Candlemaker looking to keep the flame burning
Local
Last Christmas Theresia Munton was visiting her daughter in Brisbane when they looked around for a church to attend.
Once they’d found somewhere to worship, Theresia (pictured) looked up towards the altar. “There’s my candle,” she said to herself.
It was not unexpected.
Since the late 1990s, the mother of two adult daughters has made thousands of candles that have found their way into Catholic parishes across Australia. And they have all come from the front room of her home in Chapel Hill, a 40-minute drive east of Adelaide.
It is the consummate cottage industry. Theresia makes about 320 paschal candles every year as well as up to 600 memorial, baptism, communion and marriage candles.
Her husband Richard – a retired navy officer – oversees the finance and much of the logistics but is adamant the business is Theresia’s creation alone.
After 27 years, Birchleigh Candles is on the market. A first grandchild is due to daughter Georgina in December and Theresia is keen to be able to drop everything at short notice to hot foot it to Queensland if called upon.
Currently, there are very limited suppliers of Australian made and wax-decorated paschal candles. The dilemma is that should her niche business cease to operate, then the quality of candles used in Catholic churches across Australia may well drop with the alternative mass imports of high oil-concentrate candles, rather than the bees wax blend she uses.
“We want it to continue,” she said, adding she would be happy to stay on for a year or so to show the new owner the ropes.
It is an intriguing proposition and, like many businesses, came about by chance for the woman who is a well-known worshipper at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Mount Barker.
Her parents went to visit some relatives in southern Germany in 1993 and came back with some impressive decorative baptism candles compared to a very “limited and ordinary” offering in Australia.
Fr James Valladeres at Mount Barker showed an interest in Theresia’s idea for better quality and more attractive candles. Inspired, she put together a brochure to send out to parishes across metropolitan Adelaide with 12 orders promptly received.
The flame lit, a neighbour who was involved in advertising was roped in to build a bigger brochure.
“We thought, let’s see what happens if we send it to parishes in South Australia and Victoria,” said Theresia. Soon they were sending them to New South Wales, Queensland, part of Western Australia and Tasmania.
Her two daughters, Georgina and Alice, who now teaches at St Aloysius College, were only young so working from home fitted the bill.
January to April each year is the hectic period and mostly spent preparing pascal candles for Easter with as many as 50 orders for every category of candle in a particularly busy week.
Manufacturing is straightforward but intense.
“Pouring, decorating and topping up,” Theresia explained.
It starts with a high-quality wax blend that arrives from Victoria in silver topped trays which Theresia stacks around the house before pouring the heated wax into moulds to fit the size and shape of different candles (900 by 94 mm is the largest product).
Customers order from the brochure or not un-typically want something special and send her a jpeg of their desired design and the thinking begins.
“It’s a bit like a puzzle piece. I cut out the wax, then I play with the design and transfer it to the candle. I use a hairdryer on a low heat setting. Wax is very soft, it’s like melding, I get it in the right position and then use my hands to seal it,” she said.
Many designs are floral, with wattle and bottlebrush popular. Waratah with Bluebell and Eucharist Burgundy are two of the more exotically named products in the Birchleigh catalogue with paschals ranging from $100 to a large, highly decorated on sale for around $400.
Baptism candles, the original thrust of the business, are ongoing but memorial offerings are an increasing part of the company business. Theresia provides personalised candles to Berry Funeral Directors in Adelaide and she has had requests for images of Harley Davidsons, bagpipes and more.
“It’s a way for people to express themselves,” said Theresia.
There is a disclaimer always with any order.
“Don’t leave it sitting in the car in summer because it will be like chocolate, it will hold its form until you touch it,” she warned.
Despite the desire to move on to grandmother duties, selling up will be bittersweet.
“I don’t want paschal candles to go back to something ordinary,” Theresia said.
Keeping the business going is a sentiment shared by at least one parish which contacted the Archdiocese of Adelaide to see if it could help find a new candlemaker.
The parish said if the business didn’t continue it would have to import candles from China as there was no other local supplier.
For more information, visit birchleighcandles.com.au
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