Meet Marike Anderson | Candle Maker & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marike Anderson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marike, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My background is in public education, first as a teacher at Pali High in the Palisades and then as an assistant principal in San Fernando. I am not a business-minded person, but I left my career after my husband, Edwin, passed away in 2021 to focus on raising my son. I already had my yoga teaching certificate and started teaching yoga and holding women’s retreats at our home in Altadena. For a winter solstice event I wanted to gift a candle as a symbol of light emerging in the darkness. I began to experiment with candle making, and although I didn’t figure out my solstice candle, I did continue teaching myself how to make candles. A dear friend from Altadena named Pauly who himself owns a small business and loves candles really encouraged me to start a candle business. Though I felt a lot of anxiety about the business side of things, I moved forward with the hopes that this could be a way to work from home while caring for my son, and also to make connections in my Altadena community. Incidentally, Pauly is a surfer and he asked me to make a candle that smells like his surf wax. The Beach Day candle is the result and is by far our my seller.

What should our readers know about your business?
In August, Altadena Candle Company will be one year old, which is hard to believe considering how much has happened. My first sales event was at a little artist market inside the Brewery in Sierra Madre. Not quite a year later, I am wholesaling to some wonderful local shops, I have a steady online business, and I participate in local markets. I am also making custom candles for events, and collaborating with local businesses to design their own candles. All of these experiences and opportunities are new to me and have required working through fear and self-doubt to accomplish. Part of my success is age; I’m old enough that I am not crippled by the fear of others’ judgements like I was in the past. The courage to assert myself in something new is also a result of a lot of working on myself, healing childhood shame and trauma. Maybe I’m going too deep, but it’s the truth. My ability to claim a space in this world as Altadena Candle Company is the result of a lot of healing. My husband Edwin was the person who made me feel wholly loved and confident in anything I wished to do. When he passed, I had to find that love and confidence within myself. It was not easy, but through doing a lot of little things that scared me, I can say I’ve accomplished far more than I knew possible. A couple years after Edwin passed, a friend and I went through The Artist’s Way, which had been unread on my shelf for 20 years. It’s a course of clearing out barriers to creativity, healing childhood experiences that stifled self-expression. The process really worked for me, driving me to complete my grief series of paintings (on my @marike_creates Instagram) and to hold a GRIEF show to share my works. It built trust in my own creative visions and urges, which I believe led me to making candles. At the time, I had no idea that candle making would become central to my life. The essence of the book is to keep creating and let the greater Creative Intelligence manage the outcome. Whatever work I do, whether it is holding a woman’s retreat, teaching a yoga, class, or creating a custom candle, I hope that it helps someone connect to their own sense of aliveness and creativity. Candle fragrance is one small way for someone to transcend the day-to-day and remember how vast and beautiful life can be.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m 45 and in full single-mom mode, so asking me what is fun interesting, and exciting either draws a blank or makes me want to cry for the version of me that used to brunch in WeHo, dine on rooftops downtown, and generally be out and about. Bodhi and I like to hike the Owl Trail in La Canada and the JPL Trail. I would definitely drag my bestie along for these nourishing and peaceful hikes. I would let the visit be an excuse to head out to Venice or Santa Monica where I lived most of my 20s, for beach and shopping. Brunch would be at Shoop’s Deli on Main Street, which is an authentic European cafe and market. My first job in LA was washing dishes for them, and they are just about the nicest people in the world. Everyone who walks in is Norm from Cheers and the food is to die for. Leave with the best European treats. Another Main Street stop would be to take a class at “The Class,” which is one of the most transformative and inspiring fitness classes I have ever taken. I teach yoga, but this is a blend of dance, somatic healing, aerobics, yoga, and liberation. Highly recommend. I would take them downtown for crystal shopping at CCG Wholesalers, which is a hidden gem (wink) for anyone who loves crystals and wholesale prices. It’s in a slightly dodgy area, but there is parking on the roof and it’s safe. I worked there for a while when I wanted to work crystals into my candles, and had a wonderful time immersed in downtown life. Then we would head to Silverback Coffee of Rwanda in the atrium of the 400 South Hope St building. The owners Jack & Jen Karuletwa (who I adore) grow the coffee on family land in Rwanda that Jack left in the 1990s to avoid the genocide. He’s now giving back so much to the community and wildlife, plus his coffee is incredible and the pastries and food are wonderful. I would take my bestie for facials with Meghan at Honest Dermatology in Encino as she is a miracle worker, and a scrub at Wi Spa on Wilshire to be scrubbed back into childhood. In Pasadena we could walk the Rose Bowl and hit up the Norton Simon Museum.

That’s about all I could pull off while Bodhi is in school, so everything else would be hanging with my boy, scootering around, climbing, and eating pizza, hopefully at the South Pasadena farmers market, which has to be one of the best in LA.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
As mentioned, my friend Pauly Harter who owns Pure Joy Pool Co in Altadena has been my biggest cheerleader in starting my own business. I think some other people in my life rolled their eyes a little (a lot?) when I said I was starting a candle business. On family member said “making candles is something you do in high school.” Pauly is a candle fanatic, and he convinced me that my candles were definitely good enough for market. He, like me, also is raising a special needs son without another parent around, and so his understanding of my circumstances and his belief in me gave me courage I didn’t necessarily have on my own.

I am also so grateful to people in Altadena and Pasadena who bought my candles when the labels were janky and I had no website. It is scary for me to put my work out into the world, whether it’s a yoga sequence, a painting, or a candle. But the only way to become better is to start imperfectly. And so I really appreciate everyone who has purchased a candle along the way, allowing me to develop my skills and my confidence.

Website: https://www.altadenacandleco.com

Instagram: @altadenacandlecompany