Kawboy888

Very nice job with the marbling.

Stella I have been a designer craftsman for the last 7 years, the last years woodworking has been my full time job. Ravens, I had always thought about putting out a DVD on how to make gel candles, but never got around to it. I was motivated by how much horrible advice there is out here on the web. When I learned how to make gel candles back in the early to mid 90's I searched online for instructions, then followed them. I can't tell you how many times my pot of meting gel caught on fire, or how many times I improved my processes for doing certain things. The most common error that people make when making gel candles is using cheap supplies. People seem to think they can buy a kit from someone on ebay or go to a craft store like Michael's and buy some gel. Gel candles are something that can be very dangerous to make, it's an item that people will put in their homes and light on fire. Too many people are simply to cheap and too uneducated to be trying to make gel candles. 75% of the gel candles you see are what I would call garbage. This is not a hobby that someone should just jump into, especially if they don't have the money to spend on the high quality gel and fragrance oils that have high flash points and are officially deemed "gel safe" by testing. The second most common error that beginners make is believing what they read online. So many people post "how to" instructions and offer advice in these forums when they have very little experience and generally have no clue what they are talking about. For the last hour I have been flabbergasted and the poor advice that I have been reading in this forum. Gel candles can be life ending dangerous. The danger is in heating the gel, and adding the fragrance oil. The gel is a hydrocrabon polymer designed to hold one ounce of fragrance oil per one pound of high density gel. You will see people selling candles try and use the term, "tripple scented". If you ever see that, avoid that seller, they have no clue what they are doing. There is no such thing as "tripple scenting" a candle of any type. Whether it's gel, soy, paraffin or beeswax. Gel and the waxes will only hold X amount of fragrance oil before the material breaks down and becomes gooey. So either a person adds the most amount of fragrance oil that their material will allow, or they skimp. Gel is a clear and looks like translucent rubber. You pull it apart and put it into your melting pot. This is the first time that gel candle makers get into trouble People think that they can crank up the heat to melt the gel faster, so they don't have to wait an hour to start making candles. Gel will ignite inside the pot at a certain temperature, when you add fragrance oil that flash point is greatly reduced, so there is less heat required to make the pot of gel catch on fire. Gel candle makers need to be patient and understand the importance of watching the temperature of their melting pot. Can a gel candle itself catch on fire from sitting on a mantle burning, yes. If the gel candle is made with cheap gel and has too much fragrance oil in it, along with the wrong size wick, the small flame on the wick can ignite the top surface of the gel candle. This has happened before which is why people have heard that gel candles can, "explode". I have burned up three melting pots from catching my pot of gel on fire over the years. Every gel candle maker should have an old sweat shirt on stand by to set over the pot if it ignites, This is the cleanest and quickest way to snuff out the fire. Putting a thick sweat shirt over the pot suffocates the fire and it goes out.

The market on gel candles fell out about 7 years ago. At that time I had the biggest gel candle store on Ebay. I do not use a website and I don't make very many gel candles anymore. I actually joined this forum to offer advice and sell of my supplies.

Say what??? I have no idea what you are talking about. I never mentioned wax. I hope you realize there is a very big difference between wax and versagel. Have you ever seen a candle after it is burned? The hydrocarbons burn off, kind of like, "evaporating", hence forth, there is no gel to spill over the edges.....

The amount of time it takes to become good depends on a couple of things. First it depends on the materials you are using. If you use kits from craft stores expect to have issues. If you want to be a pro, use only the VERY BEST supplies, this is usually the most expensive supplies. Next it all depends on how you learn. If you do it like i did it years ago, trial and error, it took me about a year. If you were to sit down with me in my shop, you would become a pro in about 2 days. In regards to the embeds in the candles. The glass inserts look horrible. I go with the rule of common sense. The football candles obviously have plastic football helmets in them. If someone chooses to burn this candle they should be smart enough to know that the football helmets may melt. If they are not, they should not be playing with fire. I have never worried about the items inside my candles, not once. Most of my decorative candles are not meant to be burned, so i always use a very small diameter burning wick just in case some genius decides to light the candle and ruin it.

That candle will never sell. Any genius can charge a ridiculous price for something, that doesn't mean the item is actually worth it. If it does sells, I would guess that the seller has it shill bid, meaning the seller has a friend buy it, no money exchanges hands but feedback is left. It makes potential buyers think that people are paying that much money for the item, which isn't the case at all. Charge what you charge and feel sorry for people like this seller that are obviously completely clueless.

