About Beckah
About Beckah
Hand-poured heirloom beeswax candles, shaped by the seasons and the small rituals of home.
Beckah is my small candle studio in Waipukurau, Central Hawke’s Bay, where I make each candle by hand using locally sourced New Zealand beeswax and natural cotton wick. Nothing is added for fragrance; the faint honeyed scent belongs to the wax itself.
Beeswax has been used for centuries to light homes and tables. It is practical candlelight, but it carries a sense of occasion too, and even an ordinary evening feels different once a candle is burning.
Many Beckah candles take the form of something familiar: fruit, vegetables, nuts, pinecones and other objects found in the garden, orchard or while out walking. Some of the moulds I make myself, preserving the small irregularities that make the original object recognisable, the folds of a walnut shell, the uneven surface of a pinecone or the not-quite-perfect shape of a strawberry.
I make the candles in small batches as the seasons change. Some are intended for the table, some are more sculptural, and others exist simply because a familiar object becomes rather wonderful when cast in beeswax.
The Four Worlds
Beckah is shaped around four worlds, each drawn from the landscapes, seasons and rituals of life in New Zealand.
Harvest is the world of abundance and gathering, of heirloom vegetables, full tables and the satisfaction of something grown well.
Orchard follows fruit, blossom and branches through the seasons, and the feeling of belonging to a particular place.
Forage belongs to the wild and wandering, to forest floors, moss, pinecones, creek beds and pockets filled on autumn walks.
Ritual returns these things to the home, where candlelight becomes part of the quiet ceremonies of everyday life: dinner at the table, a slow morning or an evening spent together.
Each world carries a different atmosphere, but they belong together, following the year as it is lived here.
Made in Small Batches
Beeswax has a life of its own. Its colour changes with the season and the places the bees have been, while each candle may carry a slight variation in texture or finish from the making.
I don’t try to remove every trace of that process. No two candles are exactly alike, and that is part of what it means for something to have passed through a pair of hands.