Candles burning along a table in a dim room with the lamps off

Lower Quay, Roundstone · one room, two people

The pour room

Sixty litres of wax a month, a sash window that does not shut properly, and a rule that nothing leaves before it has sat for nine days.

We started with the wrong candle

The first run, in 2019, was forty candles of soy wax poured too hot into jars bought from a catering supplier. Every single one frosted, half of them tunnelled, and the shop on the corner sold eleven before we asked for the rest back.

What came out of that was a narrower house: rapeseed wax with a little beeswax for body, one flat cotton wick instead of a clever braided one, a fragrance load held at nine per cent so the cold throw does not overpromise what the hot throw delivers, and a nine-day cure that is not negotiable even in the week before Christmas.

Twelve scents is as wide as two people can go and still smell the difference between batches. When a thirteenth gets made, one of the twelve comes off the shelf.

See what is on the shelf

A pale candle in a clear glass holder standing on painted workshop boards — One of the first forty, kept on the bench as a reminder.

The nine-day rule

Tuesday to Thursday, with a week in between

Tue
Melt and blend
Wax to 71°C, fragrance in at 68°C, stirred for two minutes by hand and no longer. Over-stirring drags air in and the air is what cracks the top.
68°C
Tue
Pour and set
Thirty glasses at a time on a warmed bench, filled in one movement each. They stay on the bench overnight under a cloth so they cool at the same rate.
30
Wed
Cure in the dark
Nine days on the north wall at about 18°C. The scent binds to the wax in that time; a candle sold on day three smells thin and burns worse.
9 days
Thu
Trim, label, post
Wick to eight millimetres, pour date written on the burn card, tissue, box, and down to the quay by noon for the one post run of the week.
8 mm

Both of us, every candle

There is no third person and no seasonal help. If something in your box is wrong, one of these two did it and will say so.

Nuala Ní Chonghaile lighting a row of candles in steel vessels on the bench — Nuala Ní ChonghaileBlending and pouring · since 2019Trained as a cook, which is where the thermometer habit came from. Writes every scent formula in one notebook and will not photocopy it.

Fionn Mac DonnachaCutting, finishing and post · since 2021Cuts and presses every refill plug by hand, keeps the cure wall in order, and does the Thursday run to the post office himself. He is the one who writes the pour date on your burn card.