39 minutes ago, teonzo said:This would be your best choice. If I'm right the user Pastrygirl is in the Seattle area. You can volunteer to be her slave, ehm, her part time stagiaire.
Slave is more accurate, I am extremely hard to please. What's so hard about a shiny kitchen and perfect every time? 
But seriously, I'd be happy to help you out with whatever I know, and chocolate sources. PFI has pretty good prices on callebaut and a few others http://www.bigjohnspfi.com/ or Merlino's should be willing to sell to you at will call. They don't have prices in their catalog, but are generally very nice and helpful on the phone. http://www.merlino.com/web_order/ Or I can hook you up with 2kg bags of Felchlin, it's about $7-$13/# depending on the variety. Peterson has more chocolate than merlino but I don't think they sell to the public. I work on capitol hill and will also be at the SLU Saturday market this summer.
If it's too hot, chocolate just doesn't work. You can set up fans or put it in the fridge but some days you're better off not fighting it. I am not happy about record temps in Seattle, business definitely slows down when it's warm.
Yes, a few nice polycarbonate molds are worth it. Get a few of a few different shapes. I think the exchange rate is still favorable, so check out dr.ca and choclat-chocolat. Hobby molds are too flimsy for filled centers, but I do use few in novelty shapes. I very rarely hand dip, it is so tedious.
