So… here it is… my first ever blog post! ?? I thought I would start off by sharing with you a little about me, my candle journey, and how Calon Candles first came about.
Candles are the one constant in my adult life… I must have bought hundreds in my time as gifts for birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas as well as for my own personal use and enjoyment. I realised that as I was buying so many of them, that I would try my hand at making them. Turns out what started as a fun hobby became a rather expensive one – little did I know that I couldn’t just stick any old wick into some fragranced wax and have a candle that smells amazing and burns beautifully (and safely). If only it were that simple!! After many, many months of playing around and experimenting, I started to get serious about it and I realised that I had something that I would happily pay for in a shop and set up creating the business selling luxury Welsh candles.
Having lived in Wales pretty much since I started at Swansea University back in 1997, and having a first-language Welsh husband and Welsh-speaking children I knew I wanted a Welsh element to the name. I’m not a fluent Welsh-speaker although I am learning and I definitely understand more than I let on! I wanted to pick a name that was easy to pronounce whether or not the person picking up the candle was a Welsh-speaker or not. In July 2019, Calon Candles was born and the business has gone from strength to strength. (“Calon” is the Welsh word for “Heart” by the way).
Having recently relocated from beautiful Harlech in Snowdonia, I now live in a small village in Carmarthenshire. All the candles I make are hand-poured in small batches from my own home often with a little help from my two children. My husband has even converted the old garden shed/summer house into a bespoke home studio so I can stop taking over the whole downstairs like I did in our old house. The new studio comes complete with underfloor heating so I can be out there in all weathers, in my own little world of melting, mixing, pouring and packaging up all your candle orders – which I love – and for which I am truly grateful.
Julia