Making our Candles Part 3

Finishing Off - Pillar Candles

Once the candle is out of the mould we check for blemishes. Some can be rubbed out with a tea towel. As the candles are solid colour all the way through and not dipped we can rub pretty hard to remove marks and flaws.

Small water bubbles or white marks can be removed by using a hairdryer. This essentially melts the wax a little but when it cools down again it returns to the colour of the wax used.

Waiting to be finished




Checking straightness and
smoothing the bottom

A word about bottoms:

The bottom of the candle is in fact the top that you saw in the open mould. It is usually quite rough and needs flattening and moothing off. Candles of 75mm diameter and more are gently placed on a metal heated plate that melts excess wax and smooths it down. 75mm and under go under the rotary saw to make sure they are straight.
We then place a sticker with all important burning and safety instructions on the base.



The saw

Cutting the candle base





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Polishing

TOP TIP!

I polish the finished candle with a shoe shiner which removes any smudges and fingermarks and gives it a beautiful sheen. Now all ready for packing.

Polishing the candle

Next time - not very exciting but I want to share how carefully every single candle is packed so it reaches you safely.

Making our Candles Part 2

Melting & Pouring - Pillar Candles

Whilst the moulds are being wicked the wax granules have been in a sort of bain-marie melting.
Any dye that needs to be added to the wax is added at this time and stirred in. This is dependent on the colour of candles that have been ordered.

Melting & Pouring area

Melting jugs in bain-marie

When the wax reaches 80-84 degrees Centigrade (depending on wax type used) it is ready to pour. But before we do we need to warm the moulds in a heater. They don't need to stay in for long; around 5-10 minutes, raising them to 30-35 degrees Centigrade.

Heating the moulds

Wax ready to be melted

Reaching the right temperature

Pouring

Still pouring

The wax is poured very carefully into the mould so as not to create air bubbles. We fill to to the very top taking care not to spill over. This is then left to cool, usually the next day. As the wax cools it shrinks and visibly dips in the centre. The candles need to be topped up - sometimes several times - being very careful not to come over the level of the original wax.


Wax poured to top

With larger candles the surface skin is pierced to prevent air bubbles inside the finished candle. See below:

Topping up - see how the wax has shrunk


When the candles are totally cooled they are ready for the big reveal.
Sealing putty and tape are removed from the bottom and the wick is again visible. A sharp tap should release the candle, but as often as not the candle needs to be placed in a fridge to cool a little more. It is then easier to release.

The Moment of Truth

This is the moment of truth. Until the candle is actually out of the mould we never know if it is a good candle or not. Some minor blemishes are natural with hand poured candles and we have ways of improving the finish (more on that next time). If they look as though they have been run over by a truck or aren't going to pass my quality control then it's back into the jug to be melted and made again. Sometimes little blemishes such as one teeny drop of water can cause enough of a blemish for me to refuse to send a candle out.

NEXT TIME: It's all about bottoms and finishing off

Making our Candles Part 1

Preparing the Moulds

I thought I would share with you the way we make our pillar candles. There are many steps and every candle is lovingly hand poured. We take great care every step of the way - there are so many things that can go wrong so we put a lot of effort into making sure things go as smoothly as possible.





Clean aluminium moulds on the shelf




Wick (cotton) is inserted into hole in mould



Wick is pulled through and wick pin is pushed through the wick

The wick pin holds the wick central and straight

Mould is turned upside down to secure the wick

Wick is secured using plastic tape



White tac is used to seal wick down (to stop wax escaping after it is poured in)

Mould is now ready for the pouring process (see other shapes in background)


NEXT TIME: Melting and Pouring

Candles for Spring and some new colours

Well it seems as though Spring is well and truly here. The sun is shining , the sky is blue and all the daffs and primroses are out and all is good with the world.

See our new egg candles - made of mottled wax but of course we can make any colour you like (although the mottled wax works best in a cream colour). These will go down well for Easter.

With all this talk of primroses we have a brand new Primrose Yellow candle - such a fresh, happy colour. This along with a new Purple, Peppermint Green, Lime Green, Peach and Raspberry.



Primrose Yellow



Peach



Peppermint Green



Purple



Raspberry



As always we can make any shape or size from our repertoire in the colour of your choice! We now have 37 colours to choose from as well as our colour matching service which is going really well, especially for brides who can't find the colour candles in the shops. I love to think that in a small way, we are part of their wedding day.

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Peach candle arrangement by Sharon of S Cooper Floral Design

Primrose Yellow 50mm Trio

Happy New Year!

A belated but nonetheless very Happy New Year to to you all.

We have just had our first Xmas and experienced the rush. To be honest we had no idea what to expect but about 5 weeks before Xmas the order started flying in. We hardly had time to stop and take a breath. Thanks to eveyone who placed orders with us. Royal Mail did us proud, unlike a courier company who shall remain nameless, that we dropped a few weeks prior to Xmas. As far as we are aware only one parcel never arrived over the holiday period and most arrived at their destinations in double quick time according to our ebay feedback.

