Desertrose

Thanks for the link to the pic. We DID put a votive in there to start with but I was worried because at first the wax seemed to be smoking way too much for my liking. Just "looked" bad if you know what I mean. I know sometimes the tarts do let off tiny whisps of slightly visable smoke (depending on the burner) as they melt but I just thought what was happening looked way too iffy for potential customers to be contending with. I watched as the votive burned down and eventually the smoking problem got less but as the flame got lower and lower the palm wax wasn't staying heated enough and began to crystalise around the edges.......so that was a problem too. Pain in the bum really!

We should just ask them. Seems a bit ridiculous that we're scratching our heads wondering how to do it, lol! They are really quite nice though so we'll keep trying! Today we tried putting three normal sized tea lights in it......was "almost" there, but not quite. We may have to try the next tea light size up and see what that does. Anyway, thanks for pondering it with us . If we find a solution we'll post it. Tracy

We did buy one of the electric ones from there. Problem being your voltage and ours here in Australia are different. My husband changed it over but in order to sell them we would have to get an electrician to do it so it works out quite costly. I might try a couple of tea lights together and see what happens. Tracy

Hi, they are this type... http://factorydirectcraft.com/catalog/products/0-17045-rustic_willow_tree_tin_punched_tart_warmer.html See what I mean about them being so tall? Tracy

We've bought some lovely large punched tin tart warmers from the US but now we can't work out how to effectively melt our tarts in them because they are significantly taller than a normal melt warmer/oil burner. A normal tea light won't melt the wax as the flame is not high enough so we tried a votive but this makes the wax smoke at first and then as the votive burns to about half way down then the flame again is not high enough to keep the wax melt molten! What do you guys use in these taller than usual melt warmers? Tracy

I think they look very classy. I like the round labels. Tracy

Wonderful! Really looks like the real thing! You're making me waver from my diet!!

Absolutely beautiful products and presentation. Richard always comments to me on how great your stuff looks and he's right! Tracy

I have to admit too that the cow candles were again from something inspired here from this board. I was playing around with making "ice candles" using palm pillar wax. I'd tried making one with two different colours myself and then I searched on this forum to see if anyone else had played with making "ice candles" and I found some pictures that I think went waaay back in the gallery. Somebody else had made a black and white one and I thought it looked so cool so then Richard tried himself to make one. I already had some little miniature "cow bells"lying around and then we discovered the "fresh cut grass" fragrance from Natures garden (which is really quite nice!) and so we thought we'd give it a try as some people are mad about cows. Tracy

If you look on the next page in the gallery Kountrytimes posted some pics of her "Grungy can candles". This is what inspired me to try experimenting with making the "rusted tin" Christmas candles as I loved how she had done her labels. (thank you Kountrytimes!) Lord above....what you people must be thinking "Cat food tins"....LOL! I assure you they are cleaned thoroughly so as to not have any sardine flavoured candles! Personally I love the idea of recycling so these were rewarding to make. Actually Richard is mistaken...What I found worked best was to grunge up the whole tin and THEN stick the label on using the craft glue as I was concerned that the glue on the sticky label itself may not be enough to stay stuck. Still waiting to see how these will be received here though at markets as they are pretty "rustic". Tracy

Richard drives me nuts. Picture me constantly slapping myself on the forehead and making growling noises. I've been SAYING kinda this sorta thing to him. Palm wax just isn't SOY wax....it WILL burn differently! Not that I am by ANY means the experienced wicker (or experienced anything) here...not at all! But I said to him that it looks kinda cool with that wax on the sides of the jar and the "glow" effect. I mean after all....isn't it why they call it "glass glow" palm? Anyway, I'm just glad he's got you ladies here to listen to. In the meantime I'll just keep hitting myself on the head and growling while he has hissy fits all over the place. Tracy

Thanks for the comments We've really been working hard (arguing much!) over how to present our candles as we've really changed from how we first started out. My biggest concern are these new jars we've bought. I think you call them jelly jars? Here we call them jam jars. When my parents saw them they said they much preferred the apothecary jars we use for the soy candles. They said (of these new ones) "they look like jam jars." and their consensus was that they would look nice in a kitchen byt maybe not in a living room or bedroom. I'm just wondering how other people at the markets will view them. Not that we've got much choice because for the container palm we are having LOADS of trouble trying to wick in the apothecary jars. Tracy

I think it's got a certain hand made charm to it. Especially for this scent name - "Love spell"... it just "feels" right that it should be presented the way you have done it. Like someone has personally weaved the spell or something Tracy

Yes, well these only fit one type of jar that we have and that's single wicked. Actually helps see that you've got the wick properly centred with on of those lids on top!

