deb426

They look great!

Soy does expand. I trim mine to 1/2 inch too, especially since I do craft shows in warm weather.

When you are testing how long do you let the candle cure before you test. thanks

Depends on what I'm testing for. If I am just testing the wick, I don't worry so much about cure time. I usually will burn it after 24 hours. If I am testing for hot throw, I wait a week since I use C-3 and it takes a while.

9% for me. I'm happy with my candles that way.

Summery!

I was only stating my experience. Other people may have different experiences.

I think your melt pool is too deep for only an hour of burning.

Tracy and Richard,

Have you tried a Dremel to grind down the sharp edge? Do you have those in Australia?

Deb

Well, I agree with Scented on this one. I have oils that may be heavier in weight but do not necessarily need a larger wick. I also have some oils that I think are light in weight but which need to be wicked up. I have my range of three or four wick sizes per jar but haven't found an easy way to tell in advance if a new oil is going to need a wick on the low end of my range or the high end.

My customers just want a strong smelling candle at a reasonable price. They would be more upset if I backed off on the oil. Never had any complaints or questions about it. But dye-free is not my main line. Most of my candles have dye. I just think that with dye-free, you have nothing to mask the imperfections. Although you don't see the frosting as much, you see things that would be masked by dye. JMO. They don't have to buy them if they don't like them.

Is your discoloration before or after burning? The blue/gray tinge I get on some of my dye frees is after burning. In other words, the part that was melted and then rehardened is tinged. I don't worry that much about it.

If you can't get it to work for you, try Baby Powder from Candlescience. Very strong throw in C-3.

For my glass jar candles, I take them in the original jar boxes like you do. I will usually put 3 boxes in a larger box to carry. More than that, and its usually more than I want to lift. Even with a cart, you still have to do some lifting. Hiding boxes at craft shows is just standard procedure. You have to get them there some way. Sorry, I'm not much help. I've been doing craft shows for twenty years and the only thing I hate more than tearing down the stand is setting up the stand. The middle part is okay.

Fillmore Container

I have some scents that do in my dyefree line. If you use dye, it still happens, you just don't notice it as much. I always figured that was one of the tradeoffs.

Deb

QUOTE]C-3 Was next to burn out about 30 mins. later, but I like this wax enough to order a smaller wick and try again.

I use C-3 and a lot of of CS scents but I use TL 21 for my tealights. I also use the clear tealight cups from CS. Even my heavier scents use TL 21. In fact, if I wanted to mess around more, I could probably go lower on some oils.

I love CS oils but I thought the Sugar Cookie was light so I never re-ordered that one. It smells good though.

Assuming 4 cups is about a pound in weight, you will probably need at least 8 drops for a true red. Put a little on wax paper and let it harden before pouring to see if you're happy with the color. I usually pour some into a white souffle cup.

I often try adding brown before black...the black sometimes changes the color as opposed to deepening the red (at least in my experience).

This is true for me too. Adding black to red sometimes gives you a hideous purple.

What type of dye are you using? I find that liquid dyes work when you want a nice deep color.

I used to make pillar candles using those square plastic containers sold to keep beanie babies in.

chocolate cherry

Oooh, I was going to try this and call it "chocolate covered cherries"

I only have black cherry, though. Do you think that would work?

I bang my head against the wall trying to get a perfect burgundy using a cinnamon oil :smiley2:

Pumpkin

Coffee

vanilla

caramel

cranberry

Very pretty. Try clear silicone for your wicks.