Craft Central

Here is the workstation that Grant and I set up for making candles. This batch is Georgia Peach and smells absolutely yummy. The ones farthest from the camera are the container candles, the ones in the metal are votives. We are still struggling a bit with the second pour of the wax; the first pour usually shrinks a bit as it sets, leaving a slight (or not so slight) well around the wick. The candles closest to the camera have just been poured, so you can see the difference between the hot and cooled wax. The first couple of times we didn't have enough wax for a second pour, this time we filled the candles too much. But they are burning pretty well and smell great!

I also am experimenting with making bath salts. The first batch I made wasn't nearly fragrant enough once they dissolved into the bath water. They sure smelled strong enough before. Most of the recipes I have found suggest 5-10 drops of fragrance, but that is obviously not enough. I also prefer a finer salt, so I decided to try using an old coffee grinder to make the Dead Sea salts finer. That experiment worked well, but I realized that with finer salt, I would have a harder time distributing the fragrance throughout the mixture. My solution was to mix the fragrance (considerably more than the recipes suggest) with oil. I used Sunflower oil with a bit of Vitamin E oil and mixed about a tablespoon with about a 1/4 teaspoon of fragrance. I also discovered that the best way to mix it all up is to use my hands. They smell very nice, thank you. Anyway, my bath last night was better, but I think I want to experiment with a bit more oil and maybe a tiny bit more fragrance.

I feel like a scientist. I will try not to blow anything up.