Friday…with Sushou Wildcrafted Candles

I was recently asked by Suzanne from Sushou Organics to capture the essence of her 3 new artisan candles; ‘Delight’, ‘Love’ and ‘Tranquil’ within my photographs on the table…

Being a synaesthete means I get the visuals or ‘inner abstract’ for the senses which I usually capture in my work on canvas; creating paintings of scent, taste and sound as it appears to me inside my head…

So a project where I was working with ‘things’; ( flowers, plants and other ingredients ) to give a sense of scent seemed perfect for me and the Sushou candles themselves smell absolutely exquisite and basically it was a complete joy to smell and work at the same time!

Sushou candles are made with organic essential ingredients so firstly I spent time collecting and foraging for everything I could in my garden and the countryside…( one morning I cycled about 10 miles on a quest to find oak moss, and another morning I cycled to Worthing as I had spotted wild camomile along the cycle path there a couple of weeks before ) The ingredients were an important starting point as, throughout the shoot, I would add depth and texture ( which is always important for me when illustrating scent ) to each composition using different combinations of them all…This is a list of most of the ingredients I used and which are in the candles:

Rose, Geranium, Lavender, Mimosa, Jasmine, Camomile, Helichrysum, Valerian, Lemongrass, Lemon, Lime, Litsea, Tangerine, Honey, Fennel, Juniper, Sage, Mint, Star Anise, Cloves, Ginger, Nutmeg, Black Pepper, Oak Moss, Soy wax and Rape seed wax I then started to work on each composition…

The ‘Love’ candle; a blend of wild rose, pink pepper and lime… The ‘Delight’ candle; a blend of litsea, neroli and lavender… and ‘Tranquil’ ; a blend of lavender, jasmine and camomile… The scent of each candle is very distinctive and they really do affect the room they’re burning in…my particular favourite was ‘Delight’ as it was so uplifting and invigorating. I also found the ‘Tranquil’ candle was very, very calming in a completely unobtrusive way…I suddenly realised after it had been burning for a while in my shed, that I had actually sat down, relaxed and my head had cleared! And ‘Love’ …this one has a very full and beautiful scent, again not at all overpowering or intrusive, but something rather intimate…

I found the whole project fascinating; being able to capture the sense of something with raw ingredients rather than my usual paint, opened a whole new headspace for me…probably aided massively by the candles themselves!

I also have to say something about the moment you open the box with the candles inside…opening a brown paper package is always a treat, but when you open one of these brown boxes the scent is wonderful… a real bonus of being able to order on line!

…and throughout October you can use the discount code: HelloAutumn when you order via their site, which will give you a 15% off voucher valid for the whole of October.
Finally I put together a mini film, to illustrate all the incredible ingredients which go in to making up these really gorgeous artisan candles…

You can see more of Sushou Organics on their website here,on their Instagram here and there’s also a Steller story here