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08-23-07                                                          WHY THE CANDLES ARE DIFFERENT

So what makes our candles so special beside the unique look?  For one they burn different than most pillar candles.  What traditional good quality pillar candles have attempted to achieve is burning the entire candle without leaving any wax behind.  This is exactly what you would want to see with solid color candles or ones that have an outer skin.  Gateway Candles stained glass look and carved candles are intended to be reused by putting a votive or tea light candle in it after it burns!  Why would Gateway Candles do such a weird thing? 

Since the lit stained glass candles have translucent colors that look like a beautiful stained glass window with the light shinning through, it was desirable to have it just burn down the center and keep the outside shell.  As the pillar burns down the chips or "window panes" light up as the flame ignites each color chip.  It's so much fun to see a window pane light up all at once as the candle burns down.  The more the pillar burns the more of the stained glass effect you have.  When one of the candles are about three quarters burned the entire shell looks like a lit stained glass window.  What a sight! 

How is this achieved?  It took more than four years of full time work to get it right.  Wax that is produced in the United States is too opaque and most don't burn as clean as we require.  We ended up testing many waxes, including soy and finally found one that is produced over seas (a trade secrete of where) that burns pure, and clean enough to produce the translucent affect as well as burning down the center, leaving the shell.  Then there was the problem of the wax that was to be poured over these translucent chips so that it was opaque and burned cleanly, not smoking or balling up the wick as it burned.

Also we faced the challenge of getting vibrant colors that mimicked the amazing colors of stained glass windows and didn't turn the wax opaque.  Well, by the time we were done we ended up using three different kinds of wax and over 50 different color choices.  Our process requires that after the stained glass candles are poured that they be shaved by hand.  We then invented a machine that rotates slowly, varies the speed and holds the candle while it is being shaved by an artisan.  

Once the stained glass candle process was down pat, we then turned our attention to using the same stunning luminescent affect for carved and pillar candles.  We carved a solid piece of wax and then put it back in a candle mold and poured over it, only then to shave it down to expose the design.  Once we figured out how to do this then we had to create a mold of the carved original because it takes about 25 hours to get from the design faze to a carved out core.  By molding this time is cut to only one hour.  Candle molding large cores was a whole different world.  My goodness it's really complicated.  It was necessary to invent special containers that would release this size molds.  There are several different kinds of mold material that had to be tested.  They all release gas and therefore bubbled into the setting wax core.  Finding the right temperatures for each stage was no picnic, but to be honest, solving these problems really was lots of fun.  They were challenging and frustrating problems but exciting to figure out, if you have a love of wax and the many wonderful things it can do. 

In the end of creating carved candles we actually developed two carving processes whereby we can put just about any design into a candle.  In one process we have a carved core that is translucent.  The design lights up on all four sides at once when lit.  This is like the stained glass but with just one different design pane on each side of the candle.  This also can be envisioned as a light shining on a house at night. The other method is just the opposite, which we call inlaid.  In the inlaid method the candle is carved on the surface to create the design and then it is filled with a very opaque wax, usually black.  What happens then is everything around the design lights up and the design stays dark.  It's like the sun or moon lighting up a tree from behind, so the tree looks black and what's behind it is lit up.  Another way of thinking of it is a picture drawn in charcoal. 

These things are what makes Gateway Candles so different and why we believe that this is the next generation in candles, or will become in time.  For those of you who are willing to take the plunge and buy one our candles you will see that compared to their picture they are so much more beautiful and elegant.

Candle Burning Tip:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANDLES:

Candles can be traced back as early as biblical times. For many years they were the main source of light for peoples' homes. Many early Greek and Roman candles were made of flax thread coated with wax and pitch, while in other countries candles were made of palm oil, coconut oil, beeswax and olive oil. In England bayberry wax was refined for use in making candles. The earliest dipped candles were made of tallow. Not until the early 1800's was paraffin made to replace tallow as the main ingredient for candle making. Electricity has since replaced the candle as an important source of light, but the candle is still important today for its role in decoration on festive occasions, for the calm and sanctity it evokes in religious ceremonies, and for the general mood of warmth, relaxation, and even romance it creates in our homes. While candles were used in the past as a source of light, they are now used as a source of home decor, fragrance and just to set a pleasant relaxing mood. Many people use candles every day as a way to pamper themselves and add a special touch to their homes .Candles come in all shapes, sizes and types. From paraffin and gel to beeswax and soy, candles can be found in quite an assortment of materials. If used properly, a quality made candle can enhance your environment and provide a source of pleasure, set a romantic mood, light up your dinner table or even help remove offensive odors from your home.

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Each candle is truly a unique work of art. Artisans create a stained glass effect by hand positioning each chip inside a mold, designing and carving as well as planning color combinations.  After the wax is poured the craftsmen shave the candle bringing out the desired color and life in each chip and design creating a magnificent array of amazing colors. The "stained glass" candles have special translucent qualities when they are burned, like the sun shining through a stained glass window.

Since each order is individually manufactured this insures that scented candles have fresh scent and those who want unscented candles and get unscented candles.  All the candles produced are pillar candles and some are square candles.  Since our focus is on color you can get black candles, ivory candles, white candles, brown candles, yellow candles, green candles, blue candles, red candles, purple candles and orange candles - we produce very colorful candles. 

Most candle companies focus on scented pillar candles, we on the other hand concentrate on translucent designs, creating unique candles.  These make for unusual unique gifts.  Check us out for wedding gifts as well as wedding candles for the table.  Our carved candle lines produce some of the most unique candles or the market today.  The carved candles are are truly  centerpieces and make spectacular unique candle display.