Oops, almost missed this. I'm not sure about that Sharon. Would have to look into it. For now we're just doing tart shaped melts so it doesn't matter about the crystalizing.

I like them! Kind of does look like a wreath through the centre of the candle.

Your candles are gorgeous. Love the colours and effects. I also love the pyramid shape. What a shame its not in line with what we make (more prim stuff) or else I'd be off to buy some molds!

Thanks! I'm more concerned about them somehow increasing the temperature in the jar, but I guess it's not really a concern then? I love how they look. Tracy

Just wondering......by using something like these ... http://factorydirectcraft.com/catalog/products/1602_2104-3275-small_mouth_barn_red_heart_metal_candle_cap.html It's not likely to increase the heat in the jar is it? Making it become too hot and causing any problems? Tracy

Thanks! I like the look of the craft type. Might be something we could use yes.

We just got our first order of fragrances from NG shipped to Australia. Some of them that we chose are very light such as "fresh outdoors" which we thought would be good for summer here but it really is so faint that I don't think we'll re order this one. Snow angels too, while lovely is a very light fragrance. Our favourite so far is Spiced Cranberries which we'll use for Christmas. I really LOVE "Black magic" - sort of a hippy one though......a faint smell of incense. (this is my favourite so far) My husband loves Butt naked but I could take it or leave it. His favourite is Monkey farts which I cannot STAND. To me it smells like rotten banana , lol! Australian Bamboo grass is very refreshing and clean smelling. Torrential rains "almost" does have that ozone type smell that comes before a summer downpour. Fresh cut grass is amazingly SO much like smelling the real thing. How do they do it? (We're using that one for some cow candles we've made ) I was a little disappointed in "Christmas memories". There's something in it, almost like a menthol type smell that jars my senses a little, however I added a bit of vanilla which seems to take the edge of that menthol/pine? type smell. At first I didn't like the Balsam - not straight from the bottle but it smells "warmer" or "sweeter" somehow when put in the wax. I really love "Boston tea party"........smells a bit like iced tea but kind of home -y as well. There's more but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head about what we thought about them. Tracy

Thats the thing.....I don't want that 'plastic" shrink wrap look to any of our products because now we're getting everything to look very "brown paper baggish". At this point because we just don't know how well the pillars are going to sell we might just have to be extra careful when packing and just wait and see whether they are going to be something we continue with. It's difficult to try and eliminate any kind of "plastic' look when packaging. I really hate the clam shells but shops want them because they take up less shelf space.

Pillars are such a pain in the bum! I think we may just go with the bubble wrap for transport to markets. It's too hard, I think, now with the addition of beads to do anything else? Personally I'd like to stick a label on the pillars and be done with it.....no string or leather strap and beads. Only thing is I just don't know if a sticky label is going to remain stuck, or stick at ALL to palm wax? Tracy

The soy wax is 464 - all Richards department, the jars, because I don't like soy. Too much of a headache for me with all the frosting, air pocket problems. Plus, as you say it doesn't take colour as nicely as palm does. We have done an outdoor market before back in Perth in warm conditions and our soy jars started melting on the top, and that was under the cover of a Gazebo! Wasn't even a terrifically hot day either! Where we've moved to in the Blue mountains here it gets REALLY hot in summer so we figured, what the heck, instead of trying to fight with soy we'll just switch to all palm in summer and go back to soy in winter again. Perhaps if I persist with the palm ( and actually record the pour temperature ) I might find a method to be rid of those crystal spots. For some reason it seemed easier with those hippy pillars I was pouring before at cool temps. I wonder if the smaller amount of wax you pour makes any difference - perhaps because it's setting quicker or something? I don't know.......it's all just guesswork at the moment!

Wow, I love those Stella! Very nice. I know exactly what you mean about using the crystalising effects of palm to your advantage. I have all kinds of ideas for future molds we could make but for now we are going for the more prim type style. For example, I made some little salt box houses for melts. Problem being that even though I poured the palm cool , from one batch to the next I would get random little crystalized "splotches". Just a tiny area but enough for me to have a major hissy fit in the end because I couldn't seem to get the right temp to avoid it. Then I found also that if I let the wax cool TOO much it went back to crystalizing again but in a more "frosted" kind of look. In the end I got so frustrated that I abandoned all attempts at anything we had made molds of because the crystals were driving me bonkers! I know soy pillar palm would probably be an option but we've never used it and it would be yet ANOTHER wax to buy and I do worry that perhaps in high temperatures it might not hold up at outdoor markets? (We're currently switching to palm container wax for our jar candles because of this) Tracy