EricofAZ

I used 1343 also and changed to candle wick 145 that is supposed to be for carved candles. I'm going back to 1343. Also I add microcrystaline wax to make it more pliable. Gives another few minutes to carve and curl.

I thought I'd jump back in on the priming issue. This has been a topic in the past. Doesn't matter much if you use expensive micro wax or do what Chefmom says and just use a high temp regular wax. Both will get the job done. The key is how the priming is done. There are a lot of pre-primed wicks on the market. Most have a nice smooth coating on the outside and you can dig a needle in the center and see the core unprimed. www.wicksunlimited.com has a write up about that. They prime to the core (but you have to buy 50,000 minimum quantity). I found that priming to the core makes a huge difference. Yeah, maybe it helps the wick stand up better, but so does controlling the pool depth and twisting the wick. The big thing is that it is consistent. The pre-primed wicks from one vendor might burn slightly differently than the pre-primed wicks from another vendor and folks here have had fits when they switched vendors and had to go back to their testing process again. I never thought about raw wicks drawing up the FO. I suppose its a theory that kinda makes sense. If I stir the FO for a couple of minutes instead of dumping it in and pouring (like some folks here), then the FO is pretty well absorbed or bonded or whatever word you want to use. I've used faw wicks with no priming a lot and never really noticed FO precipitating into the wick, but the idea does seem to be worth thinking about and maybe some day I'll experiment. http://www.wicksunlimited.com/candle_waxes.php

I noticed the pool depth is pretty deep. Looks like half inch or more. So the HT tosses out a lot of FO and then after that, it slows down until the ROC lowers the wax and the wick starts to pick up more new fresh wax with new fresh FO. To me, that's what is happening and why the second burn is not so great. I like the ECO's and the HTP's for that wax but before I start changing brands, I'd lower the depth of the MP which means wicking down. The first burn won't be so strong, but the rest won't be so weak and the candle should be more consistent. One other thing to try to get the wick to burn more consistently is to saturate it in microcrystaline wax, all the way to the core. Raw wicks tend to burn like you are describing.

A pillar in a container probably needs to be downwicked. How is the final burn in the sand? Some posts here about the wax flowing into sand and causing a fire. Might want to use a taller then normal safety tab. Great idea though, I like it. Very pretty.

Interesting video. I was not so concerned about the residue. Yeah, sloppy, but not dangerous. I was more concerned about the wicks being curved in the container. I pull mine taught and straight. I also don't just plop the safety tabs in the jar, I center them and press down to make the glue spread out a bit. Using a glue gun is fine, but pressing the tab is worth the half second it takes to do it. So on the burn, the curved wick will burn off center and that gives a bad pool. I'm not so sure a double wick is necessary for a 3 in container either, especially if the two wicks are slack and bent towards each other.

I took an exacto knife and cut away some of the mold which resulted in more wax being added to where the base intersects the pedals. Bernadette has a point. The pool is rough water compared to a salad bowl. Larger and more stable floaters make sense. In one of the swaps I sent out some of the flower floaters and heard that one of the husbands was fascinated with how it burned and spun in the bathtub. Very different from a pool with wind.

I realize this topic has come up many times before about whether or not certain candles can be referred to as "natural" etc. There have been many comments back and forth about how pure or not pure or what ingredients really are natural or are not, etc. Just thought you might enjoy seeing this issue being litigated as to what exactly the word "natural" really means in a product. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/lawsuits-slam-all-natural-claims-from-tropicana-orange-juice-to-chips-and-ice-cream/2012/05/31/gJQAZdCc3U_story.html Suits Filed over 'All Natural' Tropicana Orange Juice A series of lawsuits have been filed against orange juice maker Tropicana, claiming the company uses so many processed ingredients in its juice that it should not be able to market the product as "natural." The suits say Tropicana adds engineered "flavor packs" to the orange juice to keep its taste consistent all year. In recent years, consumers have filed suits against companies such as SunChips, Snapple and Ben & Jerry's over similar claims. Wire Report, The Washington Post 05/31/2012 Read Article: The Washington Post

Hi Megandgarr, I'm guessing you'll have to dip then place the unit on a flat warm plate and melt off the wax on the bottom so that you can get to the battery door. Or use a long lasting battery and re-dip after the battery goes dead.

