There’s a pastel rainbow container on my studio table right now filled with burnt candles people have handed to me over the past few months. Some have been dug out from the backs of cupboards. Some rescued from op shops. Some sent to me by lovely strangers. All used, all carrying the quiet wishes, hopes, and little rituals of the people who once lit them, all recently transformed into charms with a few metallic additions and a dream.

If you follow along my Instagram, you’ll have noticed I’ve become completely candle crazed of late. It all began with my recent “charm-ing” adventures, where I found myself hunting for cute and slightly unconventional objects to use as embellishments for different projects. Somewhere in the midst of all that collecting and experimenting, I dug out an old tin from the back of my pantry filled with used candles I’d quietly been hoarding for years. I hadn’t really thought about why I’d kept them, only that I could never quite bring myself to throw them away. They still felt beautiful. Still full of memories. Little vessels holding traces of birthday parties, celebrations and wishes gone by.

So I decided to treat them the same way I’d been treating all the tiny trinkets and treasures I’d been working with of late. I laid them out, photographed them, studied their shapes and colours, and began approaching them as I would any other embellishment. Not as functional objects, but as materials waiting for a second act. My first creation was a candle shirt. After sharing it online and watching it unexpectedly take on a life of its own, I’ll admit I felt deeply encouraged to keep going. There was something so thrilling about seeing an idea that felt a little odd and experimental resonate with so many people. And, naturally, it left me asking the most exciting question of all - what could I create next?

I started sketching out ideas almost immediately. Candle glasses, ties, bags, shoes. It suddenly felt like the possibilities were endless. At first, I kept my concepts strictly within the realm of the wearable. I’ve found lately that having a parameter, even a self imposed one, helps focus my ideas and gives them somewhere concrete to grow, otherwise my brain happily runs off in seventeen iterative directions at once. I’d also forgotten how important sketching is for me. For a long time, I think I convinced myself that productivity only counted if something became fully, physically realised. But there’s something so wonderful about remembering that allowing ideas to exist solely in their rough and messy beginnings is okay, and that you don’t have to make every idea that comes through if you don’t want to. But on this occasion, I wanted to try and make a lot of these ideas, because I really felt like I was on to something…

The unfussy pen scribbles - now looking back at them there’s a kind of magic in these pages. They are the first evidence of a dream beginning to take shape. The very first step in an idea becoming reality….

After the ‘party shirt’ my next mission was ‘party glasses’ and from here I really started to see the potential in the more uniform ‘fringe-style’ placement. This got me thinking about a hat, and specifically re-imagining the classic kinda Australiana Akubra hat..but in a camp way….a candle way…

Candle manicure anyone?

From here I was actually inspired to deviate a little from the wearables and experiment with a craftier application.  I made some stickers first and then it struck me….WISHY TAPE!! I also allowed the candles to inspire this month’s crafty mail club Best Wishes which saw me using the photos of the candles themselves as a surface design too for mail boxes, prints and badges.

So where to from here? Yesterday I found myself duo-ing candles to my face, which felt like a very full circle moment. It instantly took me back to years ago when I couldn’t stop making elaborate crafty masks and spent hours transforming my face into wearable worlds. There’s something so lovely about returning to old creative instincts, reconnecting with a version of yourself that already knew exactly where to play. But whilst I love the strange theatricality of this experiment, I think it’s just a stepping stone leading me towards what has always felt like the inevitable next make - and my most ambitious candle idea of all - the ultimate party dress. And of course it was always going to lead here. Whenever I become fascinated by a material, eventually my brain asks the same question: but what would it look like as a dress? It feels like the natural culmination of everything I’ve been exploring, the whimsy, the transformation, the challenge of taking something ordinary and elevating it into something spectacular and celebratory. A dress feels like the grandest possible expression of this candle obsession, equal parts sculpture, costume, fantasy and a technical puzzle.  I’m still deep in the experimentation phase, sketching, painting, testing and trying to work out exactly how this flickering idea might come to life, but I can feel it beginning to take shape, and honestly, this delicious space between imagining and making might just be the most exciting part…

illustration by @bushraaa of my candle hat. Elated by this!!!

What I’m learning through all of this is to trust the pull of an idea before it fully makes sense. To follow the flicker, even when it feels a little impractical or strange. These magically mundane candles have reminded me that transformation doesn’t have to be loud or immediate, it can be slow and step by step. From idea, to sketch, to reality (if it feels right). I want to keep making space for that kind of thinking, where play leads and outcomes follow later. For now I’m staying in the studio, sketching, experimenting, and letting things melt into whatever they want to become. One small flame at a time.

Making a little candle wish of my own that I can drag this party dress into reality! Now I’m also thinking about a fringed candle jacket too…and a party suit. Omg…the possibilities are really endless. Watch this space, chat soon.

Rach xx