emahleem

No luck on Hobby Lobby... the closest one is still pretty far - and it's not even open yet haha! What about Michael's craft store? There are a few of those in my area.

Hello, I am new to candle making and thinking about trying to make some tarts. I am not selling anything, but I'm wondering if there are any reasons not to reuse the plastic clamshell molds for making tarts. If there is a better option, please let me know. I have seen the single tin molds, but they are usually sold as singles and are a bit more expensive. Candlewic is my supplier because they are nearby, so I was thinking about picking up one of these trays made of polycarbonate. Thanks!

Thanks Stella, I will do that! Wasn't sure how much I should be messing with the wick but I did notice that it was severely leaning to that one side. Tomorrow I will push it towards the hangup before lighting up. What do you mean by twisting the wick? When I am first pouring the candle, just twist it a little before clipping into place? YES I am having the time of my life! My boyfriend has been rolling his eyes at how obsessed I've become. And my HT on this candle is UHH-MAZING! Super sweet lemon... I will use this FO again, for sure.

That's such a pretty blue Beth! What FO is it? I finished my third burn a little while ago and here are the photos after 3 hours.

LOL! That wick doesn't look too good, does it... I've just been knocking off the extra in between burns, and that's what happens. Remember though, when I made this I didn't know the wick was supposed to be taut while drying, so maybe that's affecting it. I can't imagine that it's underwicked because the flame flickers so much, but it could be. There is a pretty substantial ring of unmelted wax around the perimeter. But like you said, maybe it will hit FMP after a few more burns. I'll keep posting... doing one more burn tonight (finishing at 1 am) so I will post those photos tomorrow and get started on burn #4!

Photos at the end of the 2nd burn (3 hours again)... And right after extinguishing...

Almost finished with my second burn. The smell is still great, hot and cold. I will take a picture soon and post it a little later tonight. I just ordered 2 packs of these 4oz jelly jars from Walmart and I'll be picking them up tomorrow. Stella, do you think a CD-10 wick would be too big? I'd like to get them from Candlewic but they don't have the 8's listed. I just emailed them asking if they happen to have them anyway, but we'll see. Think CD-10 will be okay as a second choice? Oh, here are pics of the candle right before I lit for the 2nd burn.

Hey Beth, not sure if you will see this, do you know what the diameter of those 4oz jars from Walmart are? The descriptions says "Product in Inches (L x W x H): 13.002 x 9.85 x 4.137" but I'm fairly certain there's no way those are correct!

What kind of wax are you using? And what is your usual wick? I am experimenting with 464 and ECO wicks at the moment, but wanting to try CD or CDN since they seem to get such great reviews with soy wax.

Ok, I'm back! Here are the pics from 3 hours of burning. I am just waiting now for the wax to harden before I start burning again and I'll post the photos when I finish. In the meantime, I've been looking into some smaller jars... I would really prefer to not pay shipping, obviously, so what do you guys think of these? They are listed as "3 oz Libbey Votives" with capacity of 2 oz. Would I have to test them in a bathroom because the MP would be so small?

I definitely agree that I was silly to start with such a big candle, and lemon wasn't the best choice. Yes, I was so excited to burn it that I didn't think about what time it would be finished and I have to leave at 3:00. I'll make sure I follow the 1 hour per inch rule next time. Those last 2 pics were after 2 hours, sorry, that was confusing. I was saying that the next post would be after 3 hours. I assume then that you will agree the candle is burning too quickly after 2 hours? I'll stick with the smaller candles from now on so that this won't be tempting, because I see what you mean about still having to test the next wick with a full candle. The 4oz jelly jars sound good, much less time and materials invested in each test candle. Oh, and dipping into the wax to extinguish the flame while repriming it makes perfect sense. Next post will be the 3 hour pics and then I'll be back later for burn #2. Thanks for all of your advice and encouragement.

Good info, thanks jeanie! Glad I don't have to wait too long between burns... my patience is wearing thin after a whole week of staring at it! Hah Here are the 2 hour pics. Doesn't look too much different to me, but the last one was only 30 mins ago. Next will be the 3 hours pics and then I will start the 2nd burn when it cools.

I'm going to blow it out at the 3 hour mark because I have to go out, and I figured 3 hours is a decent first session. Should I wait until tomorrow for the next burn session, or is it okay to do another one later tonight after it has cooled/hardened? Don't want to start again too soon. Good point about the HT, I hope I can still get a nice strong HT with an appropriate sized wick. That clears it up. Thanks

Here are pics from about 1.5 hours in. Observations: The wick is definitely too big. The flame is flickering pretty consistently and just... looks too big. It is also smoking a bit. I think the MP seems like an okay size; it is about an inch and a half radius. Too big? The wick is definitely big, but how about the MP? The HT is great! My boyfriend said he smelled it but I couldn't at all, so I left the room for 5 minutes and when I came back, I could smell the lemon immediately! The room is about 10x14, not small but not huge. I tried to trim the wick with a pair of scissors, but I forgot that when I trimmed it, the wick would fall into the melted wax... duh. So you can see in the pictures where I tried to scoop out the fallen wick and messed up the outer edge! Candle veterans, I feel like this is a silly question, but how do you trim the wick without it falling into the melted wax? Are you supposed to blow out the candle and let it harden to trim it? Confused...

