About Spiro

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About me – Spiro the candle maker (AKA…… Mr G)

I was born in Wales in June 1970 – I won’t give you the exact date because someone will try to hack my life – you know what those little hackers are like.

I have always had a passion for fire, flames, candles and scents. I don’t know why, but when I was little I used to visit my nan and granddad at their bungalow in Newport. As they were quite elderly, they would always complain it was cold so they always had a coal fire burning. I used to sit staring into the flames for what seemed like hours just day-dreaming. I was never allowed to light the fire of course and so the desire to recapture or recreate light of the flames and the smell of the fire has stayed with me ever since.

Looking back, that’s probably where my fascination came from so, as soon as I was old enough, I left home and got my own place. The first thing I bought for my flat was some scented candles from The Pier in Cardiff and my new flat smelled wonderful.

Pretty soon I was experimenting with candle-making. Things were a little tight financially when I first started. I used to recycle the scented paraffin candle wax and pour into Pringle crisp containers with string hanging from the kitchen unit. I’m sure it was partly to save money but also an excuse to buy more Pringles. At this point, I didn’t know anything about the chemical make-up of wax – my eco-friendly thinking was to come later as I looked into it in more detail.

I was also inspired after a road trip across America. My good friend Graham and I visited Los Angeles and San Francisco and, eventually, Las Vegas. In San Francisco I discovered a candle shop that blew me away! It was full of candles and smelled fantastic – so many different colours and the scent was overwhelming. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I’ve dreamed of having my own candle making company ever since.

This experience widened my eyes so to speak and opened my mind to the possibilities of using scents and essential oils in my candles. I’d always been interested in meditation (and Karate – it’s a spiritual thing I suppose) and so this seemed a logical step. I tried meditation myself with different scents and soon got a feel for what worked well. And so began my candle-lit journey. It was delayed for a while when I met my beautiful wife to be, Nanor (she’s very talented herself – check out my links section) but I soon got back on track.

When we moved to a larger home, I forgot all about the candle hobby for a while. One day, I was busy renovating my wife’s glass studio and started thinking about the candles again – my passion for candle-making had been relit. I cleaned out the green house (not the safest place to play with fire but it was light) and set about getting my candle business off the ground.

I wanted to share my passion for candles but as I had become more environmentally aware, I also wanted to make sure that what I was creating wasn’t harming the planet. So I researched organic soy wax and essential oils to ensure they were friendly before I went any further.

Now I have a small workshop where we make our candles and I couldn’t be happier. My vision is turning into a reality and, although we’re only a small business, we’re growing every day as new customers find us and tell their friends.

At Gauci, we really don’t want to be the biggest candle business in the world, just the best. And, if we spread a little love and light along the way, that would be nice too.

I hope you enjoy our candles as much as we’ve enjoyed making them
for you.

Mr G

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