considering venturing into gel..

[harley1231]

considering venturing into gel.. I love candle making as a hobby, started with hurricanes, then paraffin, para-soy, and my latest venture soy.

Ive always loved the looks of the gel candles with the natural and wax embeds. I've been reading thru some of the posts and see that many of you soak the seashells in mineral oil? I'm still not completely clear as to why this is done, and does the mineral oil affect the gel in anyway negative ways such as in how it sits up or how it looks over time? Or do you clean off the mineral oil before pouring the gel over them? Do you do this with all of the natural embeds such as the sand too?

[DonnaP]

Actually harley the reason for the mineral oil on shells an other imbeds is to help stop bubbles. As you know shells and such are quite porous. Soaking them in mineral oil help to sort of seal them. There are no problems with the mineral oil affecting the gel that I ever heard of, as gel is made from mineral oil.

I have never soaked seashells in mineral oil, I kind of like the bubbles they produce. However the will produce a lot of bubbles. So, my solution is to pour the gel a little cooler and if it is still to much bubbles I place the candle in the oven and leave it there until most of the bubbles have risen out of the gel. I then take the candle out of the oven and turn a fan on it to chill the gel...and wallah...just the right amount of bubbles.

Bill

Jacksonville Fla

[CrystalClear]

I never soak my seashells or other embeds in mineral oil. I like the look of some bubbles. I vary up my bubbles tho by either pouring hot or cool. Here's a trick that I use: Set up your "scene", pour a layer of gel over the embeds/bottom...let that set up, then pour the rest of the gel. Just a trick I use to lessen the bubbles. If I want more bubbles, I just pour the whole candle right away a lil cooler.

[harley1231]

Thanks for the replys!

For those of you that put the shells in mineral oil, do you put the shells in a strainer or something before putting them into a jar? I cant wait until next payday to get the gel and some other supplies to start playing!