My first pillar... yet another sad disaster story

[starlessjade]

Well, I'm really planning to work on rustics but my IGI 1343 is still in transit and I got my 4625 yesterday, so I thought I'd try pouring a regular pillar since all I've done so far are containers.

The plan: Layed pillar with Satsuma scented orange layers and Pomegranate scented red layers.

First, I didn't have my FOs and dye chips ready to go, and ended up accidently using Mahogany instead of red. I added some cranberry to it and that reddened it up a little but now it's got so much dye it's almost black.

Then, I thought that if I used a wick pin I wouldn't need to seal the wick hole at the bottom of the mold.

So after I peeled all the orange wax off my countertop, I sealed the mold up and tried pouring again.

I poured several of the layers too soon, and one of my orange layers actually disappeared because it mixed with the red layer and the red dye was so overpowering.

I got white lines in some of the layers- jump lines from pouring the wax too slowly, right?

And now the best part of all. Somehow I totally missed the fact that after poking relief holes, you let the candle cool, THEN fill with hot wax. I filled right after I poked the holes, essentially accomplishing nothing. The bottom of my candle now has a giant cone-shaped sinkhole.

But hey, it looks pretty good if you set it right side up, and it smells great!

Maybe I'll give it another shot after work tonight.

Actually, I should probably ask- is there anything I can do about the sinkhole in the bottom at this point? Can I still fill it in? Can I somehow cut off that whole portion of the candle? I'd still like to at least test the fragrances I used, and I'm assuming it wouldn't be safe to burn like it is. Come to think of it, does adding too much dye make a candle unsafe to burn? I'm pretty sure this sucker has more dye than paraffin at this point.

[ladysj]

I think it looks nice. On the orange part I think what you are calling jump lines looks like pouring too cool. Unless you are trying for a rustic affect your next layer needs to be poured 5-10 degrees hotter than the previous layer. The big hole that you have in the center, I would put it back in the mold adding the wic pin and then fill with wax. Just enough to fill the hole even with the bottom not enought to go all the way to the sides of the mold that is if you don't have any of that color wax left.

As for too much dye I believe(I'm sure someone else will chime in here) if I remember correctly it will clog your wick making it difficult to burn. I hope this makes sense and HTH.

Keep up the good work it still looks great even though it wasn't what you were looking for. :smiley2:

[cybersix]

Don't be sad! It's normal to have some mess, even if you make candles from a lot of time.. ask me how I know!

I think the pillar is nice, those lines are the ones you see in rustics, when you pour at cooler temps.

The sink hole is normal too, paraffins shrinks while cooling, so you have to poke some holes and keep them open while wax cools, then you do the final repour to fill the sink hole.

You see, you didn't do anything so wrong!

Don't worry, and keep on pouring, and read: this site is full of precious informations!

Don't give up. It's all part of the game!

[starlessjade]

Well it looks like I won't have too much trouble with rustics, since I tried to turn this one into a rustic.

Don't worry, I'm not giving up... in fact I'm actually pretty happy with it... I thought it would turn out so much worse and I think it will actually be salvageable. Plus I learned a lot about what not to do.

If I pour another tonight, I'll update.

[Scented]

I've used a regular butter knife to pry apart layers before.

Test your layers with something next time, like fingers or gently with something that will reach deeper into the mold. You'll get a better feel for when to pour. Well I did anyway.