Made with feeling, shaped with fire.

I’m Dawn, and I make candles that begin as a feeling rather than a shape.
A crisp morning in an orchard. The hush of a forest before frost. A summer fête at the end of August, all candyfloss and hook-a-duck. Once I’ve got the feeling, everything else follows: the colours get tested against each other, the fragrance gets blended and re-blended until it matches the mood rather than just smelling nice, and only then do I work out what form it should take.
Sometimes that’s a sculptural piece that stands alone — a leaf, a rose, a nutcracker. Sometimes it’s a whole scene: a hedgehog among fallen leaves, koi suspended in clear blue gel. Sometimes it’s a candle cast into a hand-made resincrete bowl, or a keepsake shaped like a book you’d want to keep long after the wick has gone.
Where wax becomes sculpture, and sculpture becomes light.

I work in seasons
Everything here belongs to a collection, and every collection belongs to a time of year.
Under The Summer Sky is a summer fête — carousels, popcorn, toffee apples, a lucky little duck. The Quiet Harvest is early autumn in three scents: ginger and pear and cedarwood, sage and honey and tobacco leaf, pumpkin and frankincense and tonka. Under The Canopy goes deeper into the woods as the light drops. Come winter there’s frost, first light, and long dark evenings.
Working this way means pieces come and go. When a season passes, its collection usually goes with it — which is the point. These are made to mark a particular time, not to sit on a shelf all year.

Every piece is made to order
Nothing here sits in a warehouse. When you order, I sculpt and pour your piece by hand and finish it myself. That takes 2-3 days for each piece.
It also means small variations are part of the work. Wax takes colour differently from batch to batch, and no two pours settle quite the same way. Your piece will look like the photographs, but it won’t be identical to anyone else’s. That’s what you’re buying.

How it started
I studied architecture, and that’s really where all of this begins. Architecture teaches you to start with a feeling about a place and work backwards — into materials, proportion, texture, the way light falls on a surface. I’m still doing exactly that. It just fits on a shelf now.
Art and design have always been the thread. What I love most is making things by hand and watching an idea become an object you can actually pick up. I find the whole process restorative, from the first sketch through the testing and the failures to the moment a piece comes cleanly out of its mould.
Resincrete came out of that instinct — I wanted a material with the weight and texture of stone that I could cast myself, in whatever shape the idea needed.
And every finished piece tends to suggest the next one. That’s mostly why the collections keep growing.

Where to find me
Alongside the shop, I sell at markets across Greater Manchester — including [Quayside, MediaCity]. It’s the best way to see the pieces properly: the weight of them, the detail, the depth of colour. Come and say hello if you’re nearby.
If you’d like something in particular colours, or you’re after a piece from a collection that’s closed, email me — I read everything myself.