Candle Making Articles
Midwest Crafts
Category:
CANDLE Making Articles and Links
Easy Candle Recipes
The easiest candles to make are soy candles - simple, easy and fun. Here's a recipe to get you started:
How To Make Soy Candles
Soy candles are among the easiest of all candles to design.
It's simply the process of combing wax with dye and fragrance.
It's so easy - you may throw out the paraffin altogether! Try
it, you'll like it. Not only is it easy, clean up is a sink
away.
Ingredients needed to make soy candles
1 pound of soy wax
1 mason jar or similar jar
1 ounce of fragrance oil
Wax dye
1 cotton wick
Soy wax (block or flake form - I prefer flake)
Fragrance for soy candles-usually 1oz per 16oz of wax. (Use your
own fragrances and you will have your own... soy candle
identity!)
Wax dyes - (Blocks, concentrated liquid or dye chips)
Soy wax candle wicks
Soy wax candle containers (simple to complex)
Ok, let's get to making already!
Slowly heat the soy in a pan until completely melted. Remove
from heat, cool a bit and add the fragrance oil. Stir until all
the fragrance oil is absorbed in the soy wax and add dye
according to instructions to wax. Pour the melted soy wax slowly
into the jar, position the wick in the center and use a
clothespin or pencil to keep wick in the center. After the wax
is solid, trim the wick to about 1/2 inch - then...strike a
match, sit back and enjoy your favorite scented candle!
More info on Making Candles - gathered from 'round the web
Making Money from Your Favorite Hobby - Candle Making
Experienced candle makers will tell you that there is a lot of
fun to be had in making candles. Once you have perfected your
basic technique, you can make truly beautiful, high-quality
candles, that you can keep, give away as gifts, or sell for a
profit. Just because you know how to make candles doesn’t
necessarily mean you will be able to turn your hobby into a
profitable business, there is more to it than that. Before you
give up your day job, you should take the time to learn about
marketing, purchasing supplies at the lowest possible cost,
customer service tactics (as your customers are your business),
and learning how much you should charge for your candles. If you
set your price too high, no one will buy them, if you don’t
charge enough, you won’t be able to recoup your costs, and won’t
earn a profit.
Candles are very popular as of late, particularly decorative and
scented candles, so you shouldn’t have any problems finding a
target market for your candles. The thing you have to do is let
people know that you make candles and have them for sale. If you
don’t advertise, no one will ever know that your business
exists. You will need to determine how you want to sell your
candles, out of your home, from a brick and mortar store, mail
order, online through a website, E-bay, etc. Once you have
decided where you want to sell your candles, you have to get the
word out about them. If you prefer to sell out of your home only
in your local area, you can advertise in your local newspapers,
or send out fliers with special offers. You could also get
online and find out about craft and trade shows, and send in
applications to them, so that you can take your candles there
and sell them to the people visiting the shows. There really is
a lot of money to be made on the Internet, so you should really
consider this avenue as well.
If you do decide to sell your candles online, you will need to
learn about online advertising. There are many ways that you can
advertise your business online yourself, or you can pay someone
to do it for you, but be forewarned, it can be expensive. You
could develop your own website, and then join traffic exchanges
to get customers to your site. Or, you could join a web hosting
company, where you pay a monthly fee, and they help you develop
your site, setup payment options, and provide hosting, usually
for a nominal fee.
You may also choose to sell your candles on the many auction
sites online, the most popular of course being E-bay. You will
need to take good pictures of your candles, and write some good
descriptions of them. Once you build up your reputation, you
will really start seeing the orders roll in.
If you want to be successful, you have to learn how to set your
prices. You have to make enough money to cover the cost of your
supplies, internet fees, etc., plus turn some sort of profit for
yourself. There is a delicate balance that you must find, and it
make be a trial and error process.
Read
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Cheap Candle Making Supplies
More and more people are starting to make candles in their spare
time, and many of them will turn their hobby into a way to earn
a living. At some point, they may even be able to quit their
full-time jobs, and completely replace their income by the money
they make from their candles. Candle making can be an expensive
hobby, unless you take the time to shop around and compare
prices on your basic supplies. You have to be careful though, as
you don’t want to sacrifice quality, as poor quality materials
could potentially ruin your candles. If you create and sell
candles for a living, you have to keep your costs as low as
possible, but if you sell low-quality candles, you will lose
customers, which is not conducive at all to your success. You
could even lose your business for this reason alone.
There are some ways that you can keep your material costs down,
without jeopardizing the quality of your candles. When you start
making candles for a living, you should develop a supplies list,
listing all of the materials you use in your candles. You should
include the material name, the manufacturer, the price you paid,
and the weight of the item, such as 10 pounds of beeswax. If you
are familiar with Microsoft Office, you can probably keep all of
this nicely in an Excel spreadsheet. You may also want to make
an extra copy to keep in your purse, so as you are out shopping,
if you run across something that looks like a good deal, you can
check your notes to make certain it really is, and if so, add it
to your list. Some stores will run “sales”, that really aren’t a
sale, so you have to be careful. Check with your local craft
stores often, as they will likely have sales just before the
holidays and when they have excess inventory. This can be a good
time to stock up on supplies that you know you will use.
Many business owners buy a lot of their candle making supplies
off of E-bay as well. People often spend money on new craft
projects, looking for something to do as a pastime, and then
decide they don’t like it as much as they thought they would,
and list their remaining supplies on E-bay to try and recoup
some of their funds, which is where you can rack up. Again, know
what you are getting and be careful to consider the price and
the shipping costs, just to make certain that you really are
getting a good deal.
For the supplies that you use regularly, such as the wax you
make your candles from, you might want to think about buying in
bulk from wholesale distributors. This may seem expensive at
first, as you will be paying quite a bit of money, but if you
break it down to a per pound price, you will see that you really
are saving in the long run. Many wholesale vendors have websites
to promote their products, again, just be careful to check the
quality before making a large purchase. Some will even give you
extra incentives for buying from them, such as no-cost shipping,
or extra discounts off the purchase price. Some candle makers
even team together, each contributing a portion of the cost, to
purchase in bulk their supplies, which gives you even more
discounts.
When you are buying candle supplies, it is a good idea to look
at the ingredients, and compare those with what you already have
on hand, just to make certain you are getting a comparable
product. When you purchase from a new vendor, it is better to
only buy a couple of products the first time, so that you can
test the quality for yourself, before committing to a large
purchase. If the quality of the items is good, then you can
always go back and purchase more later on.
Smart candle makers know that they don’t have to spend a lot of
money on special jars or candle holders for their candles. It is
relatively easy to find these items for sale in bulk, at really
cheap rates. Some don’t even use holders at all, it is up to
you, and depends on the type of candles you make.
If you can find a good price on candle making necessities,
without sacrificing the quality of your finished products, you
should take advantage of it. By being a smart shopper, you can
really maximize your profits, saving you a tremendous amount of
money over the life of your business.
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