WillowBoo

Thank you everyone. How sweet you all are to tell me such nice things.

Wow...that makes me feel really good. I'm glad I'm doing it.

The candles I've made so far were named after my grandmother. Her life was a sad story and I thought I would dedicate any future creations to her by using her name and her image. She was an artist and a collector of unusual things. Hopefully it attaches here.

I was thinking of doing a secret garden line...these suggestions have really helped me. Going to move my office out of my home (been there for 10 years) and open up a small spot in the new place (it is very small)

for the candles and soaps. thanks for your help!

THANK YOU! I have the honeysuckle already!

If you were to make a line of candles with matching soap scents, which 6 scents would you start with, say spring and summer scents?

The floral scents?

Thanks!

adding paraffin must stabilize it some. I looked at some of my first testers from early last summer and they look fine.

It's an okay drive to go there as well. I leave in the morning, hope not to get lost, and I'm back early enough to start melting wax!

this is all so new to me, but I liked designing the label. Now that it's going to change, I'm enjoying the project again. I like making the candles at my leisure. When I am presured to do them, it's too much like work.

speaking of space heaters....I set mine up beside the table where I was letting my candles cool. It takes longer for the candles to set up, but those particular candles had no wet spots on them and they also were the ones that didn't get the BIG wetspots when they were moved to a cooler environment.

I got so sick of the wetspots that I put the whole dang candle in the freezer so that the whole candle pulled off the sides of the jar. It worked except for one tiny spot. It didn't affect the candle (soy blend)

I'm not going to do it again....just experimented.

My wick almost always falls over near the bottom when testing with just a wick "plug" (making a hole and sticking in the wick.) It won't fall over (in my experience) if you have a wick tab secured to the bottom. I sometimes wait till it gets close and when wax is real soft, then I'll shove a wick with a tab in and let it cool -then finish out the testing.

Ohio Casuality has a decent price

I agree with Chuck. The canning jars are built to take temperature abuse. Must have been a defect that you didn't catch. I have found some that had cracks inside that could be seen but not felt.

Excellent FOs and quick turn-around time

I hope it doesn't change in the candle then. Oh! that would be disappointing! Nothing smells better than sweet annie.

I use toasted hazelnut from NG which is a bit weak with fresh brewed coffee. Use just a bit of the coffee as it goes a long way. You can also put in a bit of creme brulee with the mix

Just received my sweet danie from Daystar. I wanted the scent of sweet annie that I always smell on a warm summer night in the country. OOB, it smells wonderful!!!!

I think sometimes when you do come up with a combo that works and is acceptable at least for starters, you have a tendency to try to make it even better because you got this far. Yes, that is good, however when you are fairly new at making candles, this approach can really mess you up, stress out you and everyone else around you. You end up with 555 different useless wicks, pounds of wasted wax and FO's, etc. Your best bet is to stick with what first worked and then back down a bit and make some wickless as suggested. Then go back and try another approach to better improve your candle that first worked. I learned the hard way and I've only been doing this for around a year.

Does anyone else now have a headache????

I love the way Eco wicks burn - calm and nice but won't use them because I get no Hot throw with them. Use the C-3 with some paraffin wax, I add at least 1 T CO per 10 oz. (have used up to 1 oz) and use 1 tsp USA and I get a very good hot throw with the CDN wicks.

Have no reasoning for this combo, it's a pain, but it works.

I would say try the CD's, at least.

Just chalk it up to what I call an "insulting compliment."

In business you gotta live with it!

Just tell them they can visit your work station any time they please

Just curious - As of last week, I've sold 47 container candles (large mason type) in 2 small shops (not real busy shops) since maybe the second week of September. The profits are just my casino money (lol), but is that a decent turn-around so far?

Holiday shopping is starting around here this weekend.

If you're ordering less than a hundred sheets of labels from On-line Labels, make sure you tell them to package them securely. I ordered 50 sheets and they just stuck them in a cardboard envelope and they came all bent up and half of them I couldn't use. They're replacing them - but what a pain!

I didn't cure them at all. As soon as they would pop out, I tested them.

The zinc wicks actually gave them a better HT than the cotton wicks.

They don't burn like a pillar - they will burn side to side within the glass votive container.

I get bubbles with some FOs. TUrned out the candles that were the worst were actually made with a bad FO that Peak immediately replaced. Heated up the frosting that appeared on the sides of the jar to discover it was cluster of bubbles.