Candles, Anyone?

[MeridianXO]

I'm looking for someone to bounce ideas off of for new candle ideas. Being as this is an Adrian Paul forum, what better place to start? I've done actor/character candles in the past (Mostly Hurricane Shells or tall pillars), but, it's been a while since I went down that 'fandom candle' route. Does anyone have any ideas?

At the moment I'm creating new 'Holiday/Christmas' themed candles in which I'll have the pictures up shortly on my MySpace page. You can check out some of my older creations by visiting at www.myspace.com/vesuvius_enchanted and clicking on 'pics'. Oh, that sounds like an advertisement. *Laughs* Sorry about that. It's not. I just don't know how else to show what I've made so far.

~Heather

PS...THANK YOU, Victoria, for making this new nifty sub-forum. :D

[MeridianXO]

Ooo, Ooo, I figured it out! Nevermind my MySpace page. Ignore my Myspace page. Don't look. Don't go. I mean it. I swear, you'll turn into a pillar of salt if you do. :D

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_rainforestice.jpghttp://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_marblecandle001.jpghttp://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_cin-candle.jpg

~Heather

[Sharon D.H.]

The green ones look amazing.. I love green stuff like that, the contrast with different shades and all. Maybe mix some green, blue, and purple colors together and make a candle like that, in the shape of a mum, or rose. Those are my favorite colors. Maybe royal blue mixed with deep purple and emerald green, with black wax as a base to the candle, in the shape of vase or something......
However you do it, good luck..........

[MeridianXO]

I didn't get around to putting any more pics up. There's a limit to how many I can post in each reply. Here are a few more:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_candles008.jpghttp://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_marblepyramidbrick.jpghttp://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_marblestack001.jpg

I have more, but, I'll just post these three today.

~Heather

[MagicPrincess]

I'm guessing those flat ones are more of a decorative candle. Not sure they'd last too long when lit. Very cool looking though, never seen that before :)

[renate]

those look great meridian-love the green ones too-very intersting.:) :)

Renate

[MeridianXO]

Yes, the flat ones are more for decorative effect, but, they still burn. They're easy to make so I make them by the bucket loads. Lighting them for 'the mood' of whatever situation you think they work for (*Phew* Nice save) works if it's about five minutes (Okay, not so good, afterall :D ).

I get a lot of people that like the Rainforest Ice candles (The green ones). They're probably the easiest to make as they're ice candles (Rainforest is the scent I used). Really, there's only one dye in there; it's just added once the candle has been poured. Since the ice makes the wax set faster, the dye doesn't have a lot of time to soak into the top of the candle (You pour from the bottom) so you get the appearance of several shades of green.

I'm trying to think how to make that effect with multi-colors. Obviously it would be different than the rainbow candle. I think I have an idea about it. I'll work on it and see if it goes over, Sharon. If it works, I'll post it. If it doesn't, I'll act as if I completely forgot about it. ;)

~Heather

[hcla]

CELTIC themed candles. I'm a candle nut. I suppose a plaid candle would be hard to do. I've also seen candles that the wax is semi clear and real flowers are in the wax, I have one with scottish heather,It's pretty cool looking.

[MeridianXO]

*Laughs* You know, I was thinking the same thing. Celtic candles. I'm a Celtic nut. But, I've been wracking my brains trying to figure out how I can do Tartan-freakin' candles. I can do celtic knots in sand candles, I suppose. I've never actually made a sand candle, but, I have a book on it. The candles I really want to make require custom molds. Until then, I have to use standard metal molds and plastic molds and then use other means to make the more unusual looking candles. Where there's a will...Well, you know the rest.

In the meantime, here are a few more of my more recent creations:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_Hurricane.jpghttp://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_Triangle.jpghttp://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_Gell-Red-Wire.jpg

~The first one is a Hurricane Shell Candle. The beautiful part about this is it never melts away. You just put a votive in the center. They're great for pictures, flowers, or anything you don't want to watch melt.
~The second one is actually a coffee candle....with real coffee in it.
~The third is a gel, which bored me to tears to make. But, I loved the container it came in, so jumped for gel.

