Two questions....

[sparkette]

#1 - how do I use wick pins on votives

#2 - has anyone used powder dye? I bought two this morning and used blue and melted my wax to 170 but it still didn't melt the dye. What happened?

[linnaete]

Not sure on the powder dye, but the wick pins, you just place the pins inside the mold and pour the wax in. Once hardened, remove the votive by the wick pin, turn upside down, and carefully "push" the candle off the pin. I find spraying the mold & wick pin with silicone spray to be helpful.

[topofmurrayhill]

Powder dye is pure dye that they use to make liquid dyes and other colorants. A lot of the colors won't disperse completely if you use it directly in wax.

Common advice is to heat the wax to a high temperature like 200, but I find that can be only marginally effective. Some say to dissolve it in stearic acid, which does work better but still may not be completely effective. I think the best bet is to filter out the sediment or make a large enough batch that you can take a stick blender to it.

Other considerations are (1) you'd need a pretty expensive scale to weigh it correctly (though I suppose you could devise a system using the tiny measuring spoons), and (2) it will drift and leave spots on things, including your lungs unless you wear a dust mask.

I guess what I'm getting at is you might not want to bother with the powder dye.