Stop by and visit us at the First World Candle Congress and Trade Show in Orlando, FL on April 20-23, 2004. We’ll be in Booth # 224. Be sure to drop by and meet some of your Candlewic friends.

We are proud to announce that our highly anticipated catalog has been printed and mailed to all of our customers. We are more than happy to include a free 80 page full-color catalog in with your order.

We have several big announcements that will be in the next few newsletters. Please be sure to keep your eyes open for some spectacular events here at Candlewic. We have some exciting things going on that will allow us to service our customers in a truly unprecedented way. This month we would like to introduce the preliminary stages of our ultimate guide to candle making website, which launched this week. It is packed with information. We are continually adding information, so please ask Chandler if you have topics you would like to read about. Next month we have an even larger announcement, so stay tuned…

Candle Making Trends

Every successful candle maker knows the value of trends. It may not always mean copying the latest trend. It might mean starting trends, keeping up with trends, recycling old trends, and knowing what may be the next big trend next year. It is not uncommon to try every stage of the trend cycle throughout a typical candle making career, and figure out where the best niche may be found. Regardless of where the candle maker finds himself or herself on the trend curve, it is important to understand a few concepts about the trend phenomena.

There are two main places to find candle trends – inside and outside of the industry. These two places are a great start. They sound obvious and a bit broad, but sometimes simple is smarter.

Inside the industry you can look at what other candle makers are doing and try to come up with something slightly more forward or original. Whether you are at a huge international tradeshow, a small town fair, or in a retail store that sells your candles, it never hurts to take a walk around and see what is going on in your marketplace. Ingest more than just the other candle makers and try to get a pulse of all the other craft or gift items that surround your candles. Look at what other successful items are doing in your selling atmosphere and see if there are any lessons that can be learned or integrated into your candles. If you see a hot gift item, try to figure out a way to appeal to the same person using your candle. There are several giftware, craft, and hobby magazines available to the trade. Sign up for a few, if for nothing else other than to page through it quickly over lunch. It is amazing how a few minutes perusing an industry magazine can get you fairly caught up.

Outside the industry is even broader. You can find inspiration in so many forms, so we’ll just mention a few. One very good place is to search in the interior design industry. There are countless magazines, websites, TV shows, and retails stores dedicated to home interior design. Be sure to frequent a few different types in order to get a good bird’s eye of the entire industry and not just one faction. Another unsuspecting place is the fashion industry. People often wear clothes as a reflection of their personality and monitoring fashion will help tap that side of today’s culture. Another place to look is the auto industry. It sound’s a bit silly but the 2nd decision a person makes after deciding what car to drive, is the color. There may not be a lot of value in mimicking the colors but you can get a pulse of the types of colors people are buying. As always, be sure to look at the types of stores and magazines that appeal to the types of consumers that adopt technology and gadgets when they first hit the stores (these people are called “early adopters”). Today’s new item may be tomorrow’s big thing. These are just a few examples but they exhibit a good model on how to think in an entirely new way outside of the gift industry.

As of the time of this article was written in 2004, natural trends seem to be developing in some parts of the industry. Candle makers are using earth tone colors in their candles to reflect some of the increasing awareness for our natural surroundings that today’s consumer may be thinking about more so than decades past (It took years of an owl telling us not to pollute but thankfully over time it actually sank in). Candlewic has added new earth tone colors available in color blocks and liquid dyes to reflect these preferences. Another trend is natural waxes. Although they perform differently than traditional paraffin, some candle makers are finding value in offering them along side their paraffin waxes as a complement to their offering. Pillar candles made with aluminum molds and designer polycarbonate molds seem to be doing well for candle makers looking to expand outside of the traditional container candle. They are used in many formal interiors where they could sit on a mantle for years as a decorative piece, and may never get burned (henceforth the reason why UV light absorber is so important).

CHANDLERS CORNER

Hi! I'm Chandler! I can help you learn how to make candles.

What's all the Buzzzz?

Every month I get a fair amount of questions asking about beeswax sheets. Whether you are a large manufacturer, or a home hobbyist, it is truly amazing to sit down with kids, friends, family, and coworkers to roll and burn candles made with sheets as a way to enjoy each other’s company, or to make candles that can be sold for profit. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of the beeswax sheets they are exactly what they sound like – sheets of beeswax, but they come in a variety of patterns and colors. Typically a square braid wick is used for rolling beeswax and the type of wick depends on the size of the finished candle. I recommend you get a roll of a small, a medium, and a large wick to start (4/0, 1/0, and #2). We have books available that show the many wonderful things you can do with beeswax sheets. I recommend BK-3, BK-4, and BK-5 to get started. Not sure which to try? I suggest getting a sampler pack of mixed colors and textures. You do not have a choice of color or style, but it is usually a good sampling across the board and it comes with a free book. For those of you who are patriotic, we have a small kit that comes complete with instructions and wick for making a great red, white, and blue pillar that looks like the American flag.

