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Ron Giordani of Mystic Candles
The one
thing that my wife Ruth and I figured out is, when it
comes to gel
candles, the sky is the limit with your creativity.
There are
so many candles that can be made with the help of your
imagination or some idea nature shares with us.
What we
did here was create a simple candle that brings out
the "Awhhh! How cute!" from almost everyone
that has seen it.Nature played a big hand with this
candle with some imagination tucked in there. Simple!
I wanted
the candle to have a natural setting. while giving the
appearance of an actual hatching and not going overboard
on the scene.
To do
this you'll need the following items:
4oz Ivy Bowl
White Aquarium sand (use a good quality sand as cheaper
brands tend to bleed)
Natural color or play sand
Ceramic Turtle hatchling (www.rusticesentuals.com or
www.silkytyme.com)
1pound of Penreco MP Gel
Gel Wick
Pebbles
Very small seashells
Your favorite gel candle safe scent.
Step1
We start by placing the wick in the Ivy bowl. We use
wick stickums to keep the wick in place. For those of
you who do not know what they are, these are a double-sided
tape cut in a circle to match your wick tab.
Step2
Using a clean bowl or glass. I mix equal amounts of
white and play sand together. The objective here is
to create tropical color sand. You can use your own
judgment on how light or dark you want to make your
mix. When you are satisfied with your sand mix, pour
some into the Ivy bowl.
Tilt the
bowl on and angle to make like a sand dune on the beach.
Set the jar on your workbench. I then added the turtle
on the left side of the bowl, placing it midway in the
sand dune. Using a spoon, I took more of the sand mixture
and gently placed it around the eggshell while building
areas up behind and under the turtle. You can design
this anyway you like.
Now you
can add some pebbles behind the turtle and scatter some
small seashells for a shoreline affect. You can also
add some sea grass, use a little green sand in small
areas behind the turtle or find something like small
rustic tin vines from a craft shop to give a dead seaweed
appearance. Take your time and blend your scene together.
If you don't like how your candle appears, start over!
Remember.
The whole idea is to create something that looks natural.
Step
3
Use gel candle safe scent. You can use coconut, mango
or some other tropical type scent to tie in this candle
scene. We use our own custom blend called Island Dreams
in this design.
Step
4
Now that you decided
what scent to use, it's time to heat up your Gel. While
the Gel heats up, you can use a heat gun at the middle
or the low setting to pre-warm the glass and embed to
help reduce the amount of air bubbles.
When your
Gel is heated and scent has been added and mixed well,
slowly pour your hot Gel over the sand until it's covered.
Let this
cool. This step
helps keep the sand locked in place and reduces air
purging from the sand. I sometimes wait for an hour
before I pour the remaining Gel. It also depends on
how many candles I've got to do. I've also gone as far
as to finish the pour the next day.
Final
Step
When it's time
to heat the Gel back up, we like to heat it up slowly
so we don't burn off too much scent. Gently warm the
glass and the top of the gel from the first pour with
a heat gun at the low setting. When your Gel reaches
pouring temperature, fill your candle to your desired
height.
Conclusion
This candle will bring a smile to you and your customers.
Just looking at the candle. you can almost visualize
this little turtle scampering to the warm waters of
the ocean, to start a life long journey of exploration
of it's new world.
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Turtles
courtesy RusticEscentuals
http://www.RusticEscentuals.com
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Turtles
courtesy SilkyTyme
http://www.SilkyTyme.com
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