It’s great to see more and more collaborations between like-minded retailers and pop-up entities. One such “collab” to look forward to is Pour & Penchant’s DIY candle making series, set to be held at Loaded Lumber’s flagship location in The Cobblestone District (across from the casino). Pour & Penchant has teamed up with Loaded Lumber (the fab group that brought us the stellar Christmas Market) to bring us two candle making workshops. Rick Maloney, co-owner of Nickel City Wax and Wane and founder of Pour & Penchant, will be bringing his show on the road on Saturday, March 12, and then again on Sunday, March 27, 2022.
Seeing how there aren’t a lot of candle makers around who are doing this sort of thing, I asked Rick what got him started in the endeavor.
He told me, “I love candles. I was a systems engineer, and also a dolphin and whale trainer. Then I wanted a different career path. I have an entrepreneurial ability to do something new when I’m in need of a change. When I told my partner that I couldn’t find a decent candle that smelled like a library, he said, ‘Why don’t you just make one?’ So that’s what I did. It was a lot harder than I thought. It took two years of R&D, to figure out what goes into making a good candle… a lot of due diligence. It starts with what’s going through my brain, and then drilling down to get the nuances. All of the candle blends are uniquely handcrafted to match what goes well together… and than asking how does it smell? Once you get the right direction, you must finetune the fragrance.”
Rick mentioned that the library candle is not only the first candle that he ever made, it’s also his best seller. “It’s also my favorite,” he added. “It really smells like a library! It’s the candle that started it all. It started off as an idea, and then I worked backwards to get to that point. To make it, I use antique sandalwood, oak moss, tonka bean (like vanilla but not sugary sweet), and leather fragrance (very hard to get just right). In the end, it literally smells like an aged page and old books, reminiscent of a library.”
Being relatively new to Buffalo (he moved here with his fiancé Dominic Cottone, after spending the last 25+ years in Chicago), Rick said that forging relationships with the likes of Jillian Cannan and Colleen Pandy from Loaded Lumber has been a real treat. After setting up at Loaded Lumber’s summer market in 2021, he figured that it would be prudent to jump aboard the Christmas Market train.
“We were one of the first to sign up for the Christmas Market,” said Rick. “We had an amazing experience. Hands down it was one of the best things that I’ve seen in the last five years. Jill and Colleen are amazing – we started talking at the holiday market, throwing some collaboration ideas out there. We wanted to build upon the energy that we were seeing. Pour & Penchant will definitely be at the 2022 Loaded Lumber Holiday Market – we will have a permanent chalet for the entirety of the holiday market. We were one of the first vendors to sign up back in January!
“I also collaborated with local Artist Gretchen Weidner on four holiday candles this past season. Gretchen and I plan to continue our collaborations over the spring and summer and will be back next holiday season with additional fragrances, plus the favorites from Holiday 2021. Our most recent collab was our Buffalove candle. And I collaborated with Nickel City Alchemy (magnesium balms) as well. We met the owners – Renee Carroll and Nikki Bradshaw – at the 2019 Hotel Henry Holiday Market. We pour a lavender and sage candle for their gift set.
Now that Pour & Penchant is firmly rooted at Nickel City Wax and Wane, Rick is excited to be launching the DIY candle making component of his business. For the classes, he has picked out some of the more extraordinary fragrances that you just can’t find at your neighborhood candle shop. “I wanted to do something special for the people who have purchased candles from us in the past – some different scents, curated from my catalog of 100 fragrances.”
CANDLE WORKSHOP, FRAGRANCE OPTIONS: Penchant & Pour will offer your choice of 6 NEW candle fragrances for the upcoming candle workshops. The fragrance options are: Woodsy, EMBER WOODS; Floral, HAWAIIAN LEI; Clean, VIOLET & IRIS; Gourmand, FUNFETTI; Citrus, CITRUS SMASH; Fruity, MELLON MADNESS. You may pour 2 of the same fragrance or mix and match options. Beginner level. No experience needed. All materials and supplies will be provided.
I just can’t say enough about these collaborative pop-up efforts that we are seeing all over Buffalo. Similar to how food trucks exploded onto the scene, these alliance-driven retail efforts are making an equally impressive mark. They are also helping small businesses and start-up entrepreneurs to create strength in numbers – something that is worth its weight in gold. I can’t wait to see where some of the partnerships go, as the possibilities are as bountiful and tantalizing as the remarkable candle scents dreamed up by Rick at Pour & Penchant.
#1 DIY Candle (and coasters) making session @ night
You will hand pour (2) 4 ounce candles and make (2) wooden candle coasters
Saturday, March 12, 2022
6PM-9PM
@ Loaded Lumber, 223 South Park Ave, Buffalo, NY 14204
#2 DIY Candle (and coasters) making, with light brunch (first hour is bottomless mimosas!)
You will hand pour (2) 4 ounce candles and make (2) wooden candle coasters
Sunday, March 27, 2022
10AM-1PM
@ Loaded Lumber, 223 South Park Ave, Buffalo, NY 14204
Stay tuned for additional DIY candle making classes to pop-up at Pour & Penchant, located at Nickel City Wax and Wane | 464 Amherst Street | Buffalo, NY 14207 | Find P&P on Instagram