We hope you enjoyed this issue of the En-Light-ener.
Thank you for your continued interest and support.
Our goal is to make this newsletter as entertaining and educational as possible.
Let us know if you have any ideas on how we can improve.

Candlewic Company
825 Easton Road
Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901

 

Issue Index

October 2009 -- Taking the Scary out of Candle Making, Snowball Candle Project, and more...

September 2009 -- 4 Quick Tips to Improve Your Candle Line, Layered Candle Project, and more...

August 2009 -- Is Big Always Better?, Cookie Cutter Candle Making Project, and more...

July 2009 -- How to Set Candle Prices, All Natural Beeswax Garden Flare Candle Making Project, and more...

June 2009 -- 5 Tips for Avoiding Margin Drain, Tri-Color Candle Making Project, and more...

May 2009 -- How To Select a Candle Wick, Chunk Candle Making Project, and more...

April 2009 -- Candle Making Ideas for Summer, Candle Making Projects, and more...

March 2009 -- Mold Techniques in Candle Making, A Simple Candle Project, and more...

February 2009 -- Setting the Right Mood Year Round, Tealight Candle Project, and more...

January 2009 -- Reacquainting Yourself with Candle Making Waxes, Tri-Color Candle Project, and more...

December 2008 -- 12 Days of the Candle Making Business, Candle Making Projects, and more...

November 2008 -- Candle Making Business Cliches, Miracle Molding Material Projects, and more...

October 2008 -- Candle Making Terms Explained, How To Make Mottling Candles, and more...

September 2008 -- Adding on to Your Candle Lines, How To Make Candle Luminaries, and more...

August 2008 -- Candles & Their Fragrances, How To Make Pillar Candles, and more...

July 2008 -- Sunscreen For Your Candles, How To Make Dipped Tapers, and more...

June 2008 -- Fall Candle Season Starts Now, Extraordinary Candle Making Project, and more...

May 2008 -- Green Candle Making, Green Candle Projects, and more...

April 2008 -- Recent Candle Industry Price Increases, Aluminum Mold Candle Project, and more...

March 2008 -- Straight Wax, Exciting New Candle Making Products, and more...

February 2008 -- Business Side of Candle Making, Ice Candle Project, and more...

January 2008 -- Basics of Blended Wax Candles, Rose Floater Candle Project, and more...

December 2007 -- 12 Days of Business, 2007 Candle Making Projects, and more...

November 2007 -- Show Time for Candle Making, Making Snow Candles, and more...

October 2007 -- Ready, Set, GO candle making, Candle Luminaries, and more...

September 2007 -- GREENING Your Product Line and Your Bottom Line…, One-Pour Candle Tins, and more...

August 2007 -- Candle Making's Center of Focus, Making Streak Candles, and more...

July 2007 -- The Latest in Candle Making Products, Votive Candle Project, and more...

June 2007 -- Setting Your Candles' Sale Price, Summer Candle Projects, and more...

May 2007 -- Determining Your Candle Making Costs, Using Extra Candle Wax, and more...

April 2007 -- Natural Wax Buzz Part 2, Layered natural candles, and more...

March 2007--Crucial details of candle making, Candle projects with no melting required, and more...

February 2007--How to choose a candle making mold, Making custom candle molds, and more...

January 2007--"Green" Candle Making, tri-color jar candle project, and more...

December 2006--Looking into the candle making future, 2006 candle projects, and more...

November 2006--Introducing...a candle making introduction, candle projects, and more...

October 2006--Prime time: candle wicks, taper candle projects, and more...

September 2006--Clearly still here:Gel candle making, one-pour tins, and more...

August 2006--Fragrance - the driving force of candle making, a new contest, and more...

July 2006--Planning your production, using granulated wax, and more...

June 2006--Our 35th Year, using aluminum candle molds, how much candle fragrance to use, and more...

May 2006--Summertime candle making, making natural lemon candles and more...

April 2006--Choose the candle wick, making tealight candles and more...

March 2006--Choose the right wick base, blending soy wax with paraffin, making palm wax candles and more...

February 2006--The roll of wax additives in a blended wax world, UV additives, making grubby candles and more...

January 2006--The secrets of soy wax candles, more ways to use candles, making soy wax container candles and more...

December 2005--Planning for the new year, announcing our new home, secrets about wicks, and more...

November 2005--Holiday candle making, ideas to sell more candles, making luminaries and more...

October 2005--Temperture issues when making candles, how to start making candles and more...

September 2005--Choose the right candle mold, ASTM safety standards, and more...

August 2005--Color and Fragrance trends, choosing the right candle making tools, and more...

July 2005--Planning for efficient production, Marketing your Candles, Making Swirl Candles, and more...