Which brings me to my "Van Helsing" candle. I made it in 2004 along with a slew of other Hugh Jackman candles which I gave away to fans. This is the only one I kept. The candle is very dark, so it's not easy to make out everything in this picture.


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_momdaycandle008.jpg

~Heather

[hcla]

A Celtic nut I'm laughing hard, I don't want to go off topic here, but my ancestors immigrated here from Scotland, and settled in the south, made friends with the Cherokee, My Family refers to me as the "Celtic Nut" because I don't cling to the indian side of the family, (g-g-grandmother was pure Cherokee) but great-great papa was a Scotsman,and it's from his side where I got my name. Celtic studies go far beyond Scotland, I'm currently reading a book by Marcus Tanner, called The Last of The Celts, and one by T.W. Rolleston, Celtic Myths and Legends, GREAT BOOKS!

[MeridianXO]

Funny you should say that...My Celtic side immigrated to the Southern U.S. and mingled with the Apache tribes. That's just my dad's side. My mom's side is German and English. *Grins*

~Heather

[hcla]

I know nohing about candles, other then I was told a story that My mother/ or grandmother tried making candles, and blew up the kitchen, started a fire and wax was stuck to everything. I guess it was pretty bad. What part of the south did your family settle in? Mine settled in Alabama. I belong to Ancestory.com. I've been able to even pull up passenger manifests, I located and was able to verify My linieage through this site.HA HA I'm all laughs, german, english, and apache, the fighting Irish don't stand a chance.JUST KIDDING ALL THOSE FROM THE EMERALD ISLE. Oh, by the way, do you sell your candles, I'd really like a set of those green ones. Large pillars would be cool!!!!!

[MagicPrincess]

Celtic knots in a candle would be freakin' awesome! I have a couple knots tattooed on my back (I'm Celtic as well) and would love to see them in a candle :) Let me know if you do that...I'm so there. I've already got my money half out of my pocket. LOL

[MeridianXO]

I can trace my mother's side with relative ease. I mean, Lawson and Hofer are names that keep going. Either that, or, my ancestors were literate, unlike my father's side. With, practically, each generation comes a different spelling of my last name. It's kind of sad, really. There's over thirty variations of that name in the U.S., alone. It makes it difficult to trace. Don't even get me started on the Irish and Scottish part of it all (We had an 'O' in there at one point and a 'Mc' in there at another *Haha*). It was as if my ancestors thought, "Pfft, what's in a name anyways? I just don't want the peeps I'm running from to find me." :D With all that being said, we ended up in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and some later generations ended up in Alabama.

As for the candles: *Laughs* I have no idea what to charge for any of them. I absolutely suck at anything financial (I have other folks do it for me). I always feel bad taking money. It seems I'm not very good at being a woman. :p And it feels just downright wicked to ask for money on a fan forum. Which puts me in a pickle. I can't give them away (I always end up doing this in the end and getting yelled at by my roomate), but, I can't sell them on an Adrian Paul message board, either. What I will do, however, is post the link to my eBay store once I get it up and running within the next few weeks. I had to make this deal with everyone in my life that supports my candlemaking.

In the meantime, I'll work on the Rainforest Ice Pillar -- Ice Pillars tend to come out disastrous because there's gaping holes where the ice was and it makes them more unsteady the taller they are. I think I have an idea how to avert that. So, I'll get to it today or tomorrow.

I'll also start work on the Celtic Sand Candles this weekend. I'm making a supply run in the next hour in order to do this. It's not so I can sell them -- though if you two do want them after you see them and after I test their burn times, we can come to some kind of bargain off the site. It will probably involve shipping and supply costs and very little for me because I'm an idiot in business. :D Once the eBay store goes up, I'm sure they'll cost more because I'm not the one pricing them. The main reason I want to do them this weekend is to see if I can. As I said, I've never done sand candles before and I can't do just regular sand candles any more than I can make regular normal candles. And I also want to test my new idea on how to make more sturdy ice candles for those who want taller.

