the gilded collection: a narrative

i grew up in a small rural town in west michigan filled with golden fields, green meadows and hidden forests. i would spend hours outside, dreaming a life filled with story and adventure, being the queen of my own backyard kingdom.

now that i’m an adult, i find that my mind still wanders to these places- i still dream of this magic, and the memory of this brings so much comfort and joy to my heart. this is where my inspiration came from for our GILDED COLLECTION. these scents were mixed with these memories in mind- walking through golden wheat fields, climbing giant hills in the meadow, climbing trees and reaching for something far beyond my tiny perspective on life in reality. these candles are made to inspire- to connect and encourage dreaming, chasing magic, and bring out your inner queen.

each candle features an image of a woman in her majesty, and is paired an encouraging poem that provides the scent with it’s own narrative- a story that connects people through courage. the artwork done by my husband michael rajnicek, who not only puts up with my crazy ideas, but encourages them in all their glory. the poems are written by myself- they are words pulled from childhood adventures made to inspire future generations.

me with my “birthday crown” at a childhood birthday opening gifts.

i come from a family full of women; my mom had 3 sisters and i have 2. we all spur from a line of strong women who where not only inspirational, but also kind and full of enduring love. this past year my family said goodbye to my grandmother- a headstrong woman full of life, love, and never ending joy. her memory now joins me in these magical spaces roaming the countryside of west michigan, and they hold a kind of life that i had to share.

so today we are sharing them and releasing the collection online! today is a special day, not only because it is the day our collection is being released, but because it is the first day of march- my birthday month. I know this seems incredibly silly and childish, but even as an adult i keep up this excitement around birthdays, because life is better with with celebration…. and birthday crowns.

so today we celebrate the magic of dreaming, imagination, and the power of women. we celebrate life, love, and the majesty of all queens everywhere. i hope you enjoy!

gilded inspiration + memories

---

sable strong: the story of how we got started

sable candle co. studio 2020

before i was a candle maker, i found a love in designing jewelry, and before I was a jewelry designer, i was an triathlete. this is the story of how things got started here at sable- how it took being devastatingly derailed to become the determined maker behind the brand.

you may have met me over the past few years- i’m often the one sending emails, working our pop-up booth at events, and coordinating wholesale orders with retailers. what you may not know is, that this was not my life plan.

check out more from our sister company, sable jewelry: https://www.sablejewelry.com/

a look in the studio

you may have burned our candles, shopped from us online or in person, or purchased our products from one of our retailers… but have you seen where our candles are made?! we thought it would be kinda fun to show off our studio- to share the space where we mix the magic that we send to your home…

our studio is broken down into stations where we have different tasks- mixing, pouring, cooling, labeling, and shipping. this structure is important for a few reasons like work efficiency and cleanliness (we like to keep melted wax away from our beautiful labels and packaging!)

here is our mixing + pouring station. we have our large waxmelter where we melt around 45-50lbs of wax at a time. we use pouring pitchers to add fragrance oils in, stir, and then pour that batch into our candle vessels.

once the candles look good, we move to labeling! each candle gets labeled by hand with their appropriate collection / scent label.

our studio is located on wealthy street in grand rapids, michigan - a busy shopping district full of coffee shops, restaurants, and other small retail shops.

in our studio space, we have a small showroom where you can shop our collections as well as other candle accessories, homewares and art.

so next time you light up a sable candle, remember the faces and hands that made it, and space it came from. hope you enjoyed the sneak peek into our studio life!

we use bakery style racks to house our cooling candles. after they are handpoured, we move the tray to one of these racks to finish fully setting.

after setting, we do a quality check for any imperfections in the wax (pits, uneven setting, clumpy wax, bubbles, etc). If they need to be fixed, we move them to another rack.

after each candle is labeled, we do another quality check before sending the candles to our backstock shelves, out in orders, or to one of our retailers.

check out a list of our retailers: