By popular request we will be starting to stock hard candy supplies soon. These are expected in shortly and should start appearing on the web site by Feb. 3rd. 2006

Initial stock will be hard candy mix, hard candy molds, flavoring oils and colorings.

We expect this product line to do very well and plan a rapid expansion itnto a huge selection of molds.

Many of these products will also be of interest to chocolate makers for coloring and flavoring their chocolate. Hard candy molds can also be used for chocolate as well.

I know it has been a while since many of you have requested hard candy supplies, but in keeping with our policy of only selling the best I had to do some homework on this to ensure we offer only top quality products.

Most of us have never tried to answer that question, and it is not something I ever expected to know (or need to know). Thanks to undertaking the massive project to improve the chocolate mold illustrations on the One Stop site, I now know that I can easily pour upwards of 120 different chocolate molds a day - as long as I work at it from 9AM to 3 PM.

Perhaps I could produce even more, but photographing, weighing, editing the photos, uploading them, swapping the new ones with the old,  and adding to the product descriptions takes a lot of time as well.

This project which I expected to take months has actually come together much faster, although the last couple hundred molds are taking longer (I am dragging at this point). The vast majority of the molds has been completed - (approximately 95% of them) so a peek at the chocolate mold pages will show most have a nice illustration as well as a fill weight and expanded description.

It is hard work, but at least it tastes good.

Looking to make a few candles for your self or with a scout group? On a tight budget? Then try easy-clean, paper-cup candle-making.

This is a variation on the traditional milk carton candles so popular with scout groups.  I would just like to point out that although that article recommends coloring with crayons, it is a bad idea since crayon pigments often clog the wick causing poor burning.

IMPORTANT: Regardless of the methods used, candle making can be very dangerous if not done in a safe manner - Read these Safety Rules before making any candles.

A new project article is now available on making waxed teddy bear air fresheners. These are made with stuffed animals, and scented wax. They make great gifts.

Are we educating our children to be computer users to the exclusion of everything else? Admittedly the ability to use a computer is as vital as the ability to read in modern society, but there are other things even more basic to preparing young adults for the real world. At least I recall a time when “preparing students for adult life” was actually part of what schools were for. I was inspired to write this article after reading about Angelo Trevelli who “could repair anything” and still had his favorite shop class project when he passed away at 88 years of age.

The education system in America (at least the part I live in) has taken some major strides forward in some things but is really failing to supply vital things at the same time. Isn’t the basic knowledge of working with your hands a valuable thing to have? I am not saying that we need to turn our children into master craftsmen but they should know some basic things like how to hold a hammer, change a tire, sand wood, do an oil change, connect your new doorbell, change an outlet, cook, etc.. Actually for the vast majority of us they are skills we will use far more than advanced math, science, social studies, and so on.

What happened to shop class? When I attended school we had wood shop, home economics, electronics shop, automotive shop, metal shop, printing shop, photography shop, and probably a few others I no longer recall. A certain amount of them were required by the curriculum.

My kids have taken many “computer” classes during their education and for those not in the know, that is just a fancy name for what us old folks used to call typing class for the most part. Not classes about operating systems, programming, web design, etc… - just typing practice essentially.

In the same time frame they have had one “Technology” class - the modern day replacement for shop class. Technology class basically is designing some pitiful project for months on end, then spending a week making it out of materials that don’t require using any “dangerous tools”. Thats right, because there is about a 1 in 800 million chance that any given student may be the next serial killer - we must protect them by not allowing anything that might be used as a weapon in our schools. For some reason they overlook the most obvious weapon - every student carries at least one pen and pens are as effective as knives if you want to kill someone. I guess they draw the line at going back to inkwells and writing with plumes.

So lets compare some basics:

My Son (16 years old now):

• Can type very well
• Can glue precut wood together
• Knows how to cut Styrofoam and plastic
• Probably cannot expect much more than this in final 2 years of high school but is lucky that he can learn this at home - unlike many of his fellow students

Myself At 16 (1974)

• Some, but poor typing skills (17 wpm)
• Skilled with the use of saws, hammers, planes, clamps, and other woodworking tools
• Skilled with electrical tools such as meters, soldering iron, etc… able to read electrical schematics (this turned into a career after college)
• Basic metalworking skills - bending, peening, riveting, etc…
• Basic typesetting and printing press usage
• In final 2 years of high school add automotive knowledge and photographic developing

After giving this some deep thought - I have my doubts that this is really about protecting the students. It looks more likely to be a matter of economics, wood is expensive but plastic is not. Styrofoam is a lot easier on the budget than sheet metal. Tools are a lot more expensive than a scissors and bottle of glue. The safety issue looks more to me like a smoke screen to hide the fact that yet another aspect of our children’s education is being shortchanged.

I still have the first woodworking project I ever made (6th grade shop class) and I am proud to say that it was part of what engendered a life long love of making things with my own hands. Sadly, I fear that I’ll be overhearing the guy at the home center explaining which end of the hammer you hold to many of today’s graduating high school students in coming years.

The conversion to full color closeup images of the Easter chocolate molds is now in progress. During the actual process of swapping the images there may be some distortion as we resize them, but this should be corrected within an hour so check back on that item a bit later.

Any image problem that persists more than an hour can be reported here or with the contact link above - please include the product number or the URL when reporting image problems.

Bubbles in gel candles seem to cause a lot of distress among candle makers, yet many don’t understand what is causing them. There are several causes:

• Stirring the gel wax too vigorously - this introduces air.
• Embeds that contain air - porous items such as sea shells
• Embeds that can trap air - such as sand

Some may be saying “I use those in paraffin wax with no problem - why should they be a problem in gel wax?” Simply because the 2 types of wax have very different properties - the shells and sand still release and trap the same amount of air in paraffin wax, but it doesn’t stay in (usually) or is hidden by the opacity of the paraffin (less commonly).

Paraffin wax is very thin when melted or in technical terms has a low viscosity. Gel wax on the other hand has a high viscosity when melted. Because of this any bubbles released in a gel candle will travel to the surface very slowly.

Gel wax also solidifies much faster than paraffin wax, thus trapping many air bubbles that were slowly working their way to the top and out of the candle. Paraffin wax on the other hand takes substantially longer to set and by then any trapped air is long gone.

Funny Fact - Air bubbles never stop moving upward in gel wax even after it has solidified, although very slowly. If you let a gel candle sit long enough eventually there will be no air bubbles. Unfortunately the time this takes is measured in months, so don’t plan on using it as a way to get rid of bubbles on a regular basis.

What’s with Mission Statements? It seems every time I look at one it is just a bunch of meaningless doubletalk. For that matter, why call it a mission statement? Are all these sites run by secret agents or something? Whats wrong with calling it “About Us”, and actually saying who you are and what you do?

Mission Statement
“We help clients in all industries create distinctive process capabilities and to leverage those capabilities for competitive advantage. How we help our clients succeed is as important as the results.”  

I kid you not - I pulled that off the web. There were several more paragraphs, but to be honest after reading the page I still haven’t a clue what they actually do.

Is it just me or do others need to fight down the gag reflex when they see this type of stuff on a web site? I always get the feeling they are more interested in selling manure than any products or services I might actually be interested in. Why not just come right out and tell folks you are full of crap and it seems to have backed up onto your web site. It almost seems like they hire political speechwriters to come up with this junk - a whole lot of words without actually saying anything.

Are the days when folks expected to actually understand what your business does or can do for them a thing of the past? Personally I feel no amount of doubletalk, jargon, etc… can substitute for plain talk about who you are and what you do / offer. Why be intentionally obtuse? David Weinberg’s Beyond shareholder value has a great suggestion for the opening line of mission statements. Start by telling folks something they want to hear. 

For the folks that insist on using this nonsense try this Mission Statement Generator the random mission statement it spits out will make as much sense as anything else you write, and if nothing else is good for a few laughs.

Approximately 35% of the Chocolate Lolly Molds have been updated to show a photo of the completed project and include the fill weight in the description.

The entire Adult Chocolate Mold line has been updated the same way (except one mold that is out of stock at the moment). I have also added an adult chocolate mini project. Please do not click that link if you might find adult molds offensive.