~Heather

[hcla]

Magicprincess, I never thought of having celtic knots tatooed....COOL... but I do have scottish heather tatooed all up the length of My spine.

[MeridianXO]

You'd think, with my name being Heather, that I would have thought of heather in a tat. But, nooooo. I have three tats and each tat has a freakin' rose in it. I don't even like roses. *haha* My latest tat has my nifty celtic knot avatar (Destiny) in a rose. It's on the back of my left shoulder. I have a tribal on the small of my back (You guessed it, it has a rose in there somewhere) and I have a sword (With a rose) on my front right hip bone. *Thinks* Wow, I'm a walking Highlander storyline. :D I just thought me going to Highland High School was hilarious. The only school in my county where our mascots are in kilts and playing bagpipes. Now, I'm beginning to sense a theme. I sooo belong in the Highlander fandom. :D

*Starts concentrating* Okay, back to candles...*Goes off to find green dye and tries to figure out which scent is Rainforest (They all smell like soap to me *haha*)*

~Heather

[MeridianXO]

Okay, so I worked on the Rainforest Ice Pillar and it turned into a rather amusing fiasco at my house. As I said before, the taller an ice candle is, the more unsteady it can become. The reason being that sometimes the ice tends to get too close to the wick during the pour. On a smaller candle, this can be averted because you see where the ice is during the pour and you can move it a millisecond before the wax sets around it (It's really quick setting when you use ice) if it slips too close. On taller candles, you can't do this as easily. The good part of it was, I managed it. I produced a perfectly steady ice candle. The bad news? I realized into making the damn thing that I was out of liquid green dye (You REALLY need this to get that effect you saw on the smaller candle). Instead of scrapping the whole thing I went ahead and melted a second pot of wax with dark green dye in it. The idea was to pour this into the base of the candle immediately after I poured the undyed wax in. *Sighs* The candle set too fast and I got left with a pretty green base candle where the rest of the candle looks like ice. Not exactly what I wanted. My household loves it...I hate it. So, no picture. :o
I will have to wait for liquid dye before I try it again and I'll have to order that online. Sorry, hon. I twied. :(

While I was fuming away over Ice I decided to try my hand at candle carving (Carving a design free-hand into a candle and then filling in the funnels that were carved with differnt colored dyes). My first attempt was a PEACE candle (I can't get the new logo out of my head). It looks great for a first attempt at carving, but, not something I'd throw online and say, "Hey, look how pretty." The only thing wrong with it is the little blue hand print. It's practically impossible to carve a handprint. It actually looks like a kid went and found an ink pad, but, didn't press down hard enough when tranferring the stamp. The 'PEACE' part of it is so good that everyone that sees it thinks I traced it (With different fine point pens) from the actual picture. No pens...It's all wax. Oh, except the colors got opaqued on me because I used too much Sterin in the candle on accident and that wax bled into the filler wax. So, the little red 'p' is kinda pink. *Coughs* Anyways, I'm doing a different shape for that candle because I want a bigger canvas to play with. If THAT one works out, I'll post it. It's just too embarassing to post what I think are failures. As for the slender pillar I just made. I'm so keeping that for my own pleasure. *TeeHee*

Which leads me to my one success story for the night...CELTIC...Yippee...

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_celtic-green.jpg

It's funny how I can carve a celtic band around a ball candle and fill it, perfectly, with gold dye (Which bleeds with the green to give it that light green effect), but, I can't carve a hand print. Go figure.

~Heather
Who's off to do a 'PEACE' brick

[MagicPrincess]

I was also a Highlander in high school. Went to The Woodlands High School in north Houston. We had a student wearing a kilt and everything playing the bagpipes too at all our games and stuff. Pretty ironic. LOL

[appeace]

Hehehehe**besides being from Scottish/English descent, I graduated from McLennan College and our mascot was a Highlander!! The college also sponsors a weekend of the Highland Games each spring! Acckkkkkkk;)

[MeridianXO]

Scotsmen Pride! WooHoo! :D
What a small world we live in, eh?

