The hybrid social project and lifestyle brand Obakki has added a new artisan to their roster, Donã Viviana of Eureka Candles.
The Vancouver-based company is owned by Treana Peake who is also the founder of the Obakki Foundation (and wife to Nickleback guitarist Ryan Peake but that's beside the point). Both business ventures aim to strategically invest in artisans in underfunded or overlooked parts of the world.
Most recently, Obakki has started working with 80 artisans in communities throughout Mexico which is where Viviana is from.
Candle-making has been in Viviana’s family for 300 years, and the skill has been passed down through generations over centuries. Viviana is 80-years-old and her 100 per cent beeswax candles consist of 1,000 individual hand-poured layers with no machinery involved at any stage. She says this helps to create longer burn times.
She makes everyone herself and although they are unscented they naturally give off an aroma of comforting honey and wood fire which her workshop also smells like all day long.
Viviana has also forever changed the history and culture of her town in the southern state of Chiapas by inventing the 'marriage candle'. In Viviana's hometown, if a young man wants to propose to his love, it has become customary to first ask her parents for her hand in marriage and present the family with a ‘marriage candle'.
They stand up to eight feet tall or can be custom sized, and burn for a year as a symbol of the groom’s commitment to his bride.
Interestingly enough, Viviana was considered to have turned her back on her family's legacy by marrying a weaver at age 14 but she found herself drawn back to their traditions years later which she considers to be her Eureka moment.
