Desertrose

I like it! Label looks good. I like the silver lids too.

Thank you to all for looking and commenting

Thank you all for having a look and commenting. Appreciate it. I think we'll give them a go. The test will be if our customers like the look.

We're experimenting with new jars/labels and layered palm wax. This is the result so far but we've got to perfect the layering a bit more I think. Would love to know what you think of the overall look as we are trying for a sleeker more "modern" look with these. Hang tags just looked messy to me although that was the original thought, along with some beaded leather string around the top. Now we're trying just a very no frills look with nothing but the slightly frosted round labels. These we can get easily. Any other shaped labels will prove to be expensive and harder to get.

They look great! We recently came back from a trip to the Philippines and over there they had a lot of coconut products - some amazing stuff made from coconut fibre. They also had candles in coconut shells but the shells were heavily varnished. I wanted to buy one but we'd run out of room in our suitcases by then.

I read somewhere that there are already large areas of deforested land in Indonesia - as a result of logging, that are just sitting there which "could" be used for planting sustainable palm plantations.....rather than clearing yet even MORE land. Maybe it's just a matter of better management, in LOTS of ways, not just regarding palm. We're always going to have an impact on earth, it's just the way it is, but there HAS to be ways in which to minimize our impact. I personally wish we could cut down on all the plastic packaging which is SO overused. I bought some wooden stakes for the garden....each bundle wrapped in plastic. Why? Why not just tie them up with string or SOMETHING other than plastic?

Sounds like she doesn't have a clue and was just waffling on "trying' to sound like she knew what she was talking about. Unless you only rubbed the sides of the finished pillar with oils to give it the illusion that it's scented it's impossible to not scent it throughout or have only the bottom scented. You should have asked her how it's possible to only scent "parts" of candles. We'd all save a lot of money if we knew how to do that (joking!)

Thanks. Wow, who would have thought it got so complicated ....all those different kinds. A fire blanket and keeping my lids handy is a good place to start I guess. I'll have to read more about the rest what with all those different types. I never realized there was water in the foam ones? That makes more sense now. I remember once when out camping my fry pan caught fire and in a panic I threw water on it........ it EXPLODED into huge flames. I'm lucky I didn't burn the whole tent annexe down!

Do you have one in your candle making work space and if so what kind? I was speaking to my brother about it as he used to work for the rural bush fire brigade here and he thought that the foam kind might not be the best thing as it might cause a wax fire to explode or ignite MORE if sprayed on it? (But aren't the foam ones FOR fat fires...like you might use in the kitchen.....and we're using soy and palm wax here) He suggested that a fire blanket might be the best thing? What are your thoughts and suggestions?

We are going to continue selling our palm products. The information I've read says 50 % of all supermarket products contain palm oil which may or may not be from sustainable sources. In fact it seems that here in Australia they don't even need to list the products containing palm...it can fall under the description of 'vegetable oil". Better labeling of products is needed if people are going to make any sort of properly informed choice. It's crazy to target candles alone, if people are really going to take the issue seriously, when in fact they may be buying products containing palm on a much more regular basis without even being aware of it, AND which might be from sources where there IS negative environmental impact.

When we moved over to Perth there was a really cool name for a suburb there called "Gooseberry hill". Just sounded so quaint. I never realized it but that was where we ultimately found the best house to rent. It was advertised as a 'medieval like castle" and though it wasn't REALLY like a castle it had thick rough stone walls inside and out, was covered in ivy and had weird little stained glass windows throughout and lots of really interesting nooks and crannies. The most unique house we've ever lived in and I loved it there perched atop the hill looking down over the city lights. That's where Richard decided one day to bring home some wicks and wax and off we went! We decided to stick with "Gooseberry hill candles" because that's where the idea originated...... besides,we would have argued till the cows came home if we'd have tried to think of a different name once we moved back to Sydney

Amazing! Makes me hungry looking at them. I really like the crystals too. You could sell those as mini melts in the hippy shops

We'd be lost without our heat gun and paper towels! We also have a plastic scraper thing that we use to scrape dried wax out of our wax bowls.

