Golden tips
The tips below cannot be divided into the other chapters and can help when pouring your candles.
Contents
- Outdoor candles
- Indoor candles
- Casting tips
- Cleaning tips
- Safety tips
- Useful addresses
Outdoor candles
1 Outdoor candles are best poured into frost-free earthenware moulds. Metal pots are not recommended because they can ignite and are more difficult to extinguish.
2 use more and more stearin with outdoor candles (at least 20%)
3 injections during the solidification process are recommended.
4 Always use the correct wick for outdoor use to ensure lasting burning time.
5 deaf people can possibly use thick-walled (old) glass or jar.
Indoor candles
1 A candle would not drip if it had been left in a mixture of lukewarm water and saline for several minutes.
2 Black candles require double the amount of dye compared to other colors. Always use a wick size larger for round candles. The black dye makes the candle more difficult to burn.
Pouring tips
1 The melting time can increase if you use large melting bucket(s). Use the night rate together with an adjustable clock so that you can get to work straight away and do not have to wait for the paraffin to melt.
2 When using dip wax, the melting bucket should not be completely filled, but a layer should be applied above hot water. Dipping twice is enough to cover the entire candle.
3 Casting into a glass final mold is best done as follows: Necessary paraffin Sasolwax 6220 and do not use any other.
- Heat the paraffin WITHOUT stearin with the addition of the desired dye to a maximum of 70°C
- Heat the glass final mold in the oven to achieve ideal adhesion of both materials.
- Hang the wick with knot in a thin layer of paraffin and let it harden. Fill the entire container (glass mold) on the still lukewarm paraffin in one pour.
4 Silicone molds are sensitive to acids, as stearin is an acid. A polymer, such as vybar, will prevent your silicone mold from quickly becoming unusable.
Cleaning tips
1 Mica foil protects the work table and sticks due to static electricity and is easy to remove after casting. This means you do not need extra work space to practice your hobby.
2 Turpentine is ideal if you need to remove paraffin from abrassive surfaces such as wood, marble, clothing...
3 A standard oven set to 70°C makes used candle molds look like new. Damaged molds can cause the candle pieces to break off after releasing the candle from its mold.
You could already read how to make candles here.
But in this section I would like to give important tips.
Use of our colored paraffin.
Our colored paraffin has now been expanded for the following applications:
- Colored paraffin for indoor use.
- Colored paraffin for outdoor use.
- Colored paraffin for glass moulds.
- Colored - perfumed paraffin for indoors and outdoors.
The correct paraffin must be chosen for each candle.
An example: if you choose paraffin for glass molds, it will not come loose from the mold. This paraffin is composed in such a way that it shrinks little and adheres to the shape. Where any other colored paraffin from our range will release from the mold after it has fully hardened.
How is our colored paraffin formulated?
Each color of our colored paraffin has its own composition.
VB: The white colored paraffin will contain fewer dyes than a dark colored paraffin. The addition of stearin also has a higher percentage than the darker colors. The price of the colored paraffin is therefore in balance with regard to the dyes and stearin used. An exception are the additive colors or basic colors used in our studio. These are red, green and blue. The composition of the colored paraffin with these dyes is separate from the entire palette of colors that we offer. The subtractive colors are based on cyan, yellow and magenta. These colors are used to mix our range. In short, our range contains a mixture of the subtractive basic colors and thus forms our 31 color palette. In principle we can offer any color from the RAL card by using the additive and subtractive color range. A custom color is only possible for larger quantities. We store the composite color for you for later purchase. This effect guarantees color fastness. Price for self-composed colors on request.
Color application
There is one exception that must be taken into account when pouring candles and this applies to all our colored or scented paraffin, both indoors and outdoors.
It concerns the colors BLACK and RED. Both of these colors require your attention for the simple reason that they received an additional treatment when formulated as colored paraffin. Based on the belief that colored paraffin must be colourfast, which is very difficult to obtain for black and red because these colors give a white cast if the correct composition is not used. Both of these colors have had extra dyes added for color fastness and are therefore more difficult to burn, so you should proceed as follows.
- Use double the wick diameter as the desired burning diameter.
- Pour these colors at the minimum temperature (56°C for standard molds)
- When lighting the candle, always cut the wick to 1cm first.
Safety tips when making
1 Always keep a fire blanket near the melting boiler or a bucket of fine sand if extinguishing is required.
2 Constantly monitor the temperature of the paraffin. Both for the quality of the candle and for the sudden rise to dangerous temperatures (180°C causes paraffin to spontaneously ignite)
3 Use a bain-marie to melt the paraffin or choose one of our melting kettles. An open fire nearby to melt the paraffin is not allowed.
Safety tips when burning
1 Never leave a burning candle alone.
2 Think of the unpredictable behavior of children or pets with fire.
3 Place a burning candle on a fireproof surface.
4 Take into account drafts and other air currents that cause a burning candle to burn unevenly. Therefore, turn a burning candle regularly. If necessary, push the edges inward.
5 Keep the fuse short +/- 10 to 12mm.
6 Many varnishes, paints and other furniture protectors react with the paraffin and/or dyes in a candle. Protect your furniture with a coaster.