RichardLOZ

This is a timely thread that I saw tonight. I was at the markets again today and was buring a couple of new candles that I had poured. More for testing purposes than anything else. May as well kill the 6 or so hours doing something useful I also found that my wax was cracking around the wick. Keep in mind that this was the first burn. Some details 50% GW 415 / 50% non-crystalising container palm 3" square jar CDN 20 wick Jasmine FO I know from the shroom that my wick is a little on the large size and the fact that I got a full melt pool withing the first 3 hours or so on the first burn. The melt pool however remained 1/4 - 1/2 inch right the way through a 6 hour power burn. Candle had only been poured the night before so had only cured for about 16 hours or so. (This candle was more to test an idea rather than anything else, hence the short cure time) I am assuming that the cracking is due to the cure time rather than anything else, however if someone thinks otherwise, please speak up As I said I think I will have to wick down to a CDN 18, but I dont think the oversize wick has caused the cracking. Any ideas on this one welcome. Cheers Richard

They do say that the grass is always greener, etc etc. Have not been to Georgia, but I do love Arizona, spent some time there in 1999 / 2000. ALso went to VA, TN and drove up from Virginia Beach to New York. An amazing experience.Would love to be able to live and work over there for a few years, but it is just way too hard to get sponsored to be able to do it. I pretty much have enough frequent flyer points now for the two of us to do a trip over to the US, which I will work on for sometime next year. I think we will have to take a couple of extra suit cases to carry back all of the molds and FO that we have no hope of getting here. Ahhh such is life...... Richard

You guys over there just dont realise how lucky you are when it comes to buying stock. You have so much choice and the prices are sooooo cheap compared to here. Ahh such is life I guess. Anyway here are a couple of pointers on using the .htaccess solution. Its really pretty easy and quite basic, but I guess it depends on how complex you might like to get with your site. .htaccess tutorial .htpasswd encryption HTH Cheers Richard

Grama Before you go off spending money on software to do what you are looking to do, ask your hosting company about using .htaccess files. If you add a .htaccess file to the folder you are wanting to protect, you can then assign usernames / passwords for people to use. if you google .htaccess you should pull up loads of information. Are you using a shopping cart? If so it may have the ability to show retail prices to one group of people and wholesale prices to another group. I use zen-cart and I know that I have the ability to do that, although at this time I dont. HTH Richard

Hey Stella Dont want to hijack this thread, but just a question on the container palm you have used. have you used the plain non crystalizing version of palm? I have just poured some of this and found it a little strange. It seems to be softer than the soy and the tops were a little crinkle cuty looking after setting. I have just done the first burn tonight and it seems and feels as though the melt point is lower than the soy. Any experience you may have had with this I would love to hear about. Richard

Hi there, we use GW 415 only because we wanted the pure soy without any additives. So far it has been great, with little or no frosting evident. There can be a little with sone FO' but for the most part it is great. We have also just started experimenting with the plain container palm (as opposed to glass glow and the like). Poured out first with that last night, testing for Mothers Day here in Australia in a couple of weeks. Was not that impressed by the look, however will reserve my judgement until after a couple of burns. Cheers Richard

Thanks for that info. I never would have thought that the palm could be whipped due to the way that it cools. I will have to try that as well. Richard

We use both Palm and Soy wax for our various types of candles. Feathering Palm for our melts and pillars and GW 415 soy for our jars. As we are now looking at adding some bakery lines (melts mainly) to our range I was wondering about blending palm. I love the palm wax, but do not want feathering on my cinni buns or donuts. Rather than introducing another wax (soy pillar) into the mix, can I blend some of the feathering palm, either with a percentage of container palm or my GW 415 soy to stop the feathering and give a smooth finish? having said that I may still have to get some of the pillar soy for the cinni bun frosting and donut icing anyway, but thought the question was worth asking in case someonw here has tried the various blending options. Cheers Richard

