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Archive for the ‘Hobbies’ Category

What Are Your Choices for Candle Making Containers?

By Otto On February 28, 2010 Comments Off

One of the most important tasks in container candle making is choosing what variety of jars to use.  Not all homemade candles have containers or containers.  Depending on the mold you used, your candle can stand on its own without support.

What are the different Candle Making Containers?  The candle jars can come in many shapes and sizes.  Also there are many jar varieties in terms of shade and trim.  You can use a specialty glass jar with designs on the side to accentuate the look of the candle.  Patterns on the side or the rim of your containers are helpful in terms of creating a motif or a theme.

To exemplify, here are some examples.

A candle making jar with a santa or a Christmas tree design on the side can be used for Christmas.  Christmas homemade candles require seasonal motifs, and if your jar can express the idea visibly, you do not even need to add red colorant to your candle!  Red wax in a heart-trimmed jar can be used for Valentines day parties, or given as presents.  If you’ve impeccable shade taste, you can mix and match your jar and candle colors.

This is one of the advantages of using candle making containers.  Even if you are not an expert at molding wax, you cannot go wrong with a pretty container.  Needless to say, choose your candle containers carefully to ensure that you’ll always create pretty homemade candles.  Are there specific places to purchase candle making containers?

Do not be fooled by claims of some stores that their containers are the only types that can be used for candle making. The truth is, any container can be a good candidate as a candle jar if they pass your quality criteria.  The best places to find containers are flea markets, garage sales and art stores.  Don’t forget to check around the house if there are ceramic or glass jars that you’re not using anymore.

Glass and ceramic jars are more well suited for candle making compared to plastics.  If the plastic is too soft, the hot wax could melt it.  Here are some tips for selecting candle making containers.

The jars you will use must be in tip-top shape.  Make sure the candle making jars that you select are clean and free from scratches.  Cracks on containers will mar the beauty of your candles.  Worse yet, these cracks might lead to accidents.

Chips and broken containers can have rough edges and can hurt you during handling or wax pouring.  If your old jars have stains that can’t be removed, don’t use these.  The stains may transfer to your pretty candle wax.  Dirty containers can be soaked in warm water if you really want to use them.  You must also take note of the previous use of the jar you are using.  Old pickling jars may smell odd, and that odor could transfer to your candle wax.

One other thing to look at is the figure of your candle container.  Even if the outline is good if the outline isn’t symmetrical, there is a possibility that the jar could topple over when you put it on display.  For a candle enterprise, you can pick candle making containers that look the same.

Here is more information on Candle Making Jars. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Candle Making.


Secrets to Creating A Soy Jar Candle

By Otto On February 28, 2010 Comments Off

It’s relatively simple to make soy jar candles. First of all, soya wax, oftentimes coined as “beginner’s wax”, is low-maintenance. You don’t need a double broiler to thaw it; any well-built pan will do. Second, pouring the candle wax in the jar means you do not have to be concerned about creating distorted candles. You can just go for a container with a good quality design. Soy candle wax is much superior to the other kinds of waxes for candle producing.

In general, waxes that came from plant goods give off a lesser amount of soot. If you’ve been using paraffin homemade candles, you will note at once that soy candles can improve the air about you in a cleaner way. However, for your candle creating business, there are some more stuff you should take note of when producing a soy jar candle.

Soy candle wax can be found in chunk and in chip form. The flake form is more effortless to use than the chunk form. The most important part of fragrance addition is figuring out the correct proportion of candle wax and fragrance oil. Using your own blend of scents is the secret to make your own specialty scented soy candles. These aromas are obtainable at different locations.

When purchasing aromas, make sure that they are compatible with soy wax. A fluid ounce of fragrance oil can be used for sixteen ounces of soya wax. Containers for soy candles should be clean, dry and at room temperature. There is no need to heat the container.

However, you might need to speed up the drying of the inside of the container by baking the glass inside the oven. It is crucial to get rid of all liquid inside the jar before transferring the candle wax. This can cause the wax to spray or pop when the candle is lighted.

Another important aspect of soya jar candle making is choosing what dye to use. Special varieties of coloring materials can be bought in craft stores. There are dye lumps and color chips which can be liquified along with the candle wax. Coloring materials are also offered in liquid form.

Next, here’s another important part of candle creating… wick installation. The diameter of your jar handcrafted candle must be proportional to the size of the wick you are using.

You can purchase wicks and candle wick holders individually but the most convenient way is to purchase wicks with anchors. Candle wick anchors are best for container candles because you don’t want to risk not centering the candle wick. Prior to every use, clip the candle wick to 1/4″, and by no means move or re-light ’til flame is off and wax is fully solid. If the candle wick becomes too long while burning, extinguish the flame before trimming. If the wick is too undersized it will result in too small of a heat and the melt pool will not reach the edges of the container.

