Candle-making hobby

becomes fledgling business

Candles have

multiple scents

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Tim Lass's new-found enthusiasm is for candles.

He makes them out of soybean wax in a small, rented space off Center Street in the basement of the former McCleary's Auto Parts store.

And he's been at it mostly by himself for nearly two weeks now.

"I'm basically trying to make an affordable, attractive candle and I'm willing to do anything," Lass said. "You could bring me a coffee cup and I'll make it into a candle."

Candlemaking was only a hobby when Lass left his native Orange County, California. He decided to take the hobby to a higher step after his friends started asking him to make candles. He decided to move to Minnesota five years ago and has lived and worked in Nicollet and New Ulm.

"It started out as a hobby, but then my friends wanted them so I figured I'd try this and have a go at it," he explained.

There are only two people that work at Kustom Candle Kreations, located a 5. S. Minnesota St., -- Lass and a friend who helps him mix scents and pour wax a few days a week.

It is the first time he's tried owning his own business and said one big hurdle is that nobody outside his friends knows he makes candles for a living, even though he's thinking about having an open house.

The system Lass uses to make his wares is deceptively simple. He makes his votives and jar candles by melting the wax in a Crock Pot, mixes it with a scent in a bowl, pours them into a mold and then adds a wick. The wax for a jar candle goes straight from the mixing bowl into the chosen jar; the challenge is getting the wax to stick to the inside.

The tough part is getting the scents mixed right. He has a hand-written list of all his candles' scents. Unlike regular candles, the ones Lass makes are quadruple-scented. He said he often mixes several scents to make many of the candles on his list.

He makes about 40 different kinds of scents, including peanut butter, chocolate and one he calls "Hot Buttered Pancakes", which smells very much like maple syrup even before lighting the wick.

And there's "Pumpkin Pie", which is pretty straightforward, and "Tea Party", which smells like Chinese green tea.

He said experimenting with different scents is one the more creative aspects of making candles -- one Lass enjoys a lot but doesn't spend much time on as the scents are rather expensive.

"The system is simple, but you have to be an amateur chemist to get a good-looking candle, in my opinion. The pouring temperature is crucial for the formula to set up correctly," said Lass.

Basically, a day at Kustom Candle Kreations starts with melting wax "and it goes from there," Lass said. He estimated he can easily make 500 candles in a day.

He's currently working on a line of candles for Christmas and Halloween. He's also got 9-11 tribute candles with red, white and blue stripes and tie-die candles that mix a variety of colors.

He said his favorite types of candles to make are votives, which require stands, and jar candles.

He sells the candles out of his shop. In the future, he hopes to set up a retail outlet and to establish a web site for sales.