Wax Candle Maker [Archives:2000/50/Culture]

Galila Abdul-Wahab Naser Jahaf
My father is a diplomat. I was born in Moscow but raised and studied in many Arab and foreign countries. After graduation, I moved with my husband to Germany where he continued his specialization in Medicine. There I took up a hobby of making wax candles to kill time. I made candles and gave them as gifts to friends who admired them much for what I did was a handicraft. Every handicraft in Europe is highly appreciated. My knowledge in making wax candles mainly came from some books and special formulas that I had.
For a long time I looked for a company and institutes in Germany to improve my skill, but in vain because this was an industry that was characterized by secrecy of formulas and most companies refused to provide me with any experience or formulas. By chance at the Dortmund Women Handicrafts Exhibition I got acquainted with a German businesswoman who had many wax factories in Denmark and Hanover. She liked my interest in making wax candles and my desire to learn it and agreed to give me a course in one of her factories. I learnt how to make the Danish extinguished hand-made wax candles like the spiral and ring-shaped ones that are known in Germany and Europe for their good quality as they are made of the best raw materials, threads and dyes that make them beautiful and light for a longer time. After finishing my course I got a certificate. When I got back to Yemen, my friends were impressed by my work and they urged me to show them for sale. The World Woman Association, chaired by Dr. Khadiga Zabara, Mrs. Bravotela and Mrs. Barbara Demetrinko encouraged me by showing my works in the association charity bazaars. Most of my customers were from my friends, relatives and diplomats and foreigners wives. Of course the idea is artistic and aesthetic and not commercial at all. However, many people started buying them in large quantities and some ordered wedding candles. Hotels, too, requested me to make them candles for special occasions. It is true that I have a small workshop where I work alone according to the condition put by Mrs. Intea Shtoker in Hanover that the familys inherited formulas are not revealed, but I can make all kinds of wax candles for all ceremonies and occasions.
The whole matter is a hobby and it will continue to be so as long as there is demand and appreciation.. However, a very significant point must be mentioned; all nations have different life-styles. For instance, European ladies are interested in buying flowers to decorate their homes and candles to decorate their tables. On the other hand, we here in Yemen are only interested in candles to light them when the power is turned off or to use them as part of the decoration of the house.
In short, our cultural level and money can play a role in crystallizing our aesthetic concerns. Above all, I am a translator and translation is one of my future plans. Of course there will be no contradiction between my hobby and my job since encouragement is there. This is a proof that the Yemeni woman can work and invent. I may be the owner of the first wax candle factory in the Arabic Gulf and one of the women in this field in the Middle East. According to my knowledge, in Syria there is a lady who practices making and sculpturing wax candles.


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