Thanks for the info. I guess I will go with the extra expense of the silicone from flexiblemolds.com as I would rather spend a little more and be sure, than to save a few dollars and be sorry. From the responses I have received from Ginger at flexiblemolds I am pretty confident in doing business with them. Emailed them tonight (Aussie time) and got a response back almost immediately, which I believe would be Sunday US time. I was quite impressed by that I have to say. Richard

We are just now looking to purchase a number of molds from the states and I was wondering if people have used the molds from "the mold making handyman", which are the polyurethane ones rather than the silicone. The other site I am looking at is flexiblemolds, which are the silicone. As this is going to be quite an investment for use down here in Australia (I would think up around $300 - $400 USD with postage) I just want to make sure that we are getting a product suitable for what we will be doing. We are looking at the bakery / prim range such as mini donuts, mini cinni buns, prim stars and some blueberries / raspberries. We pretty much do all od our melt products with Palm but will also possibly look at a pillar soy for the bakery / fruit range as we dont really want the feathering for that. Any advice or suggestions will be most welcomed and appreciated. Regards Richard

Terri Have a look at www.labelsbythesheet.com for your label supply. We are using the 1 1/4" round for warning labels and the 1" x 4" Prarie craft labels for our tins. All of our other products are done with some raffia and a hang tag. They may have what you are looking for, and cheaper for you as well as you dont have the shipping costs that I have As far as logo design is concerned, if you have Photoshop it is probably the best for doing that kind of stuff. Not too easy to get your hear around but possible. You can try www.photoshoplady.com for some idea on creating logos and things. Cheers Richard

Just a quick thanks to everyone for their nice comments. Tracy does an amazing job when it comes to decorating the products and laying out the stall and such. I am not allowed to touch anything in that area. I am not even allowed to colour anything....LOL. I guess we each have our strong and weak points so they tend to go well together. Just like our fragrance choice. The ones that I choose she cannot stand, and I hate most of the ones that she likes. This is not such a bad thing really as it doesnt really matter whether we like it or not, but whether the customers like it, so at least this gives them a selection from both sides of the fence. Cheers Richard

Hey Firestarter Yeah we hear that also. We can only hope. The main thing is that even though we did not turn over a lot of product, we did come out nicely ahead of what our costs for the day were. We still have a long long long way to go to catch up to what we have spent already. I still have all of my receipts here which I have yet to add up to determine just how much we have spent. I would say right now it is probably getting up around the $1500.00 point. I can accept that though as you have to invest money to formulate and refine your ideas. I think it will be some months yet before we finally manage to get out of the red and into the black, but as long as we keep going in a forward direction then its all good Cheers Richard

Carrie I think the problem with this particular market is that there is also quite a lot of "trash & treasure" rather than crafts and handmade products. That makes it more difficult I think to sell a quality product as people are after a real bargin. As someone once put it to me........ people go to the market with $5 in one pocket and 50c in the other. They want to come home with a car load of stuff and still have the $5. Makes it tough, however as we are moving back to the East Coast in July this year, we are not too concerned about it all right now, and are using this time more as a marketing test to see just what products are likely to sell and which dont. As is typical the Crystal Potpourri was the best seller at $1.50 for a 2oz organza bag. Its amazing what people will pay for salt....LOL. I enjoy experimenting and making different things, but if people want scented salt and I can sell 1000's of those every week, I will happily make scented salt to sell Cheers Richard

Judy We actually only sold the one solitary votive. They hardly got a look in. If you ask me votives are generally pretty good value for the burn time they give, such is life. The fragrance was Pomegranite & Sage which is really nice. We are still trying to sort our fragrances at the moment to try a determine what the "Aussie taste" is. We are trying to educate them to the more homely and prim American type but I think thats going to be pretty hard. We can only try and see what happens. Cheers Richard

Hey there, I actually like it. Very simple and looks quite classy. Not something that my other half would like as she is more into the country and prim look, but that label would attract me to the product. Richard

