Finding Friends Over Candle Making
Candle Making
Finding new friends while getting creative
After the end of a long work week most people like to spend their Friday night unwinding with friends and loved ones. It's a time to pack away work for the next few days and revel in the fact that the alarm doesn't need to go off too early the next morning. For a gathering, Popover teamed up with Hayworth and Heart to create an evening of casual conversation with a hands on custom candle making for a group of guests at The Unique Space in Downtown LA. The goal was to celebrate a productive week by crafting, eating, and spending the evening with some new faces. The guests were invited to mingle, drink, and discover not only a new craft, but a new person to chat with as well. The part I love during each Popover gathering is when the conversation starts going and everyone begins chiming in on the topic at hand. I get learn from what others are saying and it begins to feel like those great dinner parties when everything just clicks.
When I sat down to put together the conversation portion of the evening I tapped into a topic that I've been playing with recently, "how do you find friends and partnerships that mean something", more playfully titled "will you be my friend?". It's a relatively simple and trivial question, but something that has a major impact on our own happiness, productivity, attitude, and a whole list of emotions that make us feel connected to a community. A shared connection, shared neighborhood, or mutual interest is all it takes to reveal a new friendship or possible collaboration. The low key evening at The Unique Space was no different as the guests began creating their own candles, mixing their own scents, and ultimately cozying up to each other on vintage couches to discuss how inspired scents can relate to inspired friendships and partnerships. Once the caps to the oil bottles came off the group was busy testing, passing, and sharing their favorite scents with fellow crafters. Staged like a true dinner party we all enjoyed drinks pre-candle making and wandered around the venue enjoying The Unique Space's incredible decor, the main event brought everyone together around the community table to listen to Hayworth and Heart owner, Suraiya, talk about scent trends while helping everyone mix their candles. We ended up in the living room to cary the conversation from unique scented candles to building unique friendships. With a diverse group of guests each person provided their own take on topics like how to blend and layer meaningful relationships and developing lingering partnerships. By the time the candles had cooled and were packed to go, the group was still lingering in the main room, sparking conversations, making future plans, and celebrating a Friday evening not with strangers, but new found partners and friends.
