liquid dye vs. dye chips

[PSPjen]

I have been using liquid dye in my pillars and electric candles. I like the ease of using it, but sometimes even 1 tiny drop turns out darker than my 'vision'. Do the dye chips give you more control on the final color?

[Scented]

Some say yes. Some say no. It's personal preference. I almost would have said yes, but I have had some miss the target completely.

[mizbizzyb]

I say if you are looking for that shade...do chips and weigh them. (I think that is how it is done).

I use dye - sometimes that one drop gives me too dark of a color - those are batches that I make in double, triple etc (2 or 3 lbs with the one drop and get the color desired)

[PSPjen]

Thanks for the thoughts gals. I do love the dyes (at least when they have droppers! lol) maybe I'll pick up a few chips just to play around. At the moment I've been pouring single pillars to perfect my technique, wick, see if I like the FO, etc. But there have been a few that I thought were 'sweaty' from too much FO so I have remelted and added more wax- and ended up with a color that was closer to what I wanted!

[Scented]

If you want to use less dye, just dab a toothpick on the dropper to pick up some color and swirl into your melted wax ... till you get used to what this will do, you may have to do that a few times.

There are a ton of coloring tips/tricks/hints etc. on here somewhere. Someone suggested pouring a small amount of colored wax into a paper cut and the shaving off what they needed ... mostly that may have been done trying to get pink.

[topofmurrayhill]

You can make diluted versions of your dyes. For instance, a mixture of 1/2 dye and 1/2 mineral oil makes one drop equal about half a drop.

I would suggest doing this only when one drop of your straight dye is too much. Don't use a lot of the diluted mixture because it will be adding oil to your candle.

[SatinDucky]

I make my own dye chips. Whether it's for mixing colors or to get a softer color. The mini muffin pans work great! I put about a tablespoon of straight paraffin in them and let it cool so that it's either solid or a good shell has formed on the pan itself - it keeps the dye from concentrating on the metal. After adding the dye, I heat the pan, usually with my heat gun and stir real good. When they're cool, just pop it out. They break easily into halves or quarters. Then the extras get popped into a little bead type craft zip lock baggie, labeled with how many drops of what color per chip

[PSPjen]

I make my own dye chips. Whether it's for mixing colors or to get a softer color. The mini muffin pans work great! I put about a tablespoon of straight paraffin in them and let it cool so that it's either solid or a good shell has formed on the pan itself - it keeps the dye from concentrating on the metal. After adding the dye, I heat the pan, usually with my heat gun and stir real good. When they're cool, just pop it out. They break easily into halves or quarters. Then the extras get popped into a little bead type craft zip lock baggie, labeled with how many drops of what color per chip

This is a great idea -thanks!!