New Hurricane candle, new foibles and problems...

Finally had a chance to make another hurricane candle today, I was pretty excited to try a new technique I'd read about using tissue paper in a candle.

Yesterday I cut a piece of tissue paper to size and used hot glue to stick the flowers to the tissue, creating the scene I wanted to have on the candle in advance so I'd be all ready for today.  Everything went really well as the tissue placed and fit into the mold nicely and seemed to hold shape prior to pouring the wax.

However the end result was not as expected as the tissue had curled in on itself where the ends were to meet, taking the flowers away from the front of the mold like i wanted and setting them further into the wax.  Also in parts it seemed to not allow the wax into the front of the tissue, so the flowers are exposed which is not what I wanted either.  There's also air pockets in the wax creating bubbles, and the tissue paper has rippled under the surface of the wax creating a frustratingly ugly texture to the wax.

I think I made an error in technique and should've put the wax into the mold first (and definitely need to have a hot mold, that helps a lot, which I didn't do this time), and then place the tissue into the wax that way. A bit disappointed to be honest, but shows that using this technique has the potential to look the way I want it to, I just need to correct my errors.

This photo shows how the paper curled under, and took the 

flowers into the wax and away from the surface. Also created a dip in

the wax on the surface which is not what I wanted.

And a photo of it lit, best I can considering it's still daylight.

More practice needed with this technique!

Logos and Labels & Lo's, oh my!

It's definitely been a big roller coaster trying to come up with an appealing logo to represent my company, I've been trying these many months to come up with the ideal image that was unique to me.  After many trials and tribulations I think I'm finally happy with how it looks!

I've also finished the design for the labels I'll be using on my scented jars, which was a major trial as well.  At the moment I've an 8oz jar and a 4oz jar in mind for my candles, I may do a 3rd size that'll be larger than the 8 but I haven't found it yet.

The final designs I need to accomplish is back labels for the jars, and labels for the luminaries & hurricanes which I haven't started yet.  Also need to start contemplating packaging :)

My final logo design

Final label designs for the 3 scents I've chosen so far, Apple Strudel from CandleShack

Final design Asian Pear & Plum from Scent Perfique

Final design Wild Berries from Sensory Perfection

I'll be testing my jars very soon, more to come, watch this space! 

I'm back and ready to go!

After two weeks away and a few days to let the post-holiday fog clear, I'm back and ready to get back to it.  I started off today by attempting to make another hurricane candle.  To see the process I followed, see my post regarding my first hurricane candle attempt here.

I did very little different to the original process, the only difference being that I used wild flowers & the hurricane mold insert to keep the flowers in place while the wax set.  Overall I'm reasonably pleased with the results, though I think maybe using more flowers might've been nice, placing the flowers lower in the mold so they weren't so close to the top of the hurricane, and perhaps not to fill the mold up quite so high. Other than that, not bad at all!

The process for using the insert is as follows:

1) place the insert into the middle of the hurricane mold.

2) insert the flowers between the insert & the hurricane mold. I needed to take more care with this process so will remember that next time. Also make sure that your items you're placing aren't too close to the top of the hurricane ( like mine are, oops ) as this makes it difficult to keep the flowers in the wax. Don't want these flowers sticking out of the top and becoming a fire hazard.

3) pour the hot melted wax into the insert tube (NOT the hurricane mold directly, it's too small a gap and you don't want to move your flowers about). Make sure the wax covers the stuff you've placed inside.

I added a luminary candle & a tealight candle in the photo to represent the size of the hurricane, as I got a few criticisms that the size of the hurricane was hard to judge in a photo.

I'll keep this one around for a bit longer, then remelt it and try again. Watch this space!