Candles

Candles and making candle sticks has turned out to be something very important to me. Partly, I suppose, because candles have always featured in my familial life. A single candle for Finnish independence, candles on the dinner table on special occasions, a candle lit to help burn away the farts of either my dad or the dog…. Well that last one is not so romantic, but it is true.

The flame of the candle releases more heat than you expect, remains a soft glow until it doesn’t – following the currents of air around the room. When we think of the fire of our own life, and how that varies from a raging inferno to the quiet flow of a candle flame, I find looking at candles soothing. The sources of light that we tend to look at these days, from the alluring glow of our phones to the laptop screen I am looking at now, are not rich – no matter the colour they present themself as. The flame, rich and full, as a light that touches the eye and is seen, we are active in our recognition of the light.

As more aspects of the world around us encourage us to passivity, I try to remember as much as I can to be active: to strike the match, to take the time, to place the candle – to put down the phone.

When making these candle sticks they grew out of another form I was making – some wine goblets I had been commissioned to make for a dinner. It occurred to me one evening that they looked just as good ‘upside down’, and by chance the foot snugly fit a 20mm dinner candle. I have found a couple of times that my pots work both ways up, and this tends to occur when the making process takes on a natural character of its own, where designing is unconscious and making is lucid.

Now, I make them as candle sticks, designed to take a metal insert that snugly holds the candle in place. This is the rational component of design that is imposed back upon the flow of creativity that seeded the item. They are available on my shop, and I hope the next time you light a candle, you can take a moment to pause

Callum x