Okay, I'm starting Sand Candles now. Hopefully, I don't blow up the house (Wax has to be extremely hot (Nearly a hundred higher than normal pours) for the first pour which means it has to be watched at all times while melting). Wish me luck.

~Heather

[appeace]

Ackkkk!!!!! Heather, you be VERY careful. PLEASE!!!!:eek:

[MeridianXO]

:)
Awww, thank you. It's my opinion that people don't worry about me nearly enough. *haha*

I managed two sand candles so far without blowing anything up. So far, so good. I'm trying a few more tonight with engraving. I just finished another PEACE candle (With a different mold and engraving and dying technique) that looks a bit better than the first. Still not perfect, so I don't know if I'll be posting that pic just yet. I'm going to try one more PEACE design tonight. Well, not deviated from the actual logo, but, a different way of making it and a new look for a candle (Hopefully). One of these days I'll actually do one that I'll show everyone. *haha* At any rate, I should have pics of what I've done so far up by tomorrow. Oh, and I'll be engraving one more wax candle tonight as well. Busy, busy, busy. But, this is how I unwind and relax. Er, with hot wax. ;)

~Heather

[MeridianXO]

Yay, I didn't burn down my house. WooHoo! *Does a jig*

I think the sand candles are, er, well, 'different'. My roomate took one look at the candles and thought I was being artistic so he went nuts with the photos.
I didn't trim the wicks yet.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_3-candles.jpg

Since I'm feeling daring, I'll post my mistake candle (Ice) just so everyone can point and laugh because I'm a Massochist.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_tall-candle.jpg

*Sighs* And I suppose since I'm already looking for abuse, I'll post one more...I'm getting better at the hand print. I swear I am. You should see the last one I tried. *Roars laughing*

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_peace3.jpg

~Heather

[Sharon D.H.]

Those Candles are absolutely fantastic.
My ancestry is Irish and Cherokee on one side, the other side is Irish and Cherokee, and Irish and Chaktau. That refers to my g-grandmothers and g-grandfathers. the men were Irish and the women were Indian. That shows that I am Celtic also and maybe that is why I go "nuts" over Highlander so much....Also nuts over anything Irish or Scottish....Gotta love 'em, huh!?!

p.s. my best friend is Indian, she actually looks it, dark hair and braid, the shortness (she is cherokee, I think, or maybe chaktau, I have to ask her again) She is from Oklahoma, where my ancestors are said to have come from(g-grandmothers) and she likes Highlander too.

Soooo, if you make any candles with Celtic knotwork it would be great....

[hcla]

I tried to reply earlier, but the web site went down, I have no idea what happened, anyways, I think the candles are pretty darn good, and the PEACE one looks great, give yourself more credit, I know, most of us women are perfectionists :D

[appeace]

I LOVE the PEACE one and the ICE one and the SAND ones are cute in an interesting way. What talent---you go girl:D

[bryant.wanda]

Your candles are beautiful. You have a great talent. Do you plan on making some more and maybe selling them and sending the profits to PEACE? Or if you could make enough to send to Adrian's organization, so someone there can sell or auction them off. :) Keep up the good work and don't burn yourself or your house down:p

[MeridianXO]

Wow. A bunch of responses in a row! Sweet! :D

Okay, let me see if I can break them down a bit.

Sharon; What is it with Irish/Native American ancestors? *haha*
I'm working on Celtic now. Not successfully, mind you, but, working on it. I'm also playing with 'play sand'. It's finer so I don't know how it will take to wax at 275. I just poured one and I'm waiting on the results. In the meantime I'm carving the crap out of this golden candle I have with celtic knots. There's a ton of sides on it, so if I screw up, I can just switch to another side. It's my practice candle for all things Celt. *TeeHee*

HCLA; I'm not sure if it's low self-esteem or lack of confidence or if it's just that I'm a Virgo. It could be that I'm a woman. But, I don't like to clean (I get shocked whenever a woman tells me they enjoy this). In fact, I avoid it whenever possible. I cook often (And I'm good at that) and I make candles all night long. I guess I have to put that woman thang somewhere. Why not candle critiquing? *Smirks*

APPEACE; Thank you for the compliments. I wasn't sure about the PEACE one? Well, let's just say, that picture is small for a reason. It's definately not perfected yet. Not by any stretch of the imagination. And I still can't get that 'Protect Educate Aid Children Everywhere' engraved into it. The letters are too fine and the wax tends to get all weird when I put letters too close together. I don't even want to think about getting black dye into those little etches.

Wanda; Yes, I plan on making more. And I really wouldn't mind giving some over to PEACE for auctions. I couldn't do it. As I said before, I'm terrible at selling anything. I still don't think they're good enough for that, but, that's just me being picky. But, you know what they say about practice. ;)

Thank you guys for the lift-me-up compliments. You have no idea how that made my night.

~Heather

[MeridianXO]

Okay, on this candle I ended up using four completely different candle-types and techniques. I ended up spending around $25 for the supplies alone and spent around three hours making the thing. Why? Because I wanted to see what would happen. Good a reason as any, I suppose. A very special thank you goes to Stephy C. for letting me use her 'Source' wallpapers. Now, I can try posting the tiny picture of it (Like I've been doing for the other candles), but, I don't think you'll get it all by looking at the teensy version. For some reason no picture we took did it justice (I love this freakin' candle, folks) and even in this picture you can't see everything. Anyways, here's a direct link to a large version of the picture.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/candle-adrian.jpg

~Heather

[MagicPrincess]

I want one! LOL. Nice job :D

[MeridianXO]

Since this is me being artsy on a grander level than usual (Most of my candles are one of a kinds), 'One' is all there is. :D However, I'm working on another from Stephy's 'Source' collection as we speak. It will be a bit different, but, with the same idea behind it. And then, there's one more of her 'Source' collection I want to do after this. I think that's all I can afford to do at $25 a pop *haha*. Anyways, they'll all be a bit different (How can you get stone to be in the exact place each time?) in molds and textures as well as color additives. The one I just did (Pictured above) has a gold highlight to the wax in certain places and had a base for the votive to sit in. The one I'm doing now has gold flakes, but, not highlighted wax and has no base for a votive to sit in, but, has a space for it. These are Hurricanes, by the way. Very very very THICK hurricanes because it's so easy to crack Hurricane shells. I wanted Duncan to last. :D These also aren't the standard hurricane shells where everything is the same height and whatnot. The wax has to be carved and melted into form.

~Heather

[StephyC]

A very special thank you goes to Stephy C. for letting me use her 'Source' wallpapers. For some reason no picture we took did it justice (I love this freakin' candle, folks) and even in this picture you can't see everything. Anyways, here's a direct link to a large version of the picture.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/candle-adrian.jpg

~Heather
That looks great Heather!! Can't wait to see the others that you have planned.:)

[Sam]

:D The candles look Great Heather. I envy your talent. I have absolutely no artistic ability when it comes to that sort of thing.

[MeridianXO]

Here's the final two of the three. The first one is quite light. I should have thought of how light it was when I picked the picture, but, it didn't occur to me until after I had it Hurricaned. Remember, it's hard to capture hurricanes in a photo, so you don't get to see the details. Also, there's a bit of a light reflection on them as well in the pictures. They're all sand hurricanes with photo embeds and wax carving, but, you don't really see the differences in the photos. This first one has no base to the inside of the hurricane whereas the other two do.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/candle-hurricane2.jpg

This second one I put the photo extremely deep into the wax and then carved it away. In the picture it looks like there's wax around the picture. There isn't. It's all sand. But, I carved the picture out to make it look more like a framed photo embedded in rock. Which is what you get when looking at it, but, the picture doesn't do it justice.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/candle-hurricane3.jpg

Now a bit about the candles:

