Sheep Design is a small creative design studio based in Nagoya, that interestingly also produces a handmade range of soy wax and palm wax candles.

The candles are not mass produced – each one is made entirely in-house, from blending the essential oils to pouring the wax and labelling and packaging the candles. The glass dome shown is designed by Sheep and made by a local glass blower the studio has worked with before. While watching the glass blowing process the studio noticed the large amount of waste glass fragments that lay on the foundry floor and came up with the idea of making the handles on the domes from those individual fragments, so no two handles are quite the same.

Soy candles are made from soybean oil which is renewable and biodegradable. It burns much cleaner than paraffin wax, burns at a lower temperature and lasts longer. It doesn’t give off any petrochemical byproducts, so is much healthier. Natural plant based essential oils for fragrance continues the natural, organic approach.

Everything about the candles is well thought out. The packaging is clean and simple, the accessories have a purpose – using essential oils for fragrance means that it will gradually evaporate – the glass dome solves that issue. The paper band wrapped around the candle is translucent with a small logo and looks gently decorative but it actually stops melted wax leaking out, and should be left on. The basics are all right.

All images: © Sheep Design