About the Artist

Some excerpts on this page were taken from "A Light Touch," an article about Creative Candles & Gifts that appeared in the May 2008 issue of Country Women Magazine.

16 years ago, Vera Fomichev came to the U.S. from Uzbekistan with $200 and a dream for a better life. After a job in a candle factory ignited her entrepreneurial spirit, she launched her own waxworks in 2002 - Creative Candles & Gifts.

Using poured paraffin, beeswax and botanicals, she creates candle designs from ideas sparked in her backyard flower garden.

First, Vera sees a motif in her mind's eye, and then turns to Mother Nature for raw materials. She grows miniature roses, pansies, hydrangeas, columbines and ferns, and gathers wild plants form the area fields and mountainsides. Every leaf, seed or petal she comes across ends up in wax!

Starting with a beeswax-coated candle, Vera trims it with petals and foliage and covers the design with waxed paper. Next, she presses the flora into the soft wax with a roller, peels off the paper, applies more beeswax and lets it dry.

As Vera says, "Light the wick, and the candle comes alive."

A trained artist, Vera has found a way to incorporate painting into her candles as well. She uses beeswax, tinted multiple colors, just like paint. Sometimes she uses a stencil as a guide, stroking wildlife and nature scenes onto her wax canvas.

Among the most popular items are Vera's photo candles. Working with a color print, she cuts out the picture's subject - usually a person or pet - and affixes it to the candle with beeswax. Customers can request any kind of background to fit their picture. If they can imagine it, Vera can craft it.

Vera has put a family into a farm scene, a horse in a pasture and a bride and groom on a painted beeswax beach. Wedding invitations and birth announcements can also be embedded into wax keepsakes.

Vera's candles and gifts are sold on this Web site and in her combination retail/candle making shop near downtown Sacramento.