Plaristo, the candle makers and shop, formerly on the High Street, has moved to their new shop at 72 Church Square, opposite St Mary’s church. It is a space that delights as soon as one walks in because of the variety of colour, shapes and simple and exotic candles.
Silvia Shinn is the creator behind Plaristo, with help from husband Nick and daughter Jennifer West. The shop started in 2011, first being in the Mint, then in a larger shop in the High Street, and when Covid hit, the company moved to their Rye Harbour warehouse. After Covid, Silvia decided to open a pop up candle shop in the High Street which her daughter took on to learn about the trade as well as making candles at the back of the shop. When they were given notice there, the family searched for another shop in Rye and in the end decided to take on the corner shop, at the top of Lion Street, keeping the Plaristo name and brand alive.
Nick calls the shop ‘Home Forever’ and after all these moves, Silvia says, “I am not moving again!”. Silvia explained the meaning behind the name Plaristo: it is the tension between Plato, who found beauty in an abstract realm, whereas Aristotle locates beauty within the physical world defining it through observable characteristics.
There is such a variety of candles and colours that it is difficult to chose for one’s own home or for a present. The interior offers different kinds of beeswax candles and boxes of dinner candles with labels of paintings by Turner and Klimt, Silvia’s Rye Harbour little red-roofed house or birds with candles in the boxes reflecting the colours in the pictures.
Silvia is the creative source behind this wonderful collection of candles, as well as the drawings on the see-through tealights which get sent to Germany who organise the production. They are glowing, festive and imaginative, in any size when lit with a tealight. The idea of beauty and light, and to create artisan hand-poured candles and tapers, was born from a background working in social therapy, focusing on wellbeing.
The choice of materials, as well as their sustainability, are a mix in Silvia’s mind, so the candles are made with natural ingredients refined by soya and coconut wax to ensure a clean and lasting burn. While Silvia creates the ambiance of the artistic works, her daughter Jennifer West manages the production, online orders and shop. The whole family believes in the traditional candle-making technique and reusing what is possible, to have as little waste as possible.
Part of the shop, already set up, awaits the exciting opportunity for people to attend a candle-making session by Silvia and later possibly to have a group of people coming to learn how to make them. Anyone who would like to know more or visit, please go to ryeshop@plaristo.com or silvia@plaristo.com. The website is worth visiting: plaristoshop.com. If shut, phone 01797 222 802.
Image Credits: Heidi Foster , Plaristo .