Back in the saddle

Hey everyone!

Haven't fallen off the face of the earth, in fact I only moved locations on the face of the earth for 3 weeks, I headed back to the US to visit my family over there.  Had a really great time, but it's taken me a bit to get organised and now I'm set to take on candlemaking once again.

I started off today by making a start on getting stock together in prep for selling, mainly sticking to the autumnal theme at the moment, though will also be making christmassy things in the background all set for christmas.  My plan as it stands right now is to make a good number of autumnal luminaries, seasonal tealights to go with them, a good two dozen scented candles in two different sizes, also in seasonal scents, and I'm also going to be tackling some autumnal & christmassy hurricanes.  I'm so excited!

Anyway here's the 4 I started with today, they're not too bad if I do say so myself. However, I can't decide of the leaves I put on these are too big? Haven't had much feedback yet.

And that's basically it for now, will make another post when I got more to share :)

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!

And we're off!

Just to let all know that I won't have dropped off the face of the earth, but have been packing as the family and I are going to be off on a holiday and won't be back for a while.  But stay tuned as I'll be back in full swing very soon!  In the meantime, I think I'm getting close to the look I'm after for my business cards and for my logo. Any thoughts, feel free to share :) Everyone have a great Whitsun and will be back soon!

First attempt at hurricane candles

I finally had a bit of time to get back to testing and experimenting, so I decided to break out my new hurricane mold and give making a photo hurricane candle a try.  There were a few complications with this, 1) I've never attempted to make a hurricane candle before 2) never embedded a photo in a candle before and 3) never used a water bath before.  So this was going to be fraught with new techniques to try, and I knew that it might not go according to plan.

I chose not to use PE22 this first time just to see if it was even going to be required, I wouldn't want an expense that I don't really need.

Ok so here's the process I followed:

• I pinched a bucket from my OH and marked out where I needed to fill the water to, so that when I put in the mold the water would come up to just over the top of the level of melted wax in the mold.  I marked these on the bucket itself so I wouldn't have to do it again.  
• Then I weighed out the amount of wax I needed (nearly 2kg of wax!) and started that melting away on my double boiler.
• I took my hurricane mold (I decided to do without the insert this time as I only wanted to use a photo) and put cooking spray on the inside of the mold just to ease the release of the candle from the mold, wiping it so there was only a residue left over.
• As the wax was nearly all melted, I took a wooden spatula (slice?) and placed that in my melting wax so I could have a warm spatula to hold the photo on the side of the mold. If I had used a cold spatula the photo would've stuck to the spatula rather than the side of the mold.
• I placed the hurricane mold in the oven as it was pretty cold (not sure if this is necessary, I'll be testing this further).
• Once the wax reached about 190F I poured the wax into the heated mold, leaving about half an inch gap from the top just to reduce chances of getting water into the wax.
• I then placed the mold in the water bath, weighting it down as it would float otherwise.
• I then waited for the walls of the hurricane to form. I was aiming for about half an inch but I overshot this a bit, so will have to keep a better eye on it next time.  Then I cut the "lid" or film of wax that had formed in the center of the hurricane candle, and poured the still melted wax back into the pouring jug, leaving it tipped straight down just to run out the remainder of the wax so it wouldn't pool at the bottom creating puddles. I didn't leave it long enough so ended up with a puddle or two.
• I placed my hurricane in the freezer just to speed it's cooling along, I don't really think that's necessary but I was impatient :)  Came out smooth and shiny, just how I was hoping for, but the top was a mess.  The inside was also sludgy, not 100% sure why so more experimenting needed.  I heated up a baking tray and placed the hurricane top down on the tray to melt & even up the top rim, then used a hot spoon to smooth the rim where it had become uneven. with more practice I think I'll be able to speed up this process and not need to do so much touch-up.

sludgy inside, with a puddle or two.

And this is the final product!

 Final product lit, best I can as it's still daylight.

Overall I think I'm reasonably pleased.  Conclusions are this 1) I need to use the PE22 to reduce the interior cracking. 2) Need to improve my ability to move the mold from being filled, into the waterbath.  Any suggestions for creating a wire harness or anything that would be useful would be gratefully received. 3) I also need to keep a sharp eye on it so it doesn't get so thick. More to come, watch this space!

More luminaries

A bit of another update, just to post my most recent efforts.  A friend of a friend requested 2 cream luminaries and I suggested that I'd picked and pressed some wild violets that I could try. She agreed, way hey :)

Lucky I'd ordered and received more wax as I was definitely running a bit low.  I followed the usual techniques that I've laid out earlier in the blog, and was reasonably pleased at how nice they came out, reasonably uniform in shape. Just differing a bit on size really.  The violets were pretty easy to embed into the wax and I have to say they look really great against these cream luminaries.

Just as a bit of a sidenote, if anyone is concerned about using water balloons (which I obviously have to burst to get the luminary free), these water balloons are biodegradable.

Here they are cooling and setting.

Here they are set up with their matching tealights, 3 are apple strudel and spice scented from Candleshack (can you tell I like this scent?) and Asian Pear & Plum from Scent Perfique, which compliments the apple really well.

And finally showing off my favorite of the bunch, which I gifted to my MIL.

Still getting a few things together before I can attempt the hurricane candle mold that I've got, but soon as I get my act together, I'll be showing some of my efforts for those. Watch this space! :)