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campaignseries.co.uk
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Shedding light on man whose candles grace famous movies
FANS of blockbuster movies such as Pirates of the Carib- bean and Harry Potter will have seen thousands of can- dles flickering in the back- ground but may not know that they were made by a Pon- tllanfraith candlemaker. David Constable,75, has been making candles in his
workshop at Gelligroes Mill since 1993 and was given the royal warrant of candlemaker to The Prince of Wales in the 1990s. His candles have also ap- peared in the film First Knight and TV series Game of Thrones, Doctor Who and Mer- lin but his most recent orders
from film companies have been for the British TV se- ries Poldark and Wolf Hall. Mr Constable began mak-
Mark Rylance in Wolf Hall
ing candles in the late 1960s in London as a hobby which soon turned into a business selling moulds and supply- ing candle-making kits to craft-makers and later mak- ing and selling hand-made candles. He has since made hun- dreds of thousands of can- dles in all shapes, sizes and colour along with his wife Julie, and a member of staff based in a workshop and shop at the 17th-centu- ry watermill that was once the home of the Moore fam- ily. It was here in 1912 that amateur radio enthusiast Artie Moore picked up the first SOS from the Titanic more than 3,000 miles away in the Atlantic. His candles have graced a great number
of film sets over the years. He recalls his first work
for a film was in 1974 for Dracula starring the actor Jack Palance. “They approached me
and asked me to make 30 inch-and-a-half in diameter black candles each with three wicks. “They need to have two or three wicks in them so that they burn brighter on the set as they film by candle- light,” he explained. He is used to making bulk orders with little time for blockbusters. In 2013 he was asked for three tonnes of traditional candles for the filming of Cinderella. “We are geared up for sudden orders and always fulfil them.” He said among the more unusual orders he has received is a roast chicken-shaped candle and a Frozen-themed candle for
David Constable who runs Gelligroes Mill Candle Workshop
a child’s birthday cake. “The biggest candle I made meas- ured nine metres high and one metre wide and weighed seven tonnes, in 1989. I broke the world record for the big-
gest free-standing candle.” On seeing his candles on screen he said: “It’s lovely. It’s a good time for candles with all the historical dramas be- ing filmed.”
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