Gel Candle Designs: Glowing Gemstone Gel Candles with Soy Wax base.

Glowing Gemstone gel candles… made with a base of Soy Wax.

Glowing Gemstone Gel Candles with Soy Wax base

Soy wax is one of the newest crazes to hit the candle community.

Soy wax is made from soy beads and a 100% vegetable product. It is opaque and very much resembles white paraffin however comes in ‘flake’, form to easy to pour into a pot to melt.

Soy burns longer than paraffin, however not as long as gel.

Soy wax is not very ‘user-friendly’ when it comes to melding with our candle colors. Thus, you are going to have mostly pastel colors in soy candles.

The best news is that soy wax can take up to 1.5 ounces of fragrance per pound of wax. So this is your best choice for customers who want extreme scent, and are willing to pay the added cost. Soy is said to burn much cleaner and without ’soot’ so is an environment-friendly product, a plus for naturalists.

Glowing Gemstone Gel Candles with Soy Wax base - top view

For our Glowing Gemstone Candles, we selected glassware which has a wide mouth, for the presentation of our gemstone ‘topper’, which we will create and want to attractively show off, since this is the focal point of our candle.

The theme of these candles is a more ‘natural’ and elegant candle.

The base is going to be soy, and then placing gel ‘cubes’ on the top along with our Illuminary Embed ’stones’.

Place this candle in the light during the day… and at night, before lighting, the stones will reflect and give a beautiful presentation. Once again, a design that is unique and interesting.

This seems to be an age when rocks and crystals are very popular… with our added celestial glitters; we can make them simply stunning and beautiful.

First thing we need to do is melt, color and scent a small amount of gel which is going to be our gel ‘rocks’ on top of the candle. (If you choose, you can embed these throughout the candle; however, to have the clean burn from the soy wax, we have simply placed them on the top for show and theme.)

NOTE: Many grocery stores have ‘microwave pots’, usually brown, which have pouring spouts on the sides. These come in several sizes and are perfect to pour gel to color and scent.

We colored a small batch (about a pound) with pastel blue and another with green.

We are creating a blue top which we will name “Blue Lace Agate & Turquoise” scented with Blue Lagoon fragrance; and a green top which we will name “Green Quartz & Jade” scented with Juniper Breeze. (If you struggle with the names for stones, www.craftstones.com has a beautiful color catalogue naming a couple hundred stones with pictures. Of course you could even add some real stones into your ‘rock topper’ if you wish.)

Gemstone Gel Candles with Soy Wax base

Ok, back to our candle. We leave the colored and scented gel in our microwave pots to set up for later use. (This is also the way to make clear ice cubes for your drink candles…simply use scissors to easily cut the shapes you want.)

Next we melt our Soy Wax and scent it. We are leaving the soy wax white to contrast nicely with our rock top. Attach your wick to the bottom of the glassware to hold it in place. Soy does take much longer to set than gel. Pour the glass container and allow cooling. Keep checking the wick during the setting time to make sure it remains centered and straight. Since the soy is opaque, it isn’t as crucial to make sure the wick is perfectly straight; however you do want it centered and correctly positioned for a professional candle.

When the candle is completely opaque and solid, it is time to create the magic with our ’stone topper’. This is the fun part. Using scissors cut the gel you previously scented and cooled into various shapes to appear like stone/crystals, and place them random on the top of the soy. Then place your illuminary rocks around the gel cubes. Next we lightly dusted with some gold celestial glitter to give that magic, elegant sparkle.

The final step is to re-melt a small quantity of scented soy wax. Carefully pour a very thin layer on the top of the candles, making SURE you fill in the nooks and crannies to adhere your stones to the candle. NOTE: You do NOT want to pour this soy OVER your rocks because that would give them a white coating. You want the pure look of the gel, which looks like glass and uncovered illuminary stones so that they will reflect at night. This pour is simply to attach your rock topper to the candle and only needs to be about ¼” thick at the most.

