TallTayl

On 4/1/2024 at 11:30 AM, Painted Pieces said:

I have just made a batch of 72 wood wick candles for a client, using a coco apricot creme wax and essential oils.  We tested before and found a flat wood wick that worked well.  When it came time to order in bulk, of course this wick was on back order so we ordered the same size from a different vendor who is also in Canada, where I am.  The description advised that this size would work well as our vessel diameter fell in the middle of the recommended range. Now, on a burn test, I am getting tunneling and obviously the candle is drowning itself.  Is it possible to re-melt these candles and insert a larger wick?  A huge amount of work I know, but at this point I think it's the only option that won't have us starting over with new expensive ingredients.  Anyone, please help!!!!

 

You may be able to pull it out and feed a new wick into the clip without melting.
 

Wooden wicks are so complex.  The size is less important than the type of wood they are made from, thickness, how they are dried an and the treatment used to make them somewhat usable.  In our testing it often comes down to the actual piece of wood since the grain from tree to tree varies so much. Even then in bulk packs some would burn ok, some would drown and others were tiki torches in the same candles. 🫤

best of luck finding a wick that performs well for you.  I don’t envy the rework you have to do.  

Soy wax can be really finicky.  The sink holes are the worst as you don’t know you have them until either the candle flares and dies or you poke holes into it and feel them out.  Some waxes (444 I’m looking at you) develop more sink hole cavities as you fill old cavities.  
 

with soy, I typically have the best luck by heating to 180-185, stirring gently along no the way as temp rises to ensure all of the wax components are fully melted.  I add color at this point if using it. Then stir down to 140-160 depending on the blend, add fragrance. Slowly stirring with a wide rubber spatula helps keep the temp dropping steadily without creating little wax grain crystals that grow into those grains you discovered on your tops. I pour soy at the cloudy to slushy stage to prevent cavities as best I can. a second pour of reheated, reserved wax can often hide the original homeliness of the first poured surface. As little as 1/4” of a second pour can make a big difference. 
 

Most soy will get grainy over time no matter how pretty it looks at first.  Not using dye helps camouflage the graininess for a while. Soy wax continues to morph and dry out over time. It’s a weird fuel.

heat gun treatment to high stearic waxes like soy rarely solves the problem.  As the heat gunned wax layer cools it has no choice but to grain.

I just learned this through the Mercari discussion board on Reddit. You can get a more detailed usps tracking history right on the Pitney Bowes site without being a PB customer, or having to buy the label through them.  
 

I mailed a priority package Feb 14 to an address 3 zones away.  At worst, even if there had been a weather event (there was not) it should have arrived in 4 business days tops. After 3 WEEKS it had not moved in the Chattanooga satellite office. The normal tracking doesn’t show much detail, but the PB system helped keep tabs a little more clearly than the typical usps system after it was finally delivered yesterday, more than a month later.  

some good news is I filed a claim and was actually paid for the temporary loss. The customer eventually received the package and life goes on. 
 

sharing in case anyone else needs a wee bit more info when packages take their sweet time to arrive.

as an aside, my postal people mentioned that usps is consolidating nationwide operations in preparation for closing thousands of local PO offices.  These new centers are having loads of trouble getting into the swing of the volume, so anticipate extra headaches to come.  I have been using UPS for anything that HAS to be somewhere on time, and/or is a relatively high value.  It’s an extra stop on the package drop off runs, but gives peace of mind. 

On 3/18/2024 at 3:46 PM, Ms. Unicorn said:

Does glade plug-in oil fragrance work well in candle wax?

I was curious about what they used in the pretty little bottles when they came out.  After reading the patents, ingredients and SDS documents, I wouldn’t recommend trying any of them in candles or melts.  Those types of units use various volatile compounds to lift the aromatics into the air.  Some contain hydrous compounds, polymers, etc.  which would not play well with waxes. 
 

example:https://www.scjp.com/sites/default/files/2020-10/35-17092.pdf

eta: my coffee cup is full, and it’s cold outside, so I found a comfy rabbit hole…

Based on the CAS number, here’s the solvent they use in the one above: https://www.aladdinsci.com/d102242.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwte-vBhBFEiwAQSv_xakzneyIW7NWw97TLryWBaWNjRw73OBPSHwELo-L3Iecdiufxe-BwBoCOqEQAvD_BwE

And the safety warnings for that solvent: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ghs/#_pict

seems like it might be a great one for reed diffusers, but not candles. 

I’ve been shell shocked at the prices too.  
 

Tuesday was the SCC Teamworks event in Chicago.  I met with a number of suppliers, and saw my rep from The Perfumery.  I need to arrange a Patchouli co-op for a group, and hope his insistence that we can get dark Indonesian at a fair price is true…. I’ll keep you posted.

Welcome Bob!

we are here to help as best we can. Your waxes and wicks will differ from what we get in other countries but we’ll get there. Enjoy the journey. 

I bought ammonium chloride when I started screen printing and made the fire paste. It screen prints like a dream. 
 

On 2/3/2024 at 5:25 AM, Rich said:

Given the tops of the containers are open air I've opted for ultra refined low odur paraffin lamp oil. These could be fragranced if needed.

Vs normal candles, so many problems are eliminated including:...