June 2005--New market trends in candle shapes and textures, Making Textured Candles, and more...

May 2005--The trends and science of candle fragrances, Making Mottled Candles, and more...

April 2005--How to select the proper candle wick, Top Colors, Making "Earthy" Chunk Candles, and more...

March 2005--Selecting the right wax Part III, Our Top Waxes, Making Floral Candles, Our History and more...

February 2005--Selecting the right wax Part II, Our Top Fragrances, Making Fruit Candles and more...

January 2005--Selecting the right wax, Using blended wax, Coloring wax, Making Layered Jar Candles and more...

December 2004--All about candle making fragrances, Making Grubby Candles and more...

November 2004--Choosing Color for your candle making, Making snowball candles and more...

October 2004--Candle Making Busy Season, Making Palm Wax Candles, Speeding Up Candle Production and more...

September 2004--Candle Wax Melters, Making Sense of your Candle Scents, Making Taper Candles and more...

August 2004--Getting Ready For The Season, Using Votive Pins To Make Votive Candles, No Melt Candle Making and more...

July 2004--Some History & What's New, Paraffin Myths, Making Golf Ball Candles and more...

June 2004--Choosing the Right Candle Wax for Your Needs, Making One-Pour Tins and more...

May 2004--Investigating New Products, Burn Testing, Making Freestanding Gel Pillars & Novelties and more...

April 2004--Candle Making Trends, Rolled Candles with Beeswax Sheets, Making Taper Candles and more...

March 2004--Color Theory & Techniques, Floating Candle Molds, Making Tealight Candles and more...

February 2004--Mold Techniques, Computers and Candlemaking, Making Easter Egg Chunk Candles and more...

January 2004--Marketing Natural Wax and Paraffin Candles, Layering Natural Wax Candles and more...

December 2003--Holiday Greetings, 2003 Year in Review, The 6 P's, Making Icicle Candles and more...

November 2003--Building Your Candle Product Line, Making Holiday Ornaments & Soap-on-a-Wick and more...

October 2003--Marketing Your Candles, Polyurethane Molds, Making Lemon Candles, and more...

September 2003--Packaging & Labeling, Essential Oils, Making Rolled Pillars with Beeswax Sheets, and more...

August 2003--Using Palm Wax, Increasing Your Profit Margins, Using Aluminum Molds, and more...

July 2003--Ultra Violet Light Absorbers, Reducing Shipping Costs, Dipping Techniques, and more...

June 2003--Choosing the Right Wick, Using a Wick Stick, Making Floater Candles, and more...

May 2003--New Products Review, Pouring Temperatures, Finishes For Your Candles, and more...

April 2003--Selecting Paraffin, Natural and “Hybrid” Waxes, Using Pillar Pins, and more...

March 2003--Selling & Marketing Candles, Making it Easier to Make Pillars, Wax Art Crystals and more...

February 2003--Pouring Temperatures, Votive Tips, Making Grubby Candles, and more...

January 2003--Candle Making Safety Tips, Instruction Labels, What To Do With Extra Wax and more...

December 2002--Polycarbonate Molds, Making Clear Snowball Candles, and more...

November 2002--Candle Making as a Second Language, The Story of Chandler, Natural F Wax, and more...

October 2002--Candle Making as a Second Language, Projects Review and more...

September 2002--Accessorizing Your Manufacturing, Making Clear Pillar Candles, and more...

July/August 2002--Making Cinnamon Roll Candles, Clear Pillar Base, New Products, and more...

May/June 2002--Back to Basics, Making F Wax Candles, and more...

April 2002--Making Streaked Candles, Wax 101 part 3: Natural Wax, and more...

March 2002--Making Crackled Candles, Wax 101 part 2: Gel Wax, and more...

February 2002--Making Easter Egg Candles, Wax 101: An Overview, and more...

January 2002 --Review of 2001, Frosty Snowman Candles, New Products, Safety Info and more...

December 2001--Botanical candles, making white candles white and more...

November 2001--Chunk candles, clearance sale!, candlemaking books and more...

October 2001--The new candle market, choosing gels, votive wicks and more...

August 2001--New products, new location , new web site and more...

July 2001--Selling & Marketing Candles (part 3), Candle Burn Times and more...

June 2001--Selling & Marketing Candles (part 2), UV Light Absorbers, Wax Additive Recommendations and more...

May 2001--Selling & Marketing Candles, Burning Instructions, Selecting Sustainer Bases and more...

April 2001--Natural Waxes, Candle Burn Times, Wax Pouring Temperatures and more...

March 2001--Making Wax Inserts, Blended vs. Non-Blended Waxes, Colors, Fragrances and more...

February 2001--Whipped Wax, Wax Art Crystal Wax, Gel Candles, Using Containers and more...