Trim your wick to ¼” inch and you have a fabulous Glowing Gemstone Candle. Remember to attach tags to name the stones. You can use pink gel for Rose Quartz, clear gel for Moonstones, dark blue for Lapis, purple for Amethyst…just for some other examples.

Select stunning pieces of glassware with open, wide mouth for the display of your rock topper and don’t forget to add the shimmer of glitter, for that magic touch.

So these are fun and easy candles to present for the holidays! We’ve tried to give lots of extra ‘information’ this month, for those who have not already worked with Soy Wax yet.

So enjoy and have fun… using your creativity…. and sharing your talents!

Article & Design by Patti Smith, Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply ~ www.biomax1.com

Gel Candle Designs: Father’s Day /Sports Candles

For our all-around sports-loving Dads, we create Father’s Day sporting gel candles.

Gel Candle Golf Design

We chose a piece of glassware with large enough diameter so we could embed a baseball, football, basketball and soccer ball.

We used neon green gel in the bottom of the glassware to resemble the ‘grass’ effect, pour and allow to set up. Next we pour clear gel scented with HUSKY GUY FO.

Since the sports embeds are lightweight, we allowed the gel to set and thicken so we could then embed and position them where we want, for an attractive visual appeal.

If you have Dad’s with particular team favorites.. use colored sands (don’t forget the safety glass bead on the wick above the sand layer) to represent the team colors and attach team stickers to the outside of the glassware for those ‘custom orders’.

So Simple. and quick sales!

Article & Design by Patti Smith, Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply ~ www.biomax1.com

Gel Candle Designs: Easter Chick Nests

In line with the present craze of dessert candles, we are finding more and more ways to combine the features of paraffin and gel together for very creative, handcrafted gel candles.

This month we feature the EASTER CHICK NEST candles-cute little hatched chicks hovering over jelly beans and Easter grasses in a neat little green paraffin nest, which you can form yourself merely with a 5″ pie tin, some green paraffin and a glass dessert cup.

And here is how to do it!

We used green paraffin… just because Easter is green ))

Pour the melted wax to fill the pie tin about half full. (The tin acts as your mold).

Use your favorite Easter scent — we chose Jelly Bean FO.

Since we are in Ohio and the temperatures are still cool, we can set the pie tins out of doors to speed up the initial set. We want the top of the paraffin to ’skin over’. When it has done this go to the next step… which is to create the cavity for the ‘nest’.

Create a slight nick in the skin of the paraffin and gently set a glass custard dish down into the paraffin and center it in the pie tin. Don’t push down too far because you want a medium thick floor in your nest. The displacement of the glass insert will cause the paraffin to climb up the side wall of the pie tin.

Return the tin to cool temperatures and allow to totally harden.

When it has completely cooled, you can easily pull the wax from the tin and remove the glass insert. VALLLAAA! you have a cute little green nest!!

We used our B.E.T. (BioMax Embedding Tool) to pierce a hole in the bottom of the nest so we can thread the wick thru the bottom of the nest.

Next we place some chunks of unmelted gel in the nest and overpour scented gel to fill the nest and create the body of the candle, allowing it to partially set.

Next we mixed stearic with dyes to make pastel pink (using hot pink neon powder), green (neon green powder) and purple (liquid dye) to create our variety colors of Easter grass for our Chicks to sit on.

Sprinkle the ‘grasses’ on the gel and set three wax chicks around the wick.

Then we added a few wax jelly beans.

Our final step is to drizzle some clear gel over the top of the chicks, grass and jelly beans to create the gloss and ‘fresh hatched’ look.

To package our Chick Nest, we added some commercial Easter grass to our clear 6″ box. great for shipping too!

Enjoy and Have Fun!

Article & Design by Patti Smith, Design Artist
BioMax Candle Supply ~ www.biomax1.com

Gel Candle Designs: Humorous Sea Candles

Humorous Seascape Gel Candle Design

Here is a fun candle that can bring a smile to anybody’s face. We refer this to be a crazy gel candle.

