My First Batch of Tarts - Lord Help Me!

[Shirlee]

I can only say that my first attempt at tart making this morning would've made quite a hoot of a video if someone had been filming me.

I thought I'd make it easy on myself. I had purchased a simple mold of little circle tarts with a snowflake pattern at the top. No coloring needed. And I had a nice pine-smelling fragrance oil. Perfect. Well, I was given sort of a recipe for my wax & fragrance oil ... .25 oz of fragrance oil for every 4 ounces of wax. So I looked at my mold ... figured it would take just under 2 cups of wax which, math wiz that I am, I figured out to be 8 ounces. So I measured out 8 ounces of wax, put it into my melting pot, & then took an old plastic tablespoon to measure out .5 ounces of fragrance oil. I learned very quickly that .5 ounces of fragrance oil is quite a bit more than a tablespoon can hold. Lost some oil there but did find a little metal measuring cup that worked well for measuring the oil.

I had looked at the wax melting instructions here on the site. I couldn't find a cheap pot to use for my boiling pot so got out my stainless steel soup pot as I didn't want to use my Le Creuset stuff. Filled it up a bit with water, put it on the stove to boil, & dug out a cookie cutter to put at the bottom to rest my melting pot on. The water boiled but wasn't high enough above the cookie cutter so I added a bit more. The water boiled again & I put my melting pot on top of the cookie cutter. It wouldn't stay. It wanted to float around in the water. Nothing I could do but put on a potholder mitt & hold the pot down until the wax melted.

I didn't really know what to do next but figured now was the time to add the fragrance. Poured it in, stirred it around with the handle of one of my good wooden spoons (hard to believe there's not a piece of scrap wood or a hunk of stick anywhere around here). Figured I probably didn't have to "cook" it any longer so decided to take the melting pot out & pour my mold. It was not fun getting the pot out of that soup pot without dumping it all over the place but I did manage it.

I then looked at what was in the pot & then looked at my mold ... way too much wax. I didn't know if you could "save" wax until the first batch of tarts were cool & popped out of the molds so you could put more wax in so I ran & got every mold I have & poured it all. I've now got little white pine-scented crows & little white pine-scented trees, etc.

So ... what I have now is a melting pot with a bunch of wax in it that cooled & adhered to the sides, a wooden spoon handle full of wax from stirring, & some really funky pine-scented things. Everything looks nice & white ... I guess that's a good sign.

So ...

1. How do I clean this melting pot?

2. In the future, can I indeed save melted wax until one batch of tarts has cooled & has been popped out of the mold so I can pour another batch at a later time?

3. Any other stupid stuff I did here that needs pointed out to me?

I welcome any & all help. As you can see, I really need it!

Blessings,

Shirlee

[Desertrose]

Hi there. Sounds like my first and only attempt at making soap many years ago. (Like something from a Lucille Ball episode, lol!)

I don't know what everyone else does to melt wax but what works for us is to use an old pot to boil the water and a metal mixing bowl of an appropriate size to sit on top of the pot. This way, a bit like melting chocolate, the steam is heating the bowl rather than it sitting IN the water itself.

(If you DO do it this way you must make sure not to over fill the pot with water or else as it starts to boil it will bubble away and sputter out from underneath the metal bowl. )

While the poured tarts are setting the remainder of the wax (if there is leftover wax) sits quite happily on top of the pot and the heat of the boiled water is enough to keep the wax melted until the next pour is required. Or if need be you can turn the stove on again and get the water boiling again to re melt the wax IF it does start to set.

If you want to save the wax for another day you CAN remelt it but I find this burns off some of the fragrance to re heat it so you might have to top it up with a few extra drops.... Probably best to try and pour it all in one session as it's not very exact to "top up" on the fragrance.

What type of wax are you using?

Basically I guess whatever it is you need to re melt it, pour out the excess and then wipe out as much as you can with paper towel while it is still liquid (Don't burn yourself though!) and then scrub the pot.

The good thing about using the metal bowls for melting wax is that you can always pop them upside down in the oven on a tray lined with baking paper and the residue of wax will drip off as the oven heats. (We do this to clean our tart and votive molds if they get messy.)

A heat gun also is wonderful for melting off excess wax.

We only use metal spoons for stirring as these too can be popped in the oven to clean or heat gunned.

Hope this helps?

Tracy

Edited November 4, 2009 by Desertrose

[Debbie73]

Wow, that was like a Lucy episode! I don't know about saving wax, I can only help with the dried wax. I love using my oven. I set my oven on 200, (that is as low as mine will go) I have a cookie sheet that is covered in foil, then I put a layer of paper towels on it, this way when wax gets on it, I can just change the paper towel. I put pouring pots and everything else in the oven to melt any wax off. I do not use spoons to stir my wax, I use bamboo sticks. I have found that I am not wasting as much wax with the bamboo sticks as I did with spoons. I just wipe the stick off as I use it, usually I am able to wipe off all wax and re-use it. Some people use a heat gun to melt the wax off, you just have to find your groove!

[Jenny]

I love this post. It sounds like me tinkering in my kitchen ruining my kitchen utensils as I am too broke to buy anything for its specific purpose, making a mess, but then... at least I have some candles to show for it. My husband wants to know what happened to the pot we used to use for spaghetti noodles. I use it as my "double boiler" and the insides of it are now flaking off.

[Shirlee]

I definitely thank you all for the tips! I was a little disappointed ... popped the white crows into my tart burner & the scent wasn't very strong at all. In fact, I asked my husband if he could smell anything & he said "not really," so back to the drawing board : ) Thought about putting everything I made yesterday back into the pot & remelting it & then adding more FO but decided that probably isn't a good idea. Next time I will use a bit more FO.

The wax I'm using is just something that "looked good" on Etsy. It's a soy wax for pillars, tarts, & votives. That's the name ... "soy wax for pillars, tarts, & votives." I must admit that after reading some of the posts where people have talked about their tarts breaking or flaking or being rough, I feel very fortunate to have found something that does such a nice job on my first attempt.

I hope to give things another try today. Maybe I'll decide to get really wild & add some coloring ... lol!

Blessings,

Shirlee

[Faerywren]

Shirlee,

Your rationale of .25 ounces of FO to every 4 ounces of wax was correct. As most people do 1 oz to 1 lb of wax. It's good to let tarts and candles cure before you burn them.

Also, did you use a thermometer when melting your wax? Most FO's need to be added when the wax is around 185 degrees to make sure it "sticks". I continually stir my wax from 185 down to 110 or so before I pour it. Then I cure for a few days before I test.

Hope that helps.

~Julia

[Shirlee]

Thanks Julia. I didn't even think of needing to let my tarts cure or adding the oil to the melted wax at a specific time. I fear this is going to be a learning process for a long while : )

Blessings,

Shirlee

[Sharon in KY]

Thanks Julia. I didn't even think of needing to let my tarts cure or adding the oil to the melted wax at a specific time. I fear this is going to be a learning process for a long while : )

Blessings,

Shirlee

Put every thing back in your pot and remelt. You can do this over and over. Next time melt your wax then pour in a cup of some sort, a tin can, cleaned out, can be used for mixing color and scent in then pour into your molds. That way your wax in the melt pot is good to go for another scent. Just reheat the wax you have scented and pour all into maybe Dixie cups, that wax you'll have enough containers to pour all the wax from your pan. Wipe with paper towel while still warm then wash, don't know if the scent will ever come out so the pan may be you wax melter forever.