The price increase is unfortunate but it's part of life. Remember the more gel you buy, the cheaper the cost. I just so happen to have 43.5 pounds of Penreco's CHP for sale. No one should be trying to make their own gel, nor should anyone be using any other gel other than Penreco's CHP. This is not just a hobby or a business, it's dealing with flammable and potentially very dangerous and life ending poly chlorinated hyrdocrabons. If you want to skimp on quality because you're cheap, you should not be making gel candles. The old rumor that gel candles will explode is because amateur candle makers were to cheap to buy a high quality gel, and would add too much fragrance oil, which greatly reduced the flash point of the candle. Remember, your candles are going into people's homes, you should not be messing with the quality of what you make when it is intended to be lit on fire. If you're not using Penreco's CHP or CMP at the lowest, you shouldn't be making candles period.

If you are going to make one of these, there should not be any mess at all. Wicks are designed to burn a specific diameter, you simply choose a wick that is a touch smaller than the diameter of the top of the container. I used to make these about 10 years ago along with the slushies. They are pretty easy to make, to get the strips i just poured my dyed and scented gel into a tupperware container, let it cool, then cut it into strips. I wicked the bottom of these candles just like a normal candle (at the bottom of the container with a simple tab) then poured the candle. Add the layer strips to the top working one layer at a time. For the slushies, you want to pull the gel apart, not cut it. Pulling it apart makes it clear and rouch around the edies and makes it look like ice.

Hello folks. This is a great little forum here. My name is Rich Leathers, inventor of the original, "Mandles". I have been a professional gel candle maker for over 15 years. I have been looking through many of these gel candle posts and I can't believe how many bad tips I am seeing people give. I am going to go through the posts and offer up as much info as i can. If you have any questions about how to make a certain type of candle, feel free to ask.

No not use cloth of any kind. The best way to clean the top of a dusty gel candle is heat. A heat gun was mentioned above, I use a lighter. Do not use water, cleaning solvents, cloth, none of that. Just use heat, melt the dust away. Of course use tweezers to remove any large particles first.

Forget about the glass beads. Here is how to make a Seascape... I prefer cotton core wicks, do not use zinc core for these.Also, Penreco's CHP (high density) is the ONLY gel that should be used for these. *Using a round metal tab, fish your wick through the tab so that no wick is sticking out the bottom, now crimp the metal tab at the top where the wick comes out. Do not crimp so hard that the tab folds in half, you want the tab to remain flat on the bottom. *Melt some chp, dip the tab in the melted gel then place in the bottom of your seascape glass, dead center in the middle. Push it down using a butter knife. Now pour enough gel into the bottom of the container so that you just barely cover the bottom of the container. *Stretch a piece of scotch tape across the top of the container, almost right across the middle. Once the gel has solidified over the wick tab, and is cool, pull the wick up over the tape, and secure it with another piece of scotch tape. I have been using this trick for 15 years with all of my gel candles. Don't pull to hard or you will pull the tab off of the bottom, you just need the wick to be tight and straight and centered. *Now you pour your sand. With the wick secure, centered and tight, pour the sand in. - For a better look, do not have the sand be totally flat, use your butter knife to create low spots or a small hill in the back ground. It's all about texture and scenery. *Next strategically place your seashells. *Here's the tricky part.. CHP is vital for these because glass fish are heavy and you do not want to use fishing line through the loop to keep the fish upright while the gel hardens, that's just a hassle. The trick is to keep your gel at a temperature that you can work with in layers without having the layer lines show up on the glass. You also want to pour very very slowly so that you do not create too many bubbles. Too many bubbles looks horrible and makes it look like you have no clue what you're doing. These candles should have very few bubbles. Bubbles do nothing but make it hard to see what's inside the candle. *I pour about half an inch of gel over the sand and let it start cooling. Once it is around 75% solidified i start putting my fish in. They should stand up in the gel by now. Once they are in, let the gel finish cooling. *Heat your gel up a touch more and pour in just enough so that the top of the fish is almost completely covered, but not quite. Now is where you watch the candle. The new gel that you just poured will melt the top of the last layer and should get rid of the layer line on the glass. You are watching the candle to make sure that the glass fish does not tip over. If it starts leaning, use your trusty butter knife to carefully straighten the fish back up. * Repeat the last step only fill up the rest of the container. *If you want to make the very top half inch layer of your candle tinted with dye, you should know that after a few years that dye WILL spread throughout the entire candle. * Once the candle is finished and completely cool, cut the scotch tape, now cut the wick half inch above the top of the gel.

If you can find her, Candy Gleason makes the best embeds. She used to be in PA but I think she moved years ago, not sure if she is still making embeds. She was supplying some of the biggest companies out there with fruit embeds and her prices were unbeatable. My number two choice is silkytyme.