On changing light, Atlantic evenings, and living by rhythm
Living on the west coast of Kerry has changed the way I notice light.
Here, it is never still. It shifts with the weather, the hour, and the season. Some evenings arrive under a flat grey sky. Others break open suddenly, and the last light reaches across the hills and water before the day slips away. Even on darker days, the sky never seems entirely finished.
It is one of the things I have come to love most about living here. Not only its beauty, but its rhythm. Light slows differently on the west coast. It softens and lingers, making the shift from day to night feel gradual rather than sudden.
In the darker months especially, those seasonal changes become part of daily life. The weather closes in earlier. Evening arrives sooner. The house begins to matter more. Warmth, quiet, and the feel of a room at dusk take on a different weight.
That is part of what drew me to beeswax.
Candlelight feels especially right on evenings like that. Not harsh or overstated, just warm, steady, and easy to live with. Beeswax has its own subtle natural scent and golden glow, and it brings a softness to a space that feels far removed from overhead light.
What began for me at the kitchen table on dark evenings in Kerry slowly became part of a wider way of living. Making candles was never only about producing an object. It was also about paying closer attention to home, to evening, and to the quieter parts of daily life that so easily go unnoticed.
My dog, Bowie, is usually nearby in the studio while I pour and wrap, a calm presence during the quieter hours of work. In many ways, that suits the pace of it all. Nothing rushed, nothing overcomplicated. Just the steady act of making something by hand that brings warmth and light into a room.
On the west coast, where light is always changing, I have come to value those quieter transitions more and more. The moment the day begins to fade. The last colour holding in the sky. The feeling of a room warming from within.
That, for me, is where beeswax belongs.
West Coast Crafts