Then just as suddenly as it had started the orders stopped. It seems that although we were geared up to keep going at a mnaic pace until the last first class post had departed on 21st December the majority of customers stopped a week before that. It was a gentle last week of posting but our aim was to fulfill all orders and we succeeded.

After a  lovely festive break we expected January to be really quiet but 'No'. New Years Eve the order started flooding in again (maybe because it was a Saturday and everyone was hitting the Internet before getting ready for their New Year's celebrations. And it hasn't stopped since. So much for being able to take a breath and do a stock take and a spring clean. (I'm sure we will get around to all that at some time)

And now we are in the midst of preparing for Valentines Day. We ordered some moulds from Germany as they seem a lot more into candles than we are with amazing selections of moulds and fantastic ideas wbout what to do with a basic candle. The moulds arrived last week and here are our Valentines candles - again a huge thank you to Sharon of S. Cooper Floral Design, who has made them look extra pretty!


Pillar Heart




3D Heart



















These are available on our site www.glocandles.co.uk

KSYP4JAMX8RS

Where are the elves?

Well the last few weeks have been so busy with the Christmas rush. Glo Candles have also celebrated our first year in business.

Right now I could really do with some elves to help out. Phil has been making candles flat out and I have been polishing and shining them before packing with the utmost care. There are certainly going to be some totally unique candles in people's homes this Christmas.

We now have large balls (wax ones) measuring 120mm in diameter and currently one display in Hampshire and a similar size but in the round pillar variety will be making an appearance on Christmas Day in another part of the country.

Phil is busy producing some candles to go with a customer's new decor. we sent some samples to her after she told us the Dulux paint she was using and have colour matched a unique candle colour for her.

Sharon of S. Cooper Contemporary Floral Design has been creating some lovely decorations with some of our candles - a couple of them are here! Thanks Sharon - they are amazing!

The elves still haven't turned up so it's on with hand finishing and packing for me.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas - there will be a few more Glo Candles burning this year.

Jane x

Autumn Showcase Weekend at the Wedding Warehouse

Last weekend we attended the Wedding Warehouse's Autumn Showcase.
What a fantastic weekend!

We had a small table displaying some trios and a wonderfully constructed frame to display our 32 colours that Phil had made especially for the occasion.

We were sited next to a chocolate fountain (dangerously close!) - have you ever tried Cheddar Cheese covered in Belgian milk chocolate? The majority of visitors seemed to head straight for the chocolate tasting thus hiding our candles on occasions when a queue formed. Although hopefully some of them may have spotted our offerings.

On our other side was the wonderful Jess from the George Albert Hotel near Dorchester. www.gahotel.co.uk/ She was a mine of information and ideas and a wonderful person to boot. The hotel sounds amazing and we will have to visit at some point in the not too distant future. Their outlook, unlike hotels that I am familiar with is flexibility and truly listening to what people want rather than telling them what they should/can have. This seems to be true for the way they treat their staff too.

Another exhibitor of note was the gorgeous Rebecca from Bladon House. http://www.bladonhouse.net/ She runs a B&B with her husband in a beautiful house in an amazing setting. A true focus on quality and hospitality with her guests she has now ventured in to the world of weddings. They have a barn that is simply crying out to host weddings, in fact parties of any description and she seemed to take a shine to our candles as well! I truly wish Rebecca every success - she is such a sweetheart.

Now on to an amazing florist called Sharon of S Cooper Floral Designs. http://www.cooperfloraldesign.co.uk/ Such a lovely person and so dedicated to her art. She does the most amazing displays and on the second day brought in a square glass stand; took one of our candles and designed some flowers around it. She is entering a competition next weekend in Birmingham and I wish her every success.



  

One of Sharon's arrangements and her matching candle decoration
Flowers by Sharon - candle is ours



Close up of our candle with Sharon's magic!






As if this wasn't enough - we also hooked up with Sally Hooper - incredibly elegant and mad about hats! She has been in business 14 years (an old timer compared to us) and has been making her own for the last 2 years. As well as making bespoke hats and fascinators she hires out for weddings and special occasions. A wonderful idea - and s much more economical than buying a hat you will only ever wear the once. She is passionate about her hats and this comes across. A really eye for what suits people and an honesty (in a really nice way) makes her unique. I believe she has over 500 hats in her collection and just wonder where she keeps them all. http://www.hoopershats.co.uk/

We also met some terrific photographers, a wonderful; jeweller and a great florist at Flower Magic who specialises in silk floral arrangements of all sorts from a small arrangement to arches covered in flowers that look real, right down to the dew on them! www.flowermagicflowers.co.uk/



And another passionate and incredibly hard working soul - a lovely lady called Ola of Dreaming Monkeys. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dreaming-Monkeys/228233600521734 She is lively and enthusiastic about all things crafty. She makes beautiful hand made invitations, patchwork quilts, dabbles in all sorts of other crafty things and is taking a giant leap next Saturday by opening her first shop in Salisbury. She is interested in having workshops running there so if anyone is interested in displaying their talents in front of the general public let me know and I'll put you in touch. Good luck with the opening Ola!