The last touch for your jar candle is a warning label at the base of the jar. An authentic jar candle will always have safety precautions printed somewhere on the container. On that piece of label, you can put some precautions and warnings. In no way burn your candle on or near anything flammable, or for more than 5 hours at a time. When you first burn your candle, allow the candle wax to pool all the way to the outer edges of the container. This is called a melt pool. It is advisable to place the soya jar candle on a heat resistant surface prior to burning.

Here is more information on How to Make Soy Candles. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Candle Making.


Historic Model Trains

By Otto On February 28, 2010 Comments Off

Kids now-a-days are a lot more interested in updating their face book page than in actually putting their faces into a book.    If it doesn’t connect to the power grid and add to the monthly electrical cost, lots of boys and girls are just not that into it.  This is after all the computer age and if a kid isn’t looking at three things at once he feels like he is slacking.  But, as you know, our traditions is really a useful thing for them have.  It’s not enough to know that there were some guys named Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Benjamin who now have their faces on our money.  I don’t mean to get on my high horse, but it’s our duty as patriotic citizens to pass on some sense of our rich history to them.  So how do we get them to crack the book on the traditions of this country without feeling like we’re pulling teeth? model locomotives can put our youngsters on the track to becoming more culturally and historically literate.  Yes.  Yeah, historic toy trains embody a beautiful history with them but don’t burden us with feeling that we are being educated.  Try using model trains to teach our traditions this way:

Incorporate our traditions into the toy locomotive track plans that you create with your kids:

Try to make your set-up period and place specific.  For example, let’s say that you choose to depict the American Southwest in the period just after the Civil War.  You can get your kids to learn about this period and then add period details that will really add to the enjoyment and historical accuracy of your traindesign.  They might read about the telegraph and add telegraph lines next to the tracks.  Or they might create a vibrant town near the tracks to represent the boom cities that were the winners in the railroad speculation game.  Maybe even have a few washed out prospectors still panning for gold in the nearby stream.

Historic model trains are also a good alternative to the usual diorama or scale model:  

Diorama and similar craft projects are fine but if you’ve already gotten your youngster into toy trains why not take advantage of his or her hobby to really impress at his next school presentation.  A static diorama really can’t compete with the dynamic movement of a historic model train design.  Just imagine, for example, adding a model train display to your child’s essay on Jesse James.  You could show the robber stalking the period specific train with his whole gang and also show other aspects of this rich period of American our traditions.  It’s sure to be a coup!

Visit a model train Museum:  

If you’re anywhere in the American West you are never far from historical train sites and museums where model trains are often featured.  This can be great fun and be very educational as well.  Some rolling exhibits may come around as well. Just keep your ears pricked and you are sure to come across one sooner or later.

All of these things are sure to place your child on track to greater national literacy.  Just being familiar with different types of trains gets us one step closer to understanding their development and the great our traditions that goes with it.  

Here is more information on Model Steam Trains. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.


Selling Jewelry Online

By Otto On February 5, 2010 Comments Off

Setting Up Your Online Jewelry Store

If you’re planning on setting up your own jewelry store, you might think that it is simple to do.  But , should you want to rapidly sell your jewelry items, you need to consider setting up a website and selling them on the internet.  But how can you set up your own online jewelry store easily?  We are going to answer that question later. 

How would you like owning your own online jewelry store even if you don’t own a piece of jewelry?  I bet you will be very happy when you know that you can sell tons of jewelry items without keeping any stock.  With your internet jewelry store, you can start selling in the morning and be ready to collect good sales before the day ends.  You just have to think of some good strategies to push your new store so folk will know the way to find you. 

When setting up your internet jewelry business, the first thing you will do is to go looking for jewelry wholesalers to get your items from them for resale.  Wholesalers can help you cut back your upfront costs ; you are able to save money if wholesalers agree to drop ship directly to your clients.  There are thousands of wholesalers online and it’s time well spent at the beginning of your startup business to take the effort to Source the Best Wholesale Jewelry suppliers. 

When you start dealing with wholesalers, you will have to pay for the products upfront and need to take this into account.  As a start-up company it is sensible to find as many money saving sites as practical, if you plan to concentrate on a certain area of jewelry.  Let’s say you are way more interested by beading, one of the hottest and least expensive sites to find materials is eBay, so use eBay to find cheap beads. 

With regards to setting up your own web site, there are now many providers that offer turnkey packages.  This may be more convenient for you as a amateur, where you can just input some vital private information in the software program and be up running straight away.  For that service, you will have to pay the providers, either an onetime fee or a once per month fee.  However one disadvantage of this kind of service is that, usually all sites that they make are rather the same. 

Aside from just selling jewelry and jewelry related products, you can make additional profit by offering some information to people that are wanting to get started in the jewelry making business.  Tutorials of all jewelry related methodologies are always popular so why not offer some of your own.  For some additional profit making provide a Bead Making Class or any other area you are expert in, these sorts of courses are particularly preferred during the school vacations when parents are looking for something to keep their children entertained.