I'm testing my first candle today. Yay! GB 464 - 16oz ECO14 wick, centered but not held taut Lemon FO from Candlewic - 1oz Melted to 175 FO added and stirred at 125 Poured at 125 Jar 16oz w/ 3.75" diameter Cure time: 7 days Ok, so there are a few things I know are probably not right. I should have used 15oz wax and 1oz FO for a 16oz candle. The amount that I used means there is 5.8% FO, and I could have used more. The wick should have been held taut. I think that the wax should have been heated 180ish, FO added at 180, and then poured at 160. These are the temps I used for another candle the day after I made this one, so I'll test that one tomorrow This size jar should possibly be double-wicked, so from now on I will be using smaller jars. Here are some not-so-great-quality photos from my phone (real camera is out of commission) but you can see the melt pool size and flame size, at least. These pictures are after about a half hour. My newbie assessment is that the melt pool is too large for only a half hour of burning -- which means the wick is too large. Thoughts? At this point, I can smell the lemon from about 1/2 foot away. Not very strong. (However, someone mentioned in another thread that lemon is a hard scent to get a strong HT out of, so we will see.) I will update with pictures.

@Beth, those jars from Walmart look nice and are definitely affordable. It looks like they have Better Homes engraved on the jar, is that just an overlay on the image or is it really on the jar? It also looks like the jar has a lattice pattern on it; is that decoration or is it actually indented? Just wondering if these would be good for a beginner to learn with (ME!)

Also, check out the Vegetable Wax section, you can find all sorts of good information in the threads there. Just browse and take mental notes, and when you come across something you don't understand, look into it further, and then ask if you can't figure it out. A good thing to remember is that if you have a question, someone else has probably already asked it and you can find the answers by searching. The search tool on this site is not great, but if you search on Google "site:craftserver.com Your question or keywords here" you will get a list of forum threads with your search results.

I'm also just starting up, but here's a list of sites I have bookmarked so far. I personally use Candlewic for the majority of my needs because they are within driving distance to me so I eliminate the expensive shipping charges. So far I have had great experiences with them so I can definitely recommend them. I haven't personally used the other sites yet but I'm pretty sure you can find someone on this forum who has used each of them if you have questions about them! Candlewic Peak Lonestar Candle Science WickIt Mill Creek Bitter Creek Candles & Supplies Wicks Unlimited Swans Candles Nature's Garden Candles

Oh, and what does everyone think of testing like this, just to figure out if you're in the right ballpark before doing a full candle test? It's basically just try the first wick, if it doesn't work take it out and insert a new one, etc. Obviously you'd want to make sure you give each wick enough time, and also make sure the wax gets a chance to harden again before trying another one. I think it sounds like a good way to save time and wax, but what does everyone else think?

Hm... how do you attach your wicks? I've read that you can wait until the wax is starting to get slushy and then just push it in so it sticks to the bottom using wax, but I feel like I wouldn't have enough control over it... I've been hot gluing the wicks in prior to pouring. So I probably wouldn't be able to get them out to reuse the containers, but I could at least pour the wax out and add more FO.

I hope so because I just requested a sample from WickIt and told them I will be using those. Yay, how exciting. I can't wait!

I just realized that those tumblers are still 3 1/8" diameter... is that going to be too large? I feel like any smaller is going to be teeny tiny.

Stella, I wish I could watch you make candles and have you explain everything as you do it. You should consider making instructional videos... I bet people would pay to "enroll" in an online video class. I would! But I know I have to just keep testing, testing, testing. I am going to email WickIt and ask for the sample pack, and Candlewic has a case of 11oz Libbey Rock Tumblers (36 for $27.75... comes out to $0.77 per jar). Those are relatively small, but big enough that I would be happy making that size to use until I decide I'm ready to test with a larger container. Or maybe not, who knows.

I'm sorry to post this again but after searching for a discussion on this, the only one I found was archived and I have some questions. In my situation, I am wondering what to do in a situation where the problem is no ST. Many of the suggestions were to keep it and burn it yourself if it's just the appearance, but that wouldn't apply for me since I'm not selling any of them anyway so appearance isn't priority. Anyway, I have a couple of questions about the other suggestions... 1. How do you "pull the wick out" of a candle that is already set? Maybe it's different for pillars and containers? 2. If you want to remelt the wax, how do you do that while it is in a glass container? Double boiler method? And just pull out the wick as soon as the wax is soft enough? Should you use a thermometer while doing this or just transfer the wax to a melting pot as soon as it's liquid?

rjdaines, thanks for the advice. Those jars look much easier to work with and make more sense for me. I'll save the rest of my fancy jars for later. SimpleScentsCandleCo, thank you as well! I don't plan on selling ever, just want to make candles for myself and to give as gifts, but I think your advice still stands to test with the sizes I plan on USING so that I'm testing on the same size wick. As for the ECO's, I actually have not attempted to burn them in the large containers yet. I poured one on Saturday and the other on Sunday, so I'm waiting patiently to burn them this weekend. I will certainly keep in mind what you said, and if the wicks are not burning very well, I'll know I didn't necessarily do something wrong! (besides pick the wrong wick, lol). What temp exactly do you pour at with 464? And going along with that, what temp do you add FO and color?