Why I chose to do them as sand hurricanes? 'The Source' was quite a gritty movie (no, I'm not making critiques, I meant the overall feeling you get from the flick). It was dark, depressing (For me, at least), and it rather reminded me of a volcano (Don't ask). I wanted the hurricanes to convey this as much as Stephy's wallpapers did. They're not perfect. They're not meant to be. They're meant to convey the overall feeling of the movie. I chose sand (Which looks like rock when finished) in the shape of a volcano and gold tones in the wax so the wax you see looks rather like lava when the votive is lit inside the hurricane. It's uneven at the top to help convey this and the wax also has characteristic grooves around and in the picture to make the picture blend into the overall design. Like I said earlier, they're extremely thick (Hurricanes aren't thick because it's harder to see the embeds the more wax it has) and quite heavy. The thickness was for artistic as well as practical reasons (I needed thick to help with the 'rock face' and shape of the volcano and I didn't want it to crack). Inside the picture area there are areas where wax is thicker and areas where there isn't any wax at all. This was also on purpose. I wanted some areas to be more muted/blurred a bit where you have to really look to see them and some areas were simply too light I needed to remove all of the wax from the front of that part of the photo in order for it to be seen.

I had a blast and I think Stephy is a genius. I had a fantastic playground to play in for these photos. Again, thanks Stephy.

~Heather

By the way: Stephy's name is still on those photos, it's just hard to find under all the rock face. I didn't remove anything from the wallpapers.

[MeridianXO]

Okay, I tweeked the hurricanes a bit more and removed most of the wax from the actual pictures inside the hurricanes. This changed the contour a bit and the top has also been changed due to me going a bit crazy with the torch. :o
You can see the pictures a lot better whether they are lit or not now. At least my eleven year old thinks they look better. I'm going to put the mini-versions up here so nobody has to go clicking on links. It's still not going to be extremely easy to make out due to the size of the mini, but, you should still be able to see a bit more in the photos. On a few of them I didn't light the inside of the hurricane so you could see that the picture is still visible whether there's fire or not raging inside. One of the photos has a lit shell, so you can see what they all look like when lit in regards to the glowing orange of the shell. Below the thumbnail, I'll also include the link to the full size version just in case anyone wants to see it.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_hurricane1V.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/hurricane1V.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_hurricane2V.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/hurricane2V.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_hurricane3V.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/hurricane3V.jpg

Now I'm off to do actual candles that I can give to people for Christmas. I seriously doubt my youngest' dad wants Adrian Paul on a candle. *Grins*

~Heather

[Hilandlas]

Your candles are really cool, Heather. You are very talented.

I am one of those "candle nuts" too. I have them burning in every room of the house including my fireplace right now. I don't like the smell of fire in the fireplace (Sorry to those of you who do!) but I love looking at fire in the fireplace so I put a lot of candles in the fireplace on a piece of aluminum foil. The foil illuminates the glow from the candles. My family likes it. My husband really likes it as he does not have to clean out the fireplace from any wood ashes. Might be another selling point for you.... ;)

Teresa D.

[MeridianXO]

*Soars through the air and lands on Hilandlas in a declawed kitty pounce*

You really like them? The last ones, I mean? Nobody commented on the last two (In the above post it's the first and third) so I thought everyone hated them (Hence me tweeking them more). Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I have two fireplaces (Well, one's a woodburning stove) and I use neither of them. Funny, huh? I actually like fire in fireplaces. I just have cats that seem to think that the fireplace is a place they can sleep and the dog thinks it's a, well, nevermind what the dog thinks. I'm always paranoid about a cat being in there when I light it. I just walk around the house lighting candles (Day and night). It looks like a cult lives in my house. :D

I think candles in a fireplace are beautiful. I've seen it in a couple of magazines. I accidentally made a candle (Sand candle) that served as a firestarter* when the wick was finished. Unfortunately, I didn't have it in my fireplace when I discovered this. :o

~Heather

*Firestarters are candles that aren't really candles people put in their fireplaces that put off much heat and rather high flames that aren't safe for anything BUT a fireplace or woodburning stove. They burn themselves out in ten to fifteen minutes. People also use them to light kindling for a fire.

