Picture courtesy of Dasha Lebedev
Dasha Lebedev wears an informal hat with a fish stitched on the brim. He opened the doorways of his Hapville studio and revealed a small however highly effective candle making workshop. It is simply one other day at The Authentic Tinned Fish Candle, the corporate Lebedev launched only a 12 months and a half in the past. On the time, she by no means anticipated an Instagram web page of her whimsical, sea creature-shaped candles to prove the way in which it did.
Born in Belarus and raised in a north Atlanta suburb, Lebedev grew up consuming canned seafood together with his dad and mom and all the time liked drawing fish. Nonetheless, the concept of making candles appeared to return out of the blue, as did the concept of utilizing an previous fish design for packaging. In late 2023, he stop his full-time job at a tech firm and employed a number of mates to hurry up the manufacturing course of as orders got here in. Galleries and boutiques discovered her on an internet market known as Faire and needed candles to promote of their shops. Because the wholesale enterprise started to flourish, six of his mates turned his staff.
A current check-in reveals the studio is buzzing with effectivity—a superb factor, as 300 to 600 candles are shipped every week all through america, in addition to Europe and Australia. Simply as Lebedev appreciates his wholesale orders from wine outlets, galleries and boutiques, he additionally sells to people on his web site.
Picture by Noah Orisich
The method of constructing a fish candle, able to mild, is a protracted one. For all model variations, Lebedev designs the fish molds, labels and hand-wrapping paper. Meeting begins with putting the sticker on the tin. Subsequent, the wax is melted with an all-natural perfume, akin to rose or sea salt. The underside of every tin is layered with scented wax and two scented fish are held within the hand as if they’re swimming. “This half is essentially the most time-consuming,” she says.
When the candle is full, it is hand-wrapped with whimsical paper—additionally tedious, however Lebedev’s course of is tailor-made to his clients’ preferences. “We tried the field,” she says. “However I polled my clients, they usually love hand-wrapped. So we’re sticking with rapping for now.”
The perimeters of the studio are cluttered with experimental stickers, packaging and concepts scrawled on sheets of paper: Lebedev’s transferring mind particles for brand new merchandise. But his inspiration can and does strike wherever. She often buys canned seafood when she’s out—she just lately discovered canned fish at “the cutest sandwich store on a household journey to Cape Cod”—and hosts canned-fish events with mates. His present favourite strategy to get pleasure from canned fish? “On a toasted baguette, topped with sardine pate and a cucumber for crunch.”
Picture by Noah Orisich
For this 12 months’s vacation season, followers of the candle firm welcome final 12 months’s Vanilla Egg scent—“they needed it,” Lebedev says—and may take a look at the brand new Fraser Fir scent, offering an immediate jolt of the yuletide season.
Two new kinds of candles have been added to the lineup: small birthday candles, affectionately known as Want Fish, and tapered choices splendid for a cocktail party—maybe serving a tinned seafood meal.
This text appeared in our November 2024 concern.
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