I try to.....especially when I'm doing a LOT of pouring in one day. I just wear one of those masks that are for "fumes".....Just the soft ones. Nothing fancy. I can still smell through it but it cuts down on some of the vapours. They are annoying though and I hate wearing them. The only other ones available here are the ones that look like gas masks. I pour with the garage door open usually. If the neighbours happened to see me with one of those on they might get a little alarmed.

Very nice. I agree that the stamp makes it look very classy.

Hi Chuck, no this was palm wax and the wicks were ACS wicks (from a local supplier here in Australia) I think we will just do away with votives completely. We can't buy display boxes here for them and even when shrink wrapped they tend to get tatty looking when constantly transported so they have never been something we've wanted to permanently add to our line.

Thanks Bernadette! Scary isn't it! It's freaking me out thinking of all that "can" happen. Makes "never leave a burning candle unnattended"mean really....just never! I'm wondering if, in my case, having put the candle inside this shelf (Big mistake in hindsight) could have had something to do with it? Maybe there was a build up of fumes...added to the fact that I hadn't trimmed the wick....? I'm burning another one now, NOT on the shelf and WITH the wick trimmed.... and keeping a very close eye on it...... Just NOT something you want to have happen hey.

I got the shock of my life today when one of the votives we make that I was burning in my kitchen literally caught on fire! All of a sudden this huge flame shot up from the wick - the height of the glass itself, or higher! I'm SO lucky that we were sitting just outside when it happened because stupid me had it on the shelf of a kitchen dresser and the whole thing could have caught on fire! When I raced to blow it out I immediately saw that the wick had curled over and the tip was bowed over dipping into the melt pool. Didn't this exact same thing happen to someone else on the board? I seem to remember reading about it? I told Richard about it and he sternly told me off because yes, I sheepishly admit that I hadn't trimmed the wick before lighting it. I'd burned it a few days before and it was about 1/3 burned down when I re lit it today.....was in a bit of a rush, had people coming over and just lit it without trimming the wick. I also noted that there was a considerable meltpool......more than what is normal and the glass of course was incredibly hot. Would me not having trimmed the wick have caused this to happen? Thinking back, it was rather long. It's really given me a fright....thank goodness we don't sell a lot of votives anyway, but the ones we have left I definately don't feel confident about now. I've never before encountered any problems of this nature with any of the votives we've made and tested.

Wow, those are amazing! SO realistic looking. Wonderful job on presentation and packaging.

Oh gosh, that is so frighteningly organised. I wouldn't know what to do with myself among all that neatness. LOL! Seriously, looks wonderful.

http://www.themagicskirt.com/page/page/4607592.htm This is what I was talking about.

Sounds very interesting. I have a couple of skirts made from vintage sari's which are reversable (double layers) and they are bastically a wrap around style. I forget what they are called but you can actually turn this skirt into a dress and into all kinds of styles as a dress. Pretty cool really although I've always just worn them as skirts. The vintage sari fabrics are really light and cool for summer and I think are pretty flattering as far as hiding any curves that might be a tad too curvy They appeal to me anyway because I'm right into anything bohemian in style. Good luck with your dress!

I'm holed up in bed at the moment due to some health issues and to stop myself from going insane I bought some knitting needles and some of what I think is the same sort of wool you're using....the feathery stuff? I've never really knitted in my life so I feel I'm being as adventuresome as you in using this particular wool. I'm not so much getting holes (that I can see anyway) but I started with 26 stiches across for this scarf and so far it's fluctuated between that and 23 and now I'm settling for 25 and TRYING to stay there! It's looking a bit woozy in places.:rolleyes2 Can't give you any advice - obviously, but I can sympathise, lol.....this fluffy stuff is darned hard to work with! I've never heard of some of those needles you ladies are talking about! I'm just using plain old fashioned straight metal ones and that's tricky enough!

I prefer the white....thinking across a whole range of candle colours here... The flowers are a bit distracting as far as deciding though.

Is that cheap for a retail price? How much on average does a tart cost there? Let me rephrase that.....a tart melt. lol!