Last but not least a big thank you to Nicky and Richard at the New Inn at Dowlish Wake near Ilminster http://www.newinn-ilminster.co.uk/ (home of Perrys Cider). We stayed over on Saturday night and the welcome we had was lovely and Richard's cooking was amazing! We ate and drank far too much it was a good thing we were only there for one night.

All in all a great weekend and Phil and I have been inspired and are thrilled to have met so many great people.





The Glo Candle flame is ignited

I had been in one job for a very long time and had been looking for something new – something to excite me and give me a reason to get up in the morning (without dread). Phil and I started our journey one day whilst looking for a candle shop in which to buy some candles – hoping to find some candles that are a little bit different from the ones you can get in supermarkets, Ikea or department stores. Not having much luck in parking on such a search in Glastonbury we carried on to a lovely little town (sadly dying as a result of a major superstore on the outskirts) called Shepton Mallet. Shops were empty and we thought how great it would be have a shop in such a lovely community – all the shopkeepers were so friendly and so keen to see the town thrive again. We went away thinking maybe retail was something we should consider but it took another week or two to come up with a product that excited us.
I have always adored candles. From using them to provide light during the power cuts in the early 70s to dripping wax down the outside of numerous wine bottles as a teenager a few years later. Our thought process followed this route… if we can’t buy the sorts of candles we like then why not make our own. So we started making candles in one of our bedrooms in the Mendip Hills in November 2010. Loving the candles we were making we decided we wanted to share them with everyone. Not ready to embark on a shop we thought the best way to start would be with an ebay shop so we set one up. The flame of Glo Candles had been ignited!

What a week - preparations and hiccups

What a week (or two) we have had!
We have been preparing for the Autumn Showcase to be held at the Wedding Warehouse in Martock on Saturday and Sunday 22nd and 23rd October. It is their first wedding fair and we are delighted to be able to take part. We have had some nice fliers printed locally by a smashing company called MoneyGivers. Great job John and Tim! (Sadly they didn't actually give us any money and I received an invoice... )
The fliers are aimed at the wedding market and are shown on my last blog except now they are tarted up and glossy on both sides. We aim to take a selection of candles but not too many. I think our experience is growing and less is more otherwise our stall ends up loooking like a car boot sale.

On top of creating some nice candles for this event the orders have been rolling in. All of a sudden everyone wants big chunky candles! And black is a definite favourite along with a sprinkling of orange with Halloweeen just around the corner.

The hiccup has been that our lovely black candles made with a new wax have decided not to burn as well as normal. The flame is small and in spite of trying a few different wicks we are looking a why this could be. Too much dye pigment is a possible answer and it only seems to be with the black candles (thank heaven). So Phil has been scratching his head and tearing his hair out and now the fab people at 4Candles are involved. They are sending us some new wicks and a new dye they are trialling. We don't mind being guinea pigs in the slightest and tehy couldn't be more helpful so watch this space. In the meantime I have taken black candle listings off ebay just to be on the safe side. Am sure the candle magician will have it all sorted in a wink of an eye.

Almost immediately following the Autumn Showcase we have a day at Comet Customer Service Centre showing our wares to the staff there. Hopefully will get some nice orders and make some new friends.
Well that's it for now - on with the show!

A busy summer

It has been such a busy summer. Phil has been making candles from dawn till dusk and we now have 31 clours, 32 if you count the wedding candles we did for a Somerset wedding recently.

We have launched our colour matching service. It seems so many people have trouble finding the colour candles to match wither an outfit or their decor so we are asking for swtaches to be sent to us. We will then produce 3 different wax samples for our customer to choose from. At the moment this service is free but there are plans to make a charge in the near future.

And speaking of weddings - we are going to be working with The Wedding Warehouse, based in Martock, Somerset as from 1st October. A fantastic place run by John and Jenny - website details http://weddingwarehousesomerset.com/

Everything for organising a wedding under one roof. A business that has got it just right and is contantly moving forwards - for the good of their customers and quality of service. The will be sending out our wedding leaflet with their Wedding packs on our behalf and we hope to be attending their Autumn Wedding Showcase at the end of October. And here is a sneak preview of our leaflet!




Front Page

 




Reverse

  We are working on some new floating candles - Glo Floaters -  to be released next month - another sneak preview here

The whole range of colours will be available and in several different shapes. Sooo pretty!!

Well that's it for now - more candles to finish and carefully pack and take to the Post Office. A quick mention here for the lovely folks at Blagdon Post Office - always so cheerful and ever helpful.

Watch this space for more news on new candles - we have a few surprises coming up shortly.

All the best

Jane