Lump Shop Overview
/ 2018—2020
Lump shop was a small artisan candle sculpting operation that I co-founded with my friend Lauren Lubell. Working as designers by day and artisan chandlers (candle-makers) by night, Lump Shop was both a small business and a small world. Driven by our mutual interest in learning new crafts and processes, we sculpted, molded, and poured each candle by hand.
Photography by Naomi McColloch
The Original Lump Family
Branding
Although the actual candlemaking process itself was more collaborative, I handled most of the design and branding visuals, including but not limited to the logo, web design, and printed marketing materials.
logo sketches
business cards and wholesale order sheets
Research & Development
As an industrial designer, Lauren had an established skillset with ceramic mold making and casting, which proved invaluable to the art of candle making. After extensive online research and controlled experiments, we developed our own custom wax mixture of paraffin, soy, additives, and colorant—this special mix ensured each candle looked vibrant and resistant to environmental changes.
After finalizing the composition of the wax mixture, we did more tests to finalize our pouring procedures and optimal temperatures. After a few months, the basic structure of our process could be broken down into four basic steps: sculpt, mold, pour wax, remove finished candle.
The candles were sculpted out of plasticine clay before being moldedWe used ice cube trays to do quick color dye tests for the waxA 2 part rubber mold for the worm candle, held together with rubberbandsRemoving the worm from its moldThe twins candle burning just as intended...A secret ritual 🤫
Lump Shop at Events
/ 2018—2020
As a small business we participated in many events, fairs, markets, and other pop ups. Here’s a selection of some memorable times:
West Coast Craft
West Coast Craft is a bi-annual juried exhibition of artist and designer craftspeople that takes place at Fort Mason in San Francisco. In the winter of 2017, we were accepted into the WCC Intro Scholarship program and given a free booth to exhibit our first collection of candles.
Although restricted by a tight budget and strict trade show fire code, we stood out from the crowd with a unique hand-painted table design and by playing up bright colors and textures. Each display candle character had its own island puddle to live on while the majority of the candles were prepackaged in their own individual boxes. This worked out well for easy purchasing and customers buying holiday gifts.
SF Art Book Fair
Eggy Press asked us to create a product for the 2019 SF Art Book Fair. We decided to use this opportunity to design a new candle that built upon everything we learned with the original line. This sausage link candle is ultra functional—it uses beeswax for a long, clean burn; although packaged as one link it technically comes with 8 candles; it includes a metal condiment candle holder with a custom 3d printed pronged bottom; and once it burns down into the condiment holder it has a second life as a regular container candle. Packaged in a thermal hotdog sleeve, the candles also came with an informational booklet that I designed.