fredron

What you need to do is get with a good quality source of supply for your wax, scent, wicks, and information. When I got started, I found Natures Garden in Ohio to be extremely helpful. Call or E-mail Dreama. She's the manager there. Another good source is Candles and Supplies in Pennsylvania.

I'm currently using Astorlite J-50 wax for containers, and Astorlite 6228 for votives and pillars, and various suppliers' fragrance oils and wicks.

A couple good suppliers will straighten out most of your problems, because they will all give pretty good advice. The rest you can learn on your own with help right here.

We can't make Blue Hawaiian fast enough. It's a killer in summer. We do it in paraffin and gel, but it's gorgeous in a medium blue gel-no imbeds.

My mother used to tell me; "Cheer up things could be worse". So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.

I bought a couple glass measuring glasses from Wal Mart. They are $1.97 ea. They hold about 4 ounces. They are graduated in ounces, and I used them when I first got started without a scale for months. Now I still use the glasses, but weigh the FO. They still come in handy because they are easy to clean.

Look for them in the kitchen gadget section.

I found Natures Garden candle supply very helpful when I started. I bought a container candle kit & went on from there to make pillars, chunk pillars, votives & tarts, and now gel candles.

They've been very good to us.

Fredron

Waxes 'n Wicks

Candles and Supplies company offers both candle warmers and tart warmers at a reasonable price. I paid $6.95 each for a couple.

They look pretty good. They're not fancy-more generic, but they work.

Hello to all. I've got what may appear to be a stupid question, but I'm trying to package my votives, and I'm not truly satisfied with the plastic sandwich bags I currently use. I also tried a clear plastic fold over box that has muffin type cups in it, but they hold a dozen, and less than that in the box don't look right. Also the cost seems prohibitive.

What do most of you use?

Looking for ideas

Votive wax shrinks too much for containers. You'll have a gap all around the candle after it sets up. Also you'd have to repour the container candles due the the shrink.

Use a good container wax, you'll be better off.

Early American Candle Supply in Pittsburgh carries J50 also. I live close & pick it up when I need it.

Sometimes different names are a good thing. For example:

We use the Monkey Farts as a converstion starter at craft shows. We put up a sign saying "Guess the name of this candle and win a free one".

That brings in a lot of people, and we've never had to pay off yet.

While they're smelling that one, we get to find out what they like & quite often sell another fragrance.

If the name offends you, call it something else, but think about it first.

I find that Viva paper towels work the best for me. They are really absorbant-better than Scott or Bounty. I use less of them than the others.

Has anyone tried the 4627 wax from IGI? I've been using J50 since we started the company, but I've been reading about the 4627. The advertisements make it sound good-just wondering if there's a downside.

Also, any ideas on wick choice for an 80/20 blend of paraffin/soy in a 3 1/2" square jar?

Anybody have any experience with Astorlite V-1 soy votive wax? I bought 10 pounds to experiment with, since my wax supplier swore by it. I'm swearing AT it. I've tried pouring it at 150, with no color or scent, 130, and 120. It cracked every time. My supplier said 5% stearic would stop that. It still cracks every time. And I don't mean little cracks. When I pull the candle from the mold, sometimes they fall apart then, when I try to remove the wicking pin, they pull apart. I've tried remelting them & they still crack, even when the molds are warmed.

I also got cracks with tealights.

Any ideas?

I'm new to the tealights. Any ideas on pricing & packaging?

My wax supplier showed me some plastic packages which hold a dozen, with fold over lids which looked pretty good.

I've poured some that burn well & smell good, and I know what my costs are, but I was wondering about what others are charging for a boxed dozen.

Any ideas?

Also, any thoughts on mixing ( more than one per package) fragrances?

I'm also curious about the acrilic cups. Why don't they melt when the candle burns?

Waxes 'n Wicks

Lighting the world one candle at a time.

Smile, the fresh air is good for your teeth.

I use 2. Candles and Supplies, and Natures Garden. Both are excellent. Natures Garden ships more quickly, but Candles and Supplies has more gel friendly scents.

Glue dots are great, provided you locate them properly the first time. Once stuck in place, they're hard to move. I use a wick sticker, to position them. My jars have a series of faint circular rings in the bottom, which help locate the wicks in the center of the jar.

Do the sticking, and use whatever method you prefer to tension the wick while the jar is cold. Once heated, the dots can come loose if you are wrapping the wick around a skewer.

Also if the wick comes loose after the wax is poured (a very rare occurrance), they will not stick, so you'll have to position the wick manually.

I get mine from Early American Candle Supply in Pittsburgh. They're good people & stock a good supply.

I'm making 3" round pillars using Astor F, using a #01-18 braided wick. The burn pool burns a core hole about 2" in diameter down into the candle for about 3/4", then spreads out & gets bigger inside. What wick would be best to get a larger start pool & leave a thinner shell?

Just thought I'd chime in. Early American is sort of like Wal Mart in a way. You can get some good buys there, and the people are friendly, but mixed in with the good stuff are some less than quality products. Wicks come to mind, and I don't care for their fragrances. They sell quality waxes, and they have good supplies of containers and molds. I buy a lot from them, but I shop carefully.

Natures Garden is in Ohio, and they have treated me well.

Waxes 'n Wicks

Lighting the world, one candle at a time.

I don't know what type spigot/valve you use, but I have what's known as a ball valve in mine. (put this together myself.) By the time the wax in the pot is melted, the wax in the valve is melted also. I occasionally have a clog when I let pillar/tart wax set up in the pot, but I don't do that often any more. A ball valve is cheap & is an easy fix. Buy them in the plumbing department near the regular valves.

I prefer the spigot, although mine really isn't a spigot, but a ball valve. The ball valve opens faster. A true spigot requires too many turns to make it open completely. The ball valve turns only 90 degrees from full close to full open.

Both are found in the plumbing section of the hardware store, and both mount the same way.

Try the ball valve!

I have done away with putty/sealers completely, and i've never been happier. What I do is tie a knot in the wick, pass it through a metal washer I made by drilling a hole through a 1" square piece of metal. The hole is very close to the size of the wick. then I pass the wick through a similar hole in a square piece of rubber, then through the mold, and tie the wick to a wicking bar, pulling it taut. Since I've tried this method, I've never had a leak, and no more sticky putty.

Maybe I'm confusing terminology. What I got was a crater in the surface of the candle, about the size of half a quarter, with 1 side kind of straight, and the other curved. The curved side was sunken down and was sort of hollow.

I feel your pain!! I threw in the towel a long time ago.

Paraffin isn't quite as easy to start with, since you have to cut it from a slab, but after that it's all a breeze. Just melt it, weigh it, add color, at the right temp add FO, and pour. They turn out beautiful. No cracking, no frosting, no worries. And they burn clean if the wicks are trimmed.

I still pour a soy candle once in a while just to remember the pain, but I only sell paraffin.