question about what/how much supplies?

[rebecca_robinson]

I am helping a friend make wax tarts as wedding favors for her wedding in October. I have made them before, but it was a long time ago and I am having a hard time figuring out how much of everything to get. Math has never been my strong suit, and with wax for instance, I know that a pound of wax shavings makes more than a pound of tarts. (volume vs. weight, etc. confuse me, and wax is usually sold by weight whereas oils are usually sold by volume, so it's hard to know how much to get of each.

So, for example, if we wanted to make 150 wax tarts (about an ounce each, or slightly less), how much wax would we need and how much oil? I don't need exacts, because I know it depends on how strong you want the throw to be, etc. but I'm just looking for a ballpark figure here, so I can give her a list (she's never made them before at all).

Thank you so much for any help anyone can give me!

[joanncat18]

I'd say you would be fine getting a 10 lb slab of wax and then if you want 6% fragrance oil that would be 1 oz per pound of wax. You weight the oils, so sometimes the volume could change. So 150 1 oz tarts would be about 9.4 lbs of wax and 9-10 oz of fragrance oil. 1 lb of wax makes about 16 tarts. Hope that helps. Oh, and then dye if you wanted that, but you use very little dye usually, so you wouldn't need much of that.

[Alajane]

I had just typed almost the same thing as joanacat18 and then saw her response. Since oils are usually much less expensive packaged by the pound than when packaged by the ounce, I would buy a 10-lb slab of wax and 1 lb of FO. You'll probably have a little left over, but I'll bet you'll pay lots less than buying 1-lb packages of wax and 1-oz bottles of oil from a craft store.

HTH,

Jane

[grama]

Without looking at my notes, I think I get about 2 dz from 1 lb of wax.

[Stella1952]

whereas oils are usually sold by volume

Nope! Oils are sold by weight - 2 oz., 4 oz., 8 oz. 1 pound (16 oz.). It's confusing because there are ounces in liquid measure (volume)... actually they are FLUID ounces, but most folks don't say the "fluid" part. Keep everything in weights and you won't get so confoozled. If ya use one weighed oz. of FO per pound of wax, then 1 pound (16 oz.) of FO should handle 16 lbs. of wax.

[dejablue]

I get twenty standard sized tarts using these molds from SC http://www.candlescience.com/molds/tart-mold/ using one pound of KY tart wax and one ounce of fragrance oil. I think the size of the mold you use will determine how much wax you will need to finish the job.

[rebecca_robinson]

Thank you guys so much for your help! I really appreciate your taking the time to help me out!

I hope they all come out ok for the wedding. We all know weddings are stressful enough on the bride! If I were her, I'd probably just order some and be done with it. lol.

Thanks again!