Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Why a Blend?

I've had a lot of questions lately as to why I make my containers with a soy blend instead of just straight soy or paraffin. Well, my answer is very simple. I like them better blended. No, really, I do!

I've tested many waxes over the past couple of years. Straight soy and straight paraffin. I loved the look of the soy. Creamy and smooth. (Kind of like Butter!) Paraffin has it's own unique look and the scent throw is awesome. Soy is a fickle beast to work with. It frosts, it cracks and sometimes it just doesn't work well with a particular fragrance. for larger containers, you have to double wick.  Paraffin seemed to throw each fragrance very well, but it had too much soot. It also required re-pours and I simply do not have the patience for re-pours. So in an effort to find the best of both worlds, I blended them. I blend 80% pure soy with 20% paraffin. Voila! After some tweaking and patience I've come up with the perfect blend. They have the creamy appearance of soy without a lot of the fickleness. The paraffin smooths them out and and shortens the cure time. You then have a Wickful Things candle!

So what do you get from a Wickful Things candle? You get a strong smelling, beautiful candle that has little to no soot and lasts a long time. They burn all the way out to the edge with little to no hangup and wasted wax.

I may not be good at a lot of things but I make an AWESOME candle. I also make awesome soy tarts and melts for those who prefer pure soy. I like to think of my candles as mostly pure with a little bit of wicked. Just like me:-)

Friday, September 24, 2010

Certified Handmade Proud!

I finally received my certified handmade artifact. It only took 3 weeks but I'm happy all the same! On a different note, with fall here, I find myself sad because there is no Trueblood on Sunday nights. Oh, how I loved my Trueblood. I will just have to start endlessly at the HBO reruns for glimpses of Eric Northman. How sad am I???

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Woofstock 2010, Paws for the animals.

I'm working at Woofstock tomorrow in Riverfront Park, Harrisburg. It's gonna be a great time. There is supposed to be a lot of great animal friendly vendors, music, food and entertainment. If you are in the harrisburg area, stop by and enjoy.

It should be a beautiful day also. The weather is going to be sunny and warm. All proceeds go to benefit the animals and the Central Pennsylvania Animal Alliance. You can check them out here:

http://www.cpaa.info/


Gratuitous pic of my puppy!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

I bit the bullet...

I signed up for my first craft show. Alas, I'm biting the bullet so to speak.  So, in three weeks, I make the big craft show leap. A friend from work is helping the boyscouts with there harvest festival and she happens to love my candles so she asked me to do this. I agreed. We will see how it goes. I'm doing a lot of research to make sure I'm prepared to make this a fun and economical weekend. I've been making lists of things I will need and how much stock to bring. Any recommendation, let me know.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Really cool opportunity.

Artfire has announced a new group deal . With the sign up of 20,000 new pro accounts you will only have to pay $5.95 a month. That's a 10.00 savings. SO if you've been contemplating opening a pro-account, now is the time. If you don't have a current account just sign up for a free basic then do the upgrade to pro. It really is easy.

The tools on artfire are really awesome and easy to use. I think one of the best things is the fact you can link to your outside studios and websites. Buyers don't need an account to sign up.

Seriously, give it a try, you have nothing to lose!

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Modern Witches Tools for Success!




Craft Tutorials

I've been working very hard lately at revamping my website trying to make it more user friendly. Instead of links leading to etsy or artfire, I decided to keep everything on my website. At night, I've been putting together collections. It soothes me. Check out my latest. Make sure you give it 5 stars:-)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Doing less to do more.

This was posted on the Etsy reading list and I found it to be really good advice.

What are you going to do less of?

Not only is it really good advice for business but in our personal lives also. What in our lives are we spending perhaps too much of our energy on and need to scale back? When we are stressed and feel like there is too much going on, maybe we need to stop and think of ways we can lighten our load a little. Even if it's just cutting back and not giving up completely.

I thought, maybe I should give up my weekly obsession with chocolate and then thought, nah. I'll give up work before I do that.

Visit my studio at Wickful Things

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Something wicked..

I am so darn excited, I created my first collection on Artfire. I have to admire my handy work. Seriously cool collection.