One of my favorite handmade artisan products made in Mexico are candles. There are hand poured beeswax tapers, elaborate flower candles, and skull candles for Day of the Dead. Some are dyed with natural dyes like cochineal or indigo or pericon— plants that are gathered, dried, and their color extracted and added to the wax. Candles are made for churches, for engagements, for weddings, for the home. They bring great joy to all who sees them.
Modela has worked with Casa Viviana in Teotitilán de Valle, Oaxaca for several years. This is a three generation family workshop that is always great fun to visit. The matriarch is Viviana. She has two sons, two daughter-in laws, and a granddaughter all working alongside her. When I visit, there might be three foot long beesewax candles being poured or wax flowers being made with wooden molds that are years old. Giant blocks of wax sit in corners, wood fires are burning to keep the wax warm, a few turkeys might stroll by, and you can hear the indigenous language of Zapotec being spoken by family members to each other.
Beeswax is warmed and half gourds are dipped in the warm wax and these thin pieces are left in the sun left in the sun to bleach to cream. The tapers are hand poured using this cream beeswax. After the cream tapers are complete, each taper is hand dipped in a colored wax created with natural dyes. The family takes the bleached beeswax and adds either Indigo to make blue, pericon flowers to create yellow, or cochineal to make the wax red. There are other plant sources used to create shifts in color.
In addition to Casa Viviana, Modela works with two other candle making workshops in Mexico. It is so fun to choose color combinations from their available colors. Stay tuned for more handmade mexican candles to come in the future.
