ABOVE: Candle-maker Missy Kuckkan inserts a wick sized for a candle’s glass vessel.

ABOVE: Missy Kuckkan dispenses and measures liquid wax for a candle.

ABOVE: A candle wick is allowed to set in its wax.

ABOVE: Missy Kuckkan shows off a few of her candles.

ABOVE: Candle-maker Missy Kuckkan inserts a wick sized for a candle’s glass vessel.

ABOVE: Missy Kuckkan dispenses and measures liquid wax for a candle.

ABOVE: A candle wick is allowed to set in its wax.

ABOVE: Missy Kuckkan shows off a few of her candles.

WATERTOWN — For Watertown’s Missy Kuckkan, all it took was one long weekend with a good friend in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and she was hooked on a surprisingly intricate and delicate art form that was new to her, but with deep roots in global antiquity.

It was in a cabin in that wonderfully wild area of the country that she and her girlfriend taught themselves the beauty, relaxation and satisfaction of scented, soy-wax candle-making.

Kuckkan, now a 53-year-old former school teacher, came to Watertown from Cedarburg to start a new life with her family.

She earned her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and received her teaching certification from Cardinal Stritch University, then her masters degree from UW-Green Bay. She worked as a high school English teacher for 25 years until 2018, when she had to leave for health reasons.

“I have multiple sclerosis, which has caused a bilateral cognitive dysfunction, a fancy way of saying my brain does not do the deep thinking, processing, evaluating and multi-tasking that is imperative for a teacher,” Kuckkan said.

She always has been a weekend crafter, and related the story of how she became a candle maker.

“Several times a year, I get together with a dear friend of mine, who lives in Minneapolis, and we experiment in various crafts — from knitting to decoupage to jewelry making and, ultimately, candles,” Kuckkan said. “We spend long weekends immersing ourselves in the craft du jour, laughing and imbibing a glass of wine or two. As any crafter will tell you, it is an amazing way to decompress and that is what we would do.”

A weekend in October of 2019 that the two friends decided to test their skills at making candles, they were in the U.P., spending the days winterizing a cabin and the evenings melting wax, adhering wicks to a variety of vessels and carefully measuring oils.

“We quickly learned there was a lot more that went into the process than we thought, but it was a blast, and by the time the weekend was over we had several Christmas gifts for our family and friends,” Kuckkan said.

The candle making certainly didn’t end for her after that weekend.

“I was hooked,” Kuckkan said, “and because my husband, Kevin, and I have always burned a lot of candles, it seemed like a perfect way to use all of the time I had on my hands, because I was no longer teaching, and eventually the COVID-19 caused things to shut down.

“By March, I had spent months experimenting with several vessels, wax, wicks and scents, and settled on ones that I really liked,” she added. “I was building quite the collection, and that was when my husband suggested I should try selling the candles at the Watertown Farmers Market.”

Kuckkan — already an upbeat and energetic person — really lights up when she discusses the caring she has put into the selection of ingredients she uses in her candle wax — always a fragrant foray into the soothing world of candle light and scent. She also is environmentally conscious in choosing ingredients, and likens the creation of her candles to “a form of cooking.”

“I use soy wax, because paraffin wax is petroleum-based and is harmful to the environment, both while burning and after, because it isn’t biodegradable, while soy wax is natural and renewable, and biodegradable,” she said. “Overall, soy wax is a much better wax for candles.

“Paraffin will give a very strong ‘cold throw’ — which is the scent of an unlit candle — but often loses its scent before the wax is used up,” Kuckkan explained. “Soy wax retains the scent for the entire life of the candle. It also burns more slowly, because it burns at a lower temperature, so the consumer gets much more burn time. I also chose wicks that have paper filaments, so they are self trimming and the oils I use are essential oils.”

She offered the disclaimer that, because she doesn’t make her own oils, she is not certain hers are “100% essential.” She added she uses Victorian jars because she loves the look of them and has felt the market was flooded with canning-jar candles.

The number of candles that she makes depends on the time of year and if she has a special order or craft fair going coming up.

“If I am getting ready for a craft fair, I am making 30 candles a day,” Kuckkan said. “When I am getting ready for the farmers market, I will spend months making candles to ensure I have enough stock, and there will still be times throughout the summer that I will have to replenish. Online orders I make on demand.”

She typically makes more than 700 candles a year, because she always is making candles for her family’s home, and for friends and family.

“The entire process is very relaxing for me,” Kuckkan said. “But my favorite part is creating scents. We buy candles to bring our sense of smell alive, while also setting a mood. It could be anything like uplifting the day with the scent of cucumber and green tea, or indulging in a long bath with lemongrass, lilac and patchouli, or to celebrate the smell of Christmas with orange, clove and cinnamon.”

When she began making candles, she chose names for each different scent that brought about positive emotions.

“This was because the continued sense of suspense the pandemic created was weighing heavily on us, and I felt we needed hope,” Kuckkan said. “I have continued to choose names for each of the candles that I feel represents the scent, but will also incorporate multiple senses. Each name is intended to bring forth a positive emotion, and when coupled with the scent and color, of the name on the label, I am hoping the customer has a full atmospheric immersion.”

She explained her process for manufacturing candles, saying that when making candles, temperature, vessel size, wick size and oil amounts are very important.

“If the wax is too hot, then it will scorch the oils, resulting in a scentless candle,” Kuckkan said. “If I use too much oil, then the wax will become dimpled and won’t burn cleanly. I need to ensure there is an optimal amount of oil for the candle to have both a cold throw and a warm throw.”

The cold throw is the scent one gets from the candle when it is not burning and the warm throw is the scent when the candle is burning.

“I also needed to make sure the candle retains its scent for the duration of the entire candle,” Kuckkan said. “If the vessel size and wick size don’t match, I will either have a candle that burns too fast and hot, or there will be a lot of wax left on the sides of the container. I also have to ensure that my oils are kept in a cool, dark place to ensure they retain their scents.”

In the beginning, she said that, for her, there was a lot of trial and error, with wicks, vessels and oil amounts.

“When melting my wax, I have to keep a close eye on its temperature, because it also affects how it sets up in the vessel,” Kuckkan said. “When the vessel and wick are too much cooler than the wax, I will get pockets in the candle. To ensure that my candles are solid wax, before the candle is completely cooled, I need to use a tool to push down into the candle and force any air out of it.”

She said that, as much as making candles is a science project, it also is a creative one, and much of her creativity goes into her candle making as part of her P&M Creations.

P&M Creations is the product of the weekend in Upper Michigan with her crafting colleague Patty, and is the vehicle through which Kuckkan sells her candles.

“I have had immense fun creating all of the branding for P&M Creations,” she said. “I spend as much time creating each label as I do finding the perfect scent for each candle.”

“Patty is the P in P&M,” Kuckkan said. “That weekend, we joked about the idea of creating a company and using buffalo plaid as our signature design, because we were wearing it most of the weekend while stacking wood and winterizing the cabin. It was just fun talking about it, for the most part, until COVID-19.

“So, like millions of other people, I thought, ‘If not now, when?’” she added. “With the encouragement of my husband to sell them at the Watertown Farmers Market, I applied for a vendor’s license. In the spring of 2020, Melissa Lampe welcomed me as a new vendor.”

Kuckkan’s candle creations also can be found at the Watertown Artisan Market and she has been a vendor at the Watertown Farmers Market for the past two years. She also has been part of several craft fairs, including the Turner Hall Holiday Fair and Immanuel’s Mistletoe Market.

She has a website at pmcandlecreations.square.site and people can follow her on Facebook@P&MCandleCreations and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pmcandlecreations/ to get updates on new scents, sales and fairs where P&M Creations will be selling candles.

“I plan to continue to enjoy making candles and melts for my customers,” Kuckkan said. “I would really like to connect with more wedding and event planners, because P&M candles and melts are great take-away gifts, because they can be personalized for the event, from the scent to the label name. For example, the candle Love is the scent of gardenia, which was a bride’s bouquet flower.”

Kuckkan is the daughter-in-law of former Watertown Daily Times circulation manager, the late George Kuckkan, and is big on family. She said she wished there was a great story of “family tradition” being at the heart of her passion, but there isn’t.

“The truth is that Youtube is where I received my first lessons,” she said. “After that, it was trial and error, and reaching out online to other candle makers for advice.”

Kuckkan has tried her hand at making soap, but she didn’t make what she called “the beautiful, cold process soaps,” and her heart really wasn’t in it.

“So now I just focus on candles and (scented wax) melts,” she said. “Melts are wickless, scented pieces of wax that are melted in a warmer. A good share of our customers may live in locations that don’t permit the burning of candles, so melts have become a very popular item.”

Kuckkan said her journey into the ancient art of candle making has been great, and has demonstrated to her what a warm and inviting community Watertown is — “even to a non-native like me,” she said. “Beyond the actual designing and making of candles, I must admit that it truly has been a pleasure to meet so many wonderful people as a result.”

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