With Easter fast approching I have decided to divert the rephotgraphing project to Easter molds for now and that is the category that will be done next.

One of the most insidious scams ever is the infamous 419 scam and if you are doing online business, I am sure that you have been targeted multiple times (hopefully not victimized). Scamming the worlds population is a major industry in Nigeria - as a matter of fact it is named the 419 scam after the relevant section of the Nigerian criminal code. I won’t go so far as to say this is government sponsored, but they certainly don’t seem too anxious to prosecute these criminals.

This is not limited to online businesses and there are many permutations of this scam. I am sure you have received the emails regarding the millions the Nigerian government has for you - just send your banking information so they can transfer it (Translation - so they can clean out your bank account). Phony fund raising letters for disaster victims are also common. Scamblog and b.removed have actually turned tormenting these guys into entertainment and Insult #3 is probably the funniest one I have seen. If you think scam baiting is wrong or just want an interesting read see The Ethics Of Scambaiting.

In the most common business scams, they place what appears to be a large order. Usually shortly thereafter they ask if you could pick up some cell phones (or other high price gear) and include it on their order. Even when a legitimate payment actually arrives from them they just claim that they never received it and get the credit card company to refund them leaving you with a charge back fee and neither the money or your merchandise. Sometimes the scammers will have accomplices in other countries and from what I understand at least one bank is under investigation also for their part in some of these scams.

This blog has an “interoffice email” from one scammer to another showing a high degree of organization, and it is estimated that there are at least 250,000 criminals running this scam and raking in hundreds of millions of dollars.

There are many versions of this scam, but they have one of two things in common - greed or pity. One man actually embezzled 1.4 million dollars from his company to participate in one of these because they dangled a 20 million dollar carrot in front of him. Fakes also have their part, from fake chemical companies to lottery winners, 419 is pervasive and jams the worlds in boxes with spam.

One thing scammers are is tenacious, and they will hang in there as long as they think they have a fish on the line. One good clue that someone is attempting to scam your business is an inordinate amount of email for a simple order. Although sometimes legitimate customers have many questions, scammers do this for a living so they will send constant emails if they think you will bite.

The Following from the U.S. Secret Service PUBLIC AWARENESS ADVISORY REGARDING “4-1-9″ OR “ADVANCE FEE FRAUD” SCHEMES:
Several reasons have been submitted why Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud has undergone a dramatic increase in recent years. The explanations are as diverse as the types of schemes. The Nigerian Government blames the growing problem on mass unemployment, extended family systems, a get rich quick syndrome, and, especially, the greed of foreigners.

Indications are that Advance Fee Fraud grosses hundreds of millions of dollars annually and the losses are continuing to escalate. In all likelihood, there are victims who do not report their losses to authorities due to either fear or embarrassment.

Overall what it really comes down to is using common sense and not letting greed get the best of you.

• Charity emails - Make sure it is a legitimate organization. One popular scamming method is to include links in email that look like they go to a legit organization yet resolve to an IP address with a phony web site designed to look like that organization’s web page. Personally, I never ever click a link in any email. Just open your browser and type in the web address.
• Get rick quick emails - If it sounds too good to be true you can be fairly sure it is. Anyone who wants you to pay them to give you money is pretty much a scammer.
• Business Order Scams
• Don’t accept orders from Nigeria or that ship to Nigeria. If you feel like flirting with disaster, at the very least ship only to legitimate freight forwarders in your own country so you can provide proof of delivery.
• Ship only via methods that allow you to provide proof of delivery.
• Cancel any orders that request you include cell phones or other electronic gear.
• Suspect any order that seems to require extensive back and forth emailing.
• Make sure any money orders are from legitimate banks and that they have cleared before shipping.

I know it is harsh, but I outright just trash any email I suspect as being from a 419 scam, and do not ship to Nigeria - period. I don’t have time to waste emailing back just to have it turn out to be a scam, and the risks for selling to person in Nigeria far outweigh any minor profit I might make from an order.

The shame of all this is that I have no doubts the vast majority of Nigerian people are not scam artists. Unfortunately the prevalence of scam artists in their country makes it impossible for me to have anything to do with shipping orders to that country.