[hcla]

I did'nt comment because I've been to busy, and haven't been on-line much, they are fantastic!!! I hope one day you make them available for purchase, I believe you could make a great buisness venture out of your talent, and the PEACE ones, well I really think should be ventured into as well, PEACE merchandise is a bit limited, light a candle, and brighten' a childs life.

[MeridianXO]

*Hugs HCLA* Thank you, hon. Now I feel better in regards to making these kinds of candles. I wasn't sure as they're totally new to me and to everyone else. I was thinking that maybe there's a reason nobody makes these candles. *haha*

I have a new idea for the PEACE ones....A new technique, I should say. We'll see how it goes when I get the money to actually buy the supplies needed for the new technique (Which isn't going to be anywhere near cheap or easy to acquire as I'd need a PEACE logo rubber stamp). I'm sure I could save a fortune if I just cheated and used decals or photo candle technique, but, where's the fun in that? I much prefer the design to either imprint or raise from the candle.

Oh, and I do fully intend on donating them to the charity once I get them to my liking. IF I get them to my liking. And IF I manage to get the supplies I need.*Grr*

I was going to donate the Source ones too, but, I accidentally fell in love with them and am currently using them to save on the electricity bill at night in regards to light for my house. At least, that's what I keep telling my kids whenever they ask, "What's with the swords and that guy all over these candle shells?". I just keep saying, "Oh, nevermind that. They're here for light." :o And boy, do those things put off light given a proper working votive candle in the center.


I promise, if I do any more Adrian candles, I'll donate them. Deal? I'd love nothing more than to make a ton of Adrian candles for the charity -- It's one of the ways I meditate...Well, not making Adrian candles, per se, but, candle making in general. It's why I do it. Well, that and ballet, but, I'm not dancing for chairty *haha* -- but, I just can't afford to do it all the time.

Did anyone figure out how to do tartan yet? :p

~Heather

[MeridianXO]

Okay, being as I haven't put anything here since 12-20, I'll update with a few more pics. It's not that I haven't made any candles, it's that I've been making a ton of stars lately (For orders locally) and haven't had the chance to take any of those pictures for what I'm selling. I still haven't taken any pics of what I'm selling. But, I made a few gifts during the holidays that I did take pics of first before giving them out.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_volt.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_candle-swiss.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_pyramid-1.jpg

I got an embossing gun and embossing powder/etc. for Christmas, so I did a ton of those experiments on candles as well. As far as embossing goes, I only have one on the net so far. Embossing is where you have a raised image or lettering (Usually reserved for letterhead) on a surface.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_peace1.jpg

This one I chose blue glitter embossing powder. I found that embossing a flat wax surface is easier if you don't want wax running all over the place. An embossing gun is essentially a heat gun which will melt wax faster than you can say 'Ouch' if you're not very quick. I also am using the embossing gun to do photo candles now. It's also good for logos. *Hint, hint*

I did other experiments that turned out rather disastrous, so I won't post those pics. I embossed celtic on ball candles, which looks alright if you don't mind dribbling candles. *haha* Like I said, flat surfaces are best. I can also do Cylinder shaped candles really well. But, it's almost impossible to keep a ball shape a ball shape when embossing.

~Heather

PS...I'm not very computer savvy, especially when it comes to graphics or photoshop. If someone can send me a page of tartan (Like the background on Mooseville), not just a small sqare .gif/.jpeg I can do a tartan candle. No, I'm still not over this whole tartan thing. *haha*

[hcla]

cooool!!!! Mabe you might consider putting some of your work on the new ebay thing for PEACE, I'd buy:) I've got some stuff I'm going to put up, I just gotta take time to learn how, it's so like me to take on too many projects at once, but now that I hired a new girl, she starts Monday, I'm going to have time to do all these projects!!! :D

[MeridianXO]

You wouldn't be the only one who needs to figure out how to do that sort of thing. :D

Thanks for the compliment. I really appreciate it. Sorry it took so long to respond. I've been way busy with a few new designs and didn't quite know how to answer as I'm much in the same boat busy-wise as you are. Except my busy isn't quite on the same level as yours. Mine's mostly kids, work (As in finding it), organizing (For some reason the people that live in my house think that I'm crowding important things out of it (Like food) with candle stuff), cleaning (You know how hard it is to clean up dirt and wax? I didn't either until recently :o ), and completing really weird orders for specific colors and scents, which don't seem to exist.

