt to expand the business. Thanks so much to anyone who can help. Cheers Richard

Hey all Just a quick question in regards to protecting your pillars when storing and transporting to various markets & fairs. We have gone down a new path with our decoration, using some beads and as soon as they arrive some rusty tin hearts and stars on our pillars. The problem we are facing is how best to pack, store and transport these items. We do not really want to go down the shrink wrap path as I think it takes away somewhat from the look, as well as adds to the cost. I am after ideas on how people pack and store these to both prevent scents from mingling as well as to protect from damage. All ideas welcome and appreciated. Cheers Richard

All of you guys should consider yourselves fortunate. We can get a similar product here in Australia however the normal everyday price is $79.95. I recently bought 2 and got the price down to $69.95. What I would do to get them for $19.88. Such is life down under Richard

If youy are using Avery Designpro or perhaps even some others, it should be easy wnough to create your own custom template. You may just have to do some measuring on the label sheet to get the alignment correct. Cheers Richard

Thanks Nat I did do a search for their site and they have a specials catalog, but nothing to be seen in there. They do seem very hard to find even over there. Cheers Richard

Hi there, Well here we are once again on the hunt from Australia. This time for those rustic punched tin warmers with the prim designs, stars, willow tree's etc. We ideally need to NON electric ones, as I can get the electrics from Colonial Tin already, but then have the pain of changing the plug and the globe to make them compatible with 220 volt down here. If anyone has any suggestions as to where we could get the non electric ones, preferably wholesale that information would be most appreciated. Cheers Richard

All of this first order is from Nature's Garden, whom I have only read good things about so far. BCN is one of the others that I would like to try also, just cant afford to do it all at once. Cheers Richard