It began with a gift

Curated Long Island began with a gift. Chip gave Stefanie candle-making equipment — something to try, a way into a new interest. She fell in love with the craft almost immediately.

It was supposed to be a hobby. Then it was a few candles for friends, for neighbors, for the woman at work who asked where she had bought hers. Chip started learning beside her — wax, wicks, cure times, the things that separate a candle that works from one that does not. The kitchen table became a workbench. The workbench became a corner of the house that everyone learned to walk around.

Somewhere between work shifts, school schedules and late-night pours, her dream became theirs.

The in-between hours

We are not a factory. We are a family, and this is what we make in the in-between hours — after school runs and work shifts, in the quiet stretch between dinner and bedtime, on weekend mornings when the house smells like warm wax instead of coffee.

Every candle is poured by hand. Every label is placed by hand. Every order is packed by the same people who made it. That is slower than it could be. We have decided we prefer it that way.