 

No tunnelling

No hugging of wax

No blowouts

No wick drowning

Perfect flame size for thousands of hours

No soot or smoking

Longer burn times

No container heat

No wick wear

No mushrooming

 

I'm sure theres more

Rich

I 100% agree with your list. I tried to source some of those items at my local hardware store without much success. I’m determined to make my ceramic old-fashioned lamp replicas work though. It would be awesome if they worked well with common oils.

Gorgeous. What is your fuel of choice?

Wax should be fine, just take care not to trip while carrying hot wax. It is akin to outdoor cooking and indoor plating to me. 

21 hours ago, Milk Machine said:

I use Coconut 84X 90% and S&P 487 10% and have had great success with Premier wicks for my single wick candles. I've been trying to make a triple wick candle with a 3 ¾" wide by 3½" tall container. Same blend of waxes and same fragrance oils as my single wick candles. I've been trying Premier 725, 730 & 735. These all seem to do well until about half way down and then the wicks all seem to really struggle. They almost or do drown out. If they are any bigger I think they might be too big during the early burns. I'm wondering if Premier wicks don't do well in this situation. Should I change my blend for larger, 3 wick jars or is there a series of wicks that performs better in this situation. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated! 

Multiple wicks are a struggle. No old rules apply.  The combustion balance is short available oxygen that low.  You can try double wicking for something that narrow and deep.  Reserve 3 wicks for wider and more shallow containers.

I like to aim the curl of those types of wicks in opposite directions to help create a vortex of air current to draw more oxygen down to the flam zone, but it’s a crap shoot sometimes.  

Could be several causes:

-did you cure your candles before lighting?

-seems a bit overwicked. Premiers are pretty efficient wicks. Smaller wicks often will allow better melt pool creation since the wick can’t sop up the fuel as fast. The carbon on the wick is indicating incomplete combustion likely from that imbalance alone.  

That’s a new one to me.  I’ve been at this for several decades and have never read of anything like this in any patent or heard of any wax manufacturer that would add it to a blend.
 

hot throw is a factor of balancing your wick with the fragrance and wax blend in a given container. We work with  countless variables in each component. 
 

At first thought,  I would not think a sodium derivative additive would burn well at all in candle fuel.  How would it dissolve in any wax or oil based fuel? Maybe, possibly it could dissolve somewhat in some gel type waxes, but even then I’m not sure it could given sodium bicarbonate is water soluble due to it’s polarity. Wax is pretty much non polar so it would be nearly impossible to dissociate the molecules to dissolve. Wouldn’t you just end up with random grains of bicarbonate floating in the wax, likely  precipitating to the bottom of the candle as the hot wax cools? The next thought is that  baking soda is something recommended to extinguish  fires 🧐
 

I have used wicks treated with sodium (cd, CDN for example), but not sodium bicarbonate in any fuel itself.  The sodium wick treatment involves a dip in liquid form (dissolved in water), and the cotton wicks dried before packaging to consumers.  
 

if you’re an adventurous type, give it a whirl and let us know what you see in your experiments. I’d start with the tiniest mount, like 0.25% or even less. 

28 minutes ago, Kris10Tackles said:

It was supposed to have Tonic in it but I completely forgot to add the FO. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Can’t tell through my screen. Looks like it smells heavenly. 

Woot woot! I’m so proud of you!!!!!!       

Yeah, nobody needs that. 
I feel for you. Hope you can get it all out quickly and put this in the rear view. 

Beautiful presentation.

55 minutes ago, MilosCandles said:

 

I agree,  I make pretty good money on ETSY. But still need to check profits and margins periodically. Can't just assume all is worth it.  I put a lot of time and energy into this at times and I need to make sure it is worthwhile.

100% agree.  Our materials cost are so fluid I need to check at least once a quarter. My wax is about a grand a case now. Ouch on that. Every penny counts. 

Yup. I feel ya. But I have to give Etsy props as it is still a super profitable sales channel for me.
 

They pay more to market than I ever would, and not every sale has that extra marketing fee. I kept a really close eye on it and happily discovered far fewer appearances in my monthly statements than past years.  
 

On those surveys they send out I complain that past customers who use google to get to Etsy to order were unfairly costing us that fee in the spirit of things. Seriously, some of my regulars have been with me for a decade. Is that extra fee worthy?

on the happy side, I raised my pricing to compensate when those fees were introduced. I calculated it in as a product cost. Every order that does not contain that fee is more profit for me. 
 

even happier, I’m seeing more traffic to my home site because they find me through Etsy then buy directly-like do with amazon. Woot!

I’m grateful for you, and others like you, for your curiosity, perseverance and pure joy of lear ing these new crafts. I can’t wait to see what 2024 will bring to you 😊

I’m kind of excited to tackle a persistent camera shyness to share some new ideas with you through YouTube, TikTok and others with this board’s planned updates. 

Thanks for the photo. It looks like the glass was cold and caused the wax to cool like that as it was poured. If your wax is user-friendly, you might be able to heat on the top and smooth that out.

Do you have a picture? 
it sounds like when pouring a bit hits the edges and later solidifies into the wave.  

Wow! Thanks for sharing. I’ve been looking for a reason to jump over there.

Is it the typeface or the size?

The coupon code is extended through the end of the year! Enjoy!