Sarah Grace Clayton, a junior Professional Writing major from Hartford, KY, has recently applied her English skills to her cousin’s candle making business. 

The company WickedWICKed Candles and Melts makes custom hand-poured candles specific to indie novels, and even some traditionally published novels as well. Recently the company has created a line of three candles representing characters from Bridgerton, a popular novel recently adapted for a series by Netflix. Some scent examples include “Hot Tea and Gossip” and “Promenades and English Gardens”. 

Clayton explains, “The business works closely with some indie authors to create promotional candles for upcoming releases.” They also design and sell candles based on inspiration from personal reads.

Clayton’s role is critical as she assists her cousin by reading possible book options and analyzing the leading characters. Essentially, Clayton creates the character analyses so her cousin can develop a scent profile. Clayton’s process is similar to what a typical English student would do for class. She takes notes on the character and then fleshes out a detailed character analysis to aid her cousin in the creative process.

When asked how her English degree aids the business Clayton responded, “My English degree has given me