I was able to get these to last more than 2 hours. Dunno about 4 hours, but think close. Small wick makes them last longer. I liked that these have a base that goes into the water pretty deep and it tends to keep the flower from turning upside down. Right where the rose pedals go into the stem, the wax is pretty thin and tends to burn through and extinguish. I modified the mold to make the wax thicker in that area. http://www.candlewic.com/Store/Product.aspx?q=c51,p318&title=Rose-Floater-Mold

CareBaer has a good suggestion here. For me, one of the issues was less to do with paperwork and more to do with how the dividends (corp) or draws (LLC) work regarding taxes. The S-Election which can be done on either reduces the corporate tax so you don't get a double taxation issue when taking a paycheck.

Milk carton? Stove? Ice? Fire should concern you. Gel is delicate to use and meant for a good glass container. Using a presto pot is also a lot safer. As for books, be careful. There are some books in print that are not very well thought out. If you're starting out new with candles, I'd suggest paraffin or soy and move to gel after you have a good sense of what candle making science is all about.

I use the aluminum bread/meatloaf containers at the dollar store.

That is really nice, great work.

Nice looking wax. As for the container, check out the 12 oz status jars at Genwax. They look the same even with the lid and are very affordable.

Ok, is it time for jokes now? Thread title: Its a good day when... Response: ... your toothpaste does NOT taste like Preparation H.

Oh, one piece of advice that is often not shared. Get ready to spend a lot of money. Once the addiction kicks in, there's no turning back.

I have a different business that is an LLC with an S-election tax. LLC's have all the liability protections as corporations. They don't require as much paperwork to maintain so the LLC is way easier to handle. No annual filing, no board meetings, etc. Some States require that a corporation have more than one officer so if you're by yourself, the LLC starts to look a lot better. You can take the S election on either a corp or LLC so that doesn't matter.

I personally think the MP diameter is more important than how many wicks. Think about how well your presto throws with its wide diameter and no wick.

Genwax is cheap shipping to Arizona so I use them too. The containers are affordable and shipping cheap. As for the wax, the paraffin is all imported in bulk from China. You'll have to add vybar and whatnot if you want to load the FO. Raw the wax at Genwax has a tough time going over about 4 to 6 percent FO load. I found that mixing it a bit with some IGI like the Harmony made for a great throwing wax. I tend to keep some of the Genwax 128 on hand for that purpose. The higher MP wax is kinda OK for cut n curl or hurricanes. But the cut/curl needs a microcrystaline additive (which Genwax sells). Yaley can supply you from Redding (or Redlands?) area. I think they have about the same stuff as Genwax. There is an IGI supplier in Oregon that might ship cheap to you. Letitshineusa.com or something like that. They're the only place where I can get a good taper wax.

J50 is a good wax. If that's all you can get for paraffin, you're probably going to like it, especially once you get used to it. Ravens mentioned the 4633 worked well for her. That's the IGI version of J223. J223 was supposed to be an improved version of J50 and in some ways it might throw a tad better or work better for some folks. Personally, I was not able to see much of a difference and J50 is still pretty popular with a lot of members here. The 4786 is a favorite of mine as well, but it tends to leave a few wet spots on the glass. The 4630 (Harmony wax) really mimics the J50 and J223 in my opinion and I think I prefer the J waxes over the Harmony, but I like the Harmony too. I try not to bounce around between the waxes. Sometimes a good price on one over another gets my interest, and it is always fun to learn a new wax, but if J50 was all I had, I'd be OK with that.

There are some safety tips from how it should burn to labels, etc., at www.candles.org Keep in mind that some of our members differ slightly with the safety / burn information at that site. Some are more conservative about the melt pool depth and glass temperature, etc.

Maybe if you copyright your labels and wordmark your text you can send a nastygram to the competitor. Also, educate the new store that they bought into an inexperienced clone and that they should make sure the clone has good product liability insurance. You are established in the community and you need to protect your good name.

The first is an easy jar to wick and genwax has these with lids that look pretty nice. Check out their status jars. The second is also great because the lip at the top tends create more airflow and better HT. The flower pot is great too because of the size and people can drop a votive in there when they use up the way that comes with the flower pot. The last two are easy to get in local stores and I use them sometimes, but they scream "cheap" to me so keep that in mind.

The only rule I learned was never to name your business after your real name. When things go bad, it tags along with you forever. Use your next door neighbor's name.

I looked into the process of making my own gel. There are raw supplies available that can cut the cost but figure in the labor and its still something that probably doesn't make sense on a small scale. Then figure in that if the formula is not perfectly right, there is a liability risk and that makes the purchased gel even more attractive. Given that a good gel candle can fetch a pretty penny, it might not be that necessary to penny pinch. So after all that, I decided not to make my own gel.