I plan on starting cut n' curl's in the very near future. We'll see how that goes. From what I understand, those types of candles are amongst the hardest to do. If, sorry, I'll be more positive...when I'm successful I'll post some pictures. In the meantime, I thought I'd throw up a really crappy picture (My camera crapped out so I'm left with someone else's for the time being without the use of my strobe *Sighs*) of stars.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_CandlesPEACE0052.jpg

These are in 'rustic' style, which is basically a 'cold pour' to get that 'rustic quality' look. They seem to be really popular where I'm selling them. Before I got the star mold, everyone was ordering pyramids (I got this really wicked new pyramid mold recently to go with my standard pyramid mold) in the rustic style.

~Heather

[hcla]

Busy, thats the story of My life, and man if its not one thing, it's another:) Anyways, I'm having a s..t time with My pc, I'm trying to complete My con report, rather the story, I keep re-writing it ,I'm sort of a perfectionist, and My mother has me setting up her Karoke equipment, and filling in for her at some of the local holes, which I hate, I'm a guitarist, not a singer, I should state that differently, I've played since I was 12, and studied music as a hobby, I hate to preform, but if I don't help her, she'll crash and burn, I hate bar sceanes, AND TO TOP IF OFF, my husband is crankey, and won't help me figure out how to get the stuff I want to donate to PEACE posted. My digital camera is skrewed up, and I can't fix it. Well now I've babbled, I'll go light a candle, LOVE THEM!!!! have a glass of wine and call it a day, good news My new girl is great, she made it through the week, does a great job, as I get use to not doing it all, mabe my brain will clear and I'll get all My projects done. Love your candles!!!!:)

[MeridianXO]

Since it's been about a month, I thought I'd post a few more pics of a few other candles I've been working on. Since I still haven't purchased another camera, I can't get pics of all the candles, but, I managed a few today.

I call this first one a mess. *haha* Kidding. It's art. *Coughs* Yeah, that's it. Art... Seriously, though. These are my versions of abstract.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_IMG_0484.jpg

And to show I'm not a total holiday prude, here are my St. Patrick's Day candles I've been working on. I even threw a few tarts into the photo. It smells like Clover something fierce in my home right now:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v327/MeridianXO/Candles/th_IMG_0486.jpg

~Heather

[MeridianXO]

Sorry about not putting any pictures up lately, guys. I've been uber super busy with other stuff lately and haven't had the time to design candles for show and tell. The candles I am doing presently have me going out full pelt at the moment and I just sanded my hand open with a metal rasp, so, er, yeah...Whoever said you couldn't bleed making candles has never been to my house. :D

I'm hoping that I'll have new designs to show here quite soon...After I'm finished with what I'm doing I'll get back on the 'fun design' wagon. Although, my roommate is saying something about wax and dirt covering his kitchen and that when I was finished with what I was doing now, he was throwing all candle stuff out. Silly man. *Wicked laugh*

~Heather

[hcla]

Just don't blow yourself up! And don't bleed all over the place, your roomate might complain...:D:) I think your candles are great, still want to see TARTAN.:)

[MeridianXO]

I haven't forgotten about bloody TARTAN. Though, I wish I had. *Grumbles*

I'm viewing it positively from here on out. If I master TARTAN candles, I'm soooo putting a patent on it. *j/k*

The bleeding has stopped now. Which is kind of good..I can get back to work now. I was fresh out of band aids, so I had to hold a cloth to my hand until it stopped. Luckily, I'm working with soy wax, so it doesn't irritate the skin any, not to mention, it's nowhere near as hot as parraffin. I had already poured up the parraffin part of these candles earlier, so I don't need to work with it the rest of the night. :cool:

~Heather

[renate]

sounds like you're into this Heather :)

Renate