It’s not a candle that replicates a nature scene, but a candle that is created out of the clear blue.

Just one day an idea pops into your head and voila! A crazy type candle appears. And it sells! Can’t argue with that!

This fun candle was just that, out of the blue.

When I first showed it to my wife she said,” How in the heck did you come up with that idea? I said,” I dun no, it just happened.” And that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! It just happened, really it did!

You see, when we buy embeds, we don’t always know what were going to do with them.

Sea Embeds

We place them in inventory.. and when the light goes on, it’s things like this that can happen. And this is what you’ll need to do this candle:

• 4 oz ivy bowl
• Blended white sand (ref. our turtle article in the may issue)
• Glass crab (RusticEscentuals.com)
• Fish on a wire
• Aluminum Soda can assortment (craft store – usually with the doll house area)
• Tiny seashells
• Coral pieces
• Gelwick
• Wick stickum
• 1 Pd Penreco MP Gel
• Scent

Step 1

First thing you want to do is glue the soda can to the crab. I use an adhesive called E6000. It works great on broken glass embeds as well as this project. I glued the can to the top of the left claw. Let this cure for at least 24 hours.

Step 2

You can prepare the rest of the candle while your crab gets a rest. Attach your wick just slightly off center towards what we call the background of the scene with a wick stickum. Add your sand mixture to the bowl.

Step 3

Now we need to get our fish ready. We need to bend the wire a little so the fish will be looking at the soda offering. I use 2 pair of needle nose pliers for bending. The wire appears to be like piano wire and is rigged. Using two pliers to form the bend takes pressure of the glass base. Through error, I have broken the base of these fish many times by trying to bend the wire without the help of an extra tool. If the base does crack for some reason, you can glue it back together using the E6000 adhesive.

Step 4

Set your coral and what ever else you would like to add to the scene. Don’t forget that this stuff will be in the background of the scene. Add your fish placing it close to the front of the glass. Add more sand if the scene needs it. When the crab has dried, you can add it to the candle. Now, this is important to remember, this needs to be placed also to the front of the candle in an angle. Why is this important you asked? Well, lets take a closer look at the soda can. It is made of aluminum, but the printing is on a thin aluminum label. We want this well away from the extreme heat of the candle. It’s a matter of safety. There is no effect to the can label when placed properly in the candle. I placed a flame from a lighter under the can and nothing happened to it. The label didn’t melt or burn. But, when doing projects like this, you need to be concerned with the safety issues. Don’t ever assume it should be ok. Just make sure when you purchase these, that they are the aluminum style cans. I don’t have the name brand for these, but by the time you read this, I will have purchased more for inventory. Email us and we will be glad to give you the name of the manufacture. What also helps with our project is the wick we use. We use the brand called gelwick. They were designed to be used with Penreco Gels and have a petite flame. It’s a perfect wick for your gel candles.

Step 5

Now that your candle is ready, it’s time to melt your gel. For us it’s the same old story. It doesn’t matter how many or how little candles we make at a shot, we melt our gel by the pound. This way the scent can be weighed correctly eliminating any other possible hazards. When your gel is ready, pour your scent in and stir. This is another area some people just don’t get. And I read and hear about this issue all the time. You need to really stir your scent in to get a proper mix. It doesn’t matter that your adding more air bubbles. The bubbles can be worked out. A little oven work or a heat gun remedies this minor problem. Like our Turtle hatchling project, we used our scent blend called Island Dreams and for the others we used mango, coconut and another one of our blends called Mystic. We found mild scents sell good with candles like these.

Conclusion

Well, we hope you enjoyed our crazy candle project and that it brings you either some personal enjoyment or sells great for you like it has for us. Don’t forget, if you screw up, it’s easy to do again. One thing for sure is, projects like these can take the edge of a hectic day. Call it therapy if you like, I like to call it just plain getting crazy. At least my wife says so. I’m guessing I need help. Oh well! Enjoy!

By Ron Giordan of Mystic Candles