Candle Math

[kittenpants]

This may only be of interest to candle whores and Hellenic folks, so I'll use a cut.

Comments

[capriciouslass]

Actually, just refill the glass containers that you have; you don't need to use molds. I can even show you how, 'cause I have all of that kind of stuff. If you want, you would even use soy wax, which burns cleaner than paraffin wax.
Yea craftiness!

[kittenpants]

That still means holding onto lots of the glass containers. I was hoping to cut down on them if possible. But I guess since I already have the containers and the boxes, I could just as easily store poured cylinders as molded candles. Duh! Hmmm.

You're right, soy wax is awfully nice. And renewable! And it's only a dime more by the pound if I buy in bulk. Hrm... It isn't as mold-friendly, it's better as a container wax. But if I do poured containers, I can blend the soy wax with a bit of olive oil, which is nice, too.

[kittenpants]

Hrm. I found a place that has palm wax for way cheap -- like $.80/lb cheap. Excellent. That's actually less expensive than paraffin from most vendors. The vandor that had that also had a good deal on soy wax, too -- $.95/lb.

[zylch]

interesting idea, quite possibly workable. Though I actually haven't been having a regular Hestia flame since I got back from Italy, and I'm not sure at this point whether I'll have a constant one again in the future, I do still have 2.5 cases of the glasses.

milk cartons!

[rfunk]

When I was a kid and gallons of milk still came in cardboard cartons, my parents used one as a candle mold. Then my dad used a blowtorch to soften the result so it wasn't quite so squarish. That candle lasted for years. (No idea what sort of wax it was.)

Sorry, just had to share. My parents were a lot more craftsy back in the 70s than they are today.

[lightonthesill]

if you decide to go the mold route - that's something I could get pretty excited about. The candles I used to get in NYC slipped out of the glass and I used those regularly to carve and bless etc. Since moving here I've only found serious bulk options that I wasn't willing to commit to just to have slip out candles. Either way, I'd be happy to swing my candle buisness your way ifen yer gonna make em.

umm I can help here as well

[leopardeyes]

I also do candles and can direct you to a locate place where you can purchse the wax in bulk as well as molds and ect. Although re-usins your glass as molds can be done you just need to "grease" the glass candle first. let me know if you want to try this.