Yes we have been very busy little candle makers over the past months, what with testing, testing, testing and testing. The kids are pretty much over it and would probably like to smell unfragranced air for a change I got my tin labels from www.labelsbythesheet.com in the US of course. Typically AUstralia has absolutrly nothing to offer along those lines here at all. I ordered the prarie craft labels so that the tins would have the rustic look to them. This lot were printed on a laser printer, however I think that they will in fact print far better with the inkject, so I will use that next time. I also ordered mt 1 1/4 inch plain round labels from there as well to make my own warning labels. What pay $3.00 and up / 100 locally when I can get sheets of 48 for abount 42c USD. I ordered 15 sheets of the craft labels and 12 of the round which worked out at $29 USD posted and got to us faster than things we order from the East coast. We did have a coupld of the melt gift packs, which had a bit of a look in, but didnt sell. I think that wax melts are still pretty new in the Australian market, with most people still burning FO and water. Yeah I know what you mean about the discount shops doing the bakery stuff, but it was mainly cup cakes and the like. We are looking to go for more of the cutesy market with much more realistic looking product. I know its a risk that may or may not work here, but one that we are thinking about trying. I guess if it doesnt work, we will have some great shaped ice cubes to offer guests when they come over.....LOL. We will do the "Prim" line first I think. Its a little less risky I think. Still an expense as the molds do have to come from the states. We are just so limited with what we can get here and it is so damn frustrating. Overall I am pretty happy with the result today. Lets face it we could have paid our $26 stall cost and sold nothing. We also had some competetion. There was another women there selling palm wax melts (60c each or 4 / $2, which we thought way too expensive) and we dont think she sold too many as we had ours packaged in the organza bags for $8 / bag (and still made a nice profit on them, so she would not have been too happy I dont think), and there was another women selling sml / med & large soy bulb pots. All white. Her small were $3 cheaper than ours (and the same jar I think), her large were $5 more than us, although we do the Apothecary rather than the bulb in the large (dont know why as double wicking is a PITA...LOL), and we still managed to sell a couple of each of ours. Also out presentation was so much nicer then both of the others, and I really think that that makes so much difference, and if you make a good product, they will return for more. Well I have raved on way too much now. Its gone almost 11pm here and we were up at 4:30 am this morning to get to the markets, so probably time to crash. Thanks for putting up with my rave....LOL Cheers Richard

Well we survived the market today and did not loose any money, which is a definite bonus. We are not going to be able to retire on what we made, but we made our stall easily. Did not sell a lot of jars and no pillars. All of the sales were basically our mini melts, some large melts and the crystal potpourri. We were not really able to burn any candles due to the wind. For those that dont know Perth, it is somewhat like Chicago. Its the third most windy city in the world, so although the weather today was fine, it was still blowing a gale, just like most other days here. People did comment though how good the stall smelt as they walked past. I have breathed so much fragrant oil over the past few months thats its hard for me to smell anything Aussies are a strange bunch. You are right Koalagirl, we were somewhat surprise at the fragrances that did sell to some degree. The mini melts were basically all pretty soft fragrances, moonlight path and baby powder being the biggest sellers. In the single melts, creme caramel and maple pumpkin bread, which are two totally American type scents, that we happen to like and did not really expect any other Aussies to like, so that was a surprise. The biggest seller was of course the cheapest product being the crystal potpourri, which we had packaged up in 2 oz batches in white organza bags. I am surprised what people will pay for a bit of coloured and fragranced salt All in all not a bad day. We didnt make a killing, but we did come out ahead which is the aim of the game. We dont really expect to turn a profit for the first 6 - 12 months in any case, so we are going to be very happy if what we sell at the market covers our raw material costs for now. We still have some molds to purchase, which for us is going to be quite expensive as we have to get them from the states. There are very few if any people here doing prim or bakery and we think that will go down particularly well if presented and named to suit our market here. Tracy (my wife) and I were in stiches the other night discussing this, and what we might have to call it. An Aussie would just not get what we were talking about if we have something labeled "Prim Fixins"...LOL..... I think here it would be more like "Rustic wax bits"....LOL... its certainly is a stange place when it come to some things. Anyway I have rattled on enough. have added some pics of our stall for you to have a look at and comment on if you like. Feel free to make any suggestions, both good and bad. Pics are not the greatest but will give you some idea anyway. Cheers Richard

Well the day has finally arrived. We are heading to our first market tomorrow to see how our products are received. All a little freaky really thinking about people buying products that we have put so much work and effort into to get it just right. All the late nights pouring and testing, along with the disasters that just were not going to work. We have to be up at like 4:30am in order to get there for about 6:00am. Market opens at 7:00am through till 2:00pm. I just hope that some people buy our stuff. Could not think of anything worse than sitting there all day and no one buying anything. We have actually taken a bit of a risk with our fragrances here. Australia is a strange kind of place when it comes to certain things. They just dont get the whole "Primitive" thing here at all, which we both love and are planning on adding some of that to our line in time. We have also chosen some of the typical US fragrances that you just dont find here, the homey food type smells that we loved when we were in the States 10 years ago. I guess all we can do it to try and educate the people here about certain things. Will post some pics of our stall setup once we have completed the day, along with a report on how well or otherwise we did. Wish us luck for our first one of hopefully many many more to come. Cheers Richard

Hi Catlin Yes I had heard that the orange oil gave off a horrid fuel smell. As said above we have now blended some French vanilla FO with the Lime EO, which has definitely toned it down quite a bit and for the most part gotten rid of the fuel smell. Still have to try the Lavender, which we may get to this weekend, although we have just got some more supplies today so have quite a few to pour and test, including some great food fragrances, hot chocolate, creme caramel, which knowing the taste of most Australians just wont go well at all. We have been to the US twice and love the way that you guys do country and prim stuff, which Aussies just dont get at all. We are looking at introducing a bakery range of melts which we hope will do well here, but it is a bit of an investment as the silicon molds all have to come from the States as you cannot get anything like that here at all. I see your from AZ. Love it there and spent 4 weeks in Tucson back in 1999 and then another week in 2000. Great place and great weather I also notice that you are doing palm pillars. We also have a range of palm pillars and for the life of me I just cannot seem to get one size wicked correctly. Our 3" x 6.5" are working just fine, however no matter what size wick I have used, out 2" x 6.5" will consistantly blow out. Its getting to the point nopw where we are looking at dropping the 2" from the range which creates a problem as we were planning on selling the pillars in a matching set of 3. ANy suggestions you may have would be welcomed. Hard to explain the wick type as they are locally made in Australia, not do we have the selection that you guys have once again. Cheers Richard

Thanks

Circle, dont know about the lime being weak. It has just about blown me out of the house, feeling sick from the smell of it. Added at 6%. We have now melted and repoured adding some French Vanilla FO to the lime to tone it down a little. It has definitely made a difference, although to my nose it is still vbery very strong. Yet to try the Lavender, which we will probably pour this weekend. Cheers Richard

LOL.....thats ok, you were quite tactful, but its ok I can generally trake whatever is dished out I think we did the same early on, using way too much scent. We have now cut back to 6% which is seeming to be so much better. Yes we do get our supplies from ACS. Their palm wax is very good and we use that for our pillars and tarts,and we are now using the GW 415 pure soy for our containers which we have also found to be quite good. Have also looked at Natural Candle Supplies on the East Coast and although their wax is pretty much priced the same their jars etc are way way more expensive. Cheers Richard

Ahh Koalagirl, the problem is that hubby also reads these boards....LOL. What was it you were saying about taste Its actually quite a nice yellow, Hawiian flavour as well. Chewy is an interesting flavour. Tracy seems to like the purfume fragrances which personally I think smell a lot like troff lollies (dont know if our American friends will get that one), but that's just my opinion though ~ Cheers Richard

Hi Jessica We did try leaving them sit for a while, and also tried the freezer. I think the problem is that they are only very cheap rubber molds from the dollar store, rather than silicon. I did notice after getting them out that that are very smooth on one half and not smooth on the other half. This is what makes me think it is the rubber causing the problem as that is the part of the mold that is causing the issues. The part of the mold that is hard plastic seems to release quite easily and is very very smooth. Its so frustrating here right now as it is a holiday weekend and no shops are open in this backwards city we live in, so we have to wait another day before we can get some different molds to try..... Cheers Richard