Innovative, eco-friendly and creative - meet the Hancocks and their candle creations

Among the market stalls that adorn the town on cruise ship arrival days, stands a display on Imlay Street, featuring an array of sea shells filled with soy wax.

This coastal spin on traditional candles is something that its creators, Peter and Elsie Severs Hancock are very proud of.

The Hancocks have been making sea shell candles for over ten years, the inspiration having come out of one of their trips in Queensland when they'd seen a candle in a big bailer shell.

"We thought it was so unique and it inspired us to look at making candles in shells, breaking away from the traditional honey pots and glass jars," Peter said.

Having grown up on the coast, the Hancocks wanted to create candles that carried across their love for the ocean.

"We're trying to create something unique with our own personalised touch," Peter said.

At first the Hancocks mostly focused on the bailer shell and other shells they could source from reputable brands within Australia, but when they moved back to Elsie's hometown in Mallacoota in 2018, they began branching out to abalone shells.

Their main shell of choice is the abalone now, which they source from a privately owned abalone processing plant also based in Mallacoota, that was recently re-built after the factory was burnt down in the 2020 bushfires.

"We source them locally, so the abalones get shucked and taken out of their shells and when we asked them what they were doing with the shells we were told they shells were mostly getting crushed and used for landfill," Peter said.

Elsie said it was a win win for both businesses, as it meant they could also promote the processing plant in Mallacoota through their coastal candle collection.

"It makes more people aware of the abalone products we have in Mallacoota," she said.

Elsie said another win out of using shells for candles was how environmentally friendly it was, versus purchasing or re-purposing glass jars or plastic candle holders.

"They're naturally grown and provide minimal waste and by using them for our candles and ensuring they don't go into landfill, people can re-purpose them and enjoy something that's a bit unique," she said.

Over the years the Hancocks have created a variety of candle gift ideas within their business, Wilderness Coast Candles, ranging from candles in bailer shells, to abalone shells, as well as soy candles in decorative Australian themed tins and coastal jars.

Another of their creations was to make alternative LED abalone gifts, wherein they decorate the shell with LED lights instead of creating a candle, catering for people who wanted ambient light that didn't pose the risks that an open flame did.

"A lot of people said they loved our candles but couldn't give them to children because they didn't trust them to be safe with it in their bedrooms, so that's when we looked into alternative ways to use abalone shells," Peter said.

"I saw some people using LED lights in glass bottles and I thought of adapting them to our shells and that's what we did."

Elsie said while the candles were popular there was only so many they could make in their home, mostly because of how labour-intensive the work was, especially when it came to preparing the shells.

"We could knock them out fairly quickly but it's the preparation of the shells that takes time," she said.

"We have to clean the abalone because it comes to us rough from where it's processed at the factory and it's still smelly and dirty, so we have to clean it all up which can take several cleans."

"Then we make up the candle wax and pour it in, we make it all at home out of our small studio downstairs and then come to the markets to sell them."

While the primary markets they go to are the ones in Mallacoota, the Hancocks said they always loved coming up to Eden to set up their stall on Cruise Ship arrival days.

Nowadays the Hancock's stall is located outside South Coast Meats shop on Imlay Street as part of the Eden Chamber of Commerce markets, on cruise ship days.

Elsie said she'd seen the town progress quickly over recent years, adding that she especially loved the new visitor information centre at the wharf and it's "fantastic location" for visitors.

"I think Eden has come a long way in the last seven years, with the upgrades to the harbour, the new information centre and renovations to Hotel Australasia," she said.

"I think Eden is a real growth spot for the future."

When not set up at markets, the Hancocks also sell their crafted goods online at their website, attracting new and returning buyers from around the country and the world.

"We mostly sell to people within Australia but we've had international orders, we once sold candles to someone in Luxembourg," Peter said.