Streaky soy/pw blend pillar

[Sally]

Using the melted dye technique...thanks to Dariablue for the idea....I tried adding emerald green (inpex dye squares) & red (concentrated dye in a tub) as the fragrance is watermelon crush.....it didn't come out too well & I found the green inpex dye didn't run through nearly as well as the red concentrate.

Although the green ran through a bit, lots more stayed on the surface.

I used another inpex dye with a rasperry cobbler pillar & the same thing happened...with less streaks which don't show up in the photo I took so I haven't bothered include it here.....it smells fab even if it doesn't look the way I wanted it to.:undecided

Anyone got any ideas as to how I could get this to work better, I don't have any liquid dyes & aren't planning on getting any.

Thanks for looking.

Sally.

[Patience]

I'm only guessing, but maybe raise the temp of the dye before adding? I will leave this to Daria, she will be much more help.

Also, I have tried this technique with liquid dye. It works well however I used too much and it left a chemical smell. Have not tried again.

[Daria Blue]

Sally,

I do like the technique that you have there with the individual lines. I have never had luck with that because the colors seem to disappear in the soy wax or blend together so you can't make out the individual colors as well.

I pour my soy fairly hot rather than letting it cool to a slushy consistency.

1. I put in a little wax so that the top is clean and then I add a few drops of the melted dye block - usually 4 or 5 drops of a specific color.

2. Then after letting it sit for a minute or so, just enough for it to settle and stop swirling around I add more wax, usually so the wax level in the mold rises an inch or so.

3. I add another color, more wax, another color and so forth until I've got the mold 1/2 full.

4. At this point I just add wax, there is enough dye in it and as the wax gets added it helps to cause a blending affect.

I've found that the best way to get the blending affect of the dye is when I add more wax, I have it run down the wick. This prevents any splashing and as the wax that is being poured meets the wax that is already in the mold, it creates a swirling effect which causes the appearance.

Each time that I add dye to it, I add about 4 or 5 drops and by the time that the wax has reached the top of the mold it is dark in appearance. A way to help determine what it'll look like is after it's all poured I take a wooden dowel and dip it in (like a dip stick when checking oil), and when I pull it out I can see the swirling effect and colors on that.

The key is to add the majority of the wax in the first 1/2 of the mold, so that way when you're adding your final wax it takes all of the dye that has settled at the bottom of the mold and pulls it upwards creating the effect.

All in all they don't take too long to create, but it is tedious to get all of the dye set out ahead of time along with a candle and spoon. All of the dye I use is in the block form and I melt it in a spoon as I go.

I hope that this helps and wasn't too confusing! Let me know if you have any more questions and I'm anxious to see another candle if you try the technique!

[Daria Blue]

One other thing, I love that pink and yellow candle in the background on the right hand side of the picture! You should take a picture of that sometime and post it up here - it's gorgeous!

[Sally]

Thank you so much for your help Daria, now I know why it wasn't working quite right.

I poured the whole candle, a little hotter than normal then dripped the melted wax in, when I've done this with the pw I always dropped little scrapings of the dye in so it ran through pretty well but I sometimes got little lumps of dye which hadn't melted.

I'll have another go when I've got the time.

The other candle in the pic is one of the rustics I also posted pics of today, I love playing with colour....like you.

Sally

[julwid]

That is really a neat look. I also like the one it the background.