©SLP ISSUE 004

CANDLES NOT TO BURN:
A chat with Copito.

Clara Infante's project reinvents itself as she does. What was born as a platform to sell second-hand clothes, was transformed into what we know today as Copito: candles and crayons dyed with natural pigments.

As you approach Clara's studio you get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Located in the middle of a quiet village in the Garraf park we find her new studio. She has only been here for a few months but her essence is already in every corner: candles of different shapes and colors, materials to work with, molds... The space of an artist.

Clara has always lived between two worlds, as she was born in Barcelona, but much of her life was spent in Miami and L.A., where she worked in marketing while fantasizing about becoming an artist. But creating her own studio didn't come until years later. First, as a big fan of vintage culture, she started selling second-hand clothes.

When the eldest of her three children was born, she and her husband (whom she had met in the USA) decided to move to Olivella, a small town just forty minutes from Barcelona, as they felt it was the best place to raise a family, surrounded by peace and quiet and close to the Mediterranean. But when he arrived here he realized that in Spain vintage culture was not so deeply rooted, so, in a very natural way, he ended up founding Copito: an online platform where he sold the clothes that no longer fit his son, all sustainable and proximity. It was a great success.

COPITO

As she reconnected with her Mediterranean roots, she also reconnected with her colors, her shapes... Clara had always felt a great fascination for the natural world and manual work, but it was not until her return to Barcelona that she began to experiment with elements of her environment, giving a 180º turn to Copito: replacing second-hand clothes with natural objects of her own creation.

Pigments became the common thread of her creations. First there were some colored pencils that she molded with her own hands, and later some natural candles. As she gives us a tour of her workshop, she takes out a tray full of crayons, each one carved in a different shape. They are so original and colorful that they make you want to pick up a blank sheet of paper and think you are an artist for a while.

NATURAL CANDLES

The idea for the candles came when she saw a video of a man who produced them in the traditional style. Clara thought, "I have to try this".

Her candles are made from 100% natural wax and pigments. One of her flagship designs, the Botero XL, inspired by the Colombian sculptor famous for his voluminous characters, goes through wax baths for 3 days until it reaches that characteristic thickness. "It's crazy, but it's worth it," Clara says.

Not everyone likes the same candles. Some people prefer them to melt quickly, while others enjoy watching them melt slowly. As she explains this to us, she lights one and lets it burn down. Although she confesses that she is one of those who prefers to leave them intact, since she uses them as decorative objects.

"To be happy I need to flow a little bit with the process and not get too tied to a design or a product."

PROCESSES AND COLORS

Like most artists, Clara starts a project with a very clear idea of what she wants to do, but during the process she lets herself go, so the final product has nothing to do with the initial sketch. Although it is right there when her true essence comes out.

"I would love to say that I'm more entrepreneur than artist but I'm not. To be happy I need to flow a bit with the process and not get too tied to a design or a product."

When she started coloring her candles, Clara had a very basic knowledge of the process. But she researched the subject in order to achieve her own shades, using only the natural elements available to her.

"Stop the car! I have to go get a piece of that earth."

It was during a trip to his family home in the Pyrenees that he noticed the characteristic colors of the mountain next to the road: orange, reddish, yellow... He discovered a series of tones that worked very well for his watercolors and crayons, and in a very similar way, he progressively found the rest of the natural pigments for his creations.

MEDITERRANEAN ESSENCE

Last year, when she returned from her vacations on the Costa Brava, she went straight to the workshop to try to recreate the tones she saw there every summer. Clara says that, try as she might, she still hasn't managed to find the blue of the Mediterranean anywhere else in the world.

"I have a very high sensitivity for colors."

When we proposed her to create a sail for Thinking MU she was very clear about what she wanted to do. He decided to reinterpret Copito's "full moon" model to get the shape of our sun. She chose a variety of colors that for her represented the essence of the brand very well: white, blue, green and red. "It has been a very fun process," she says with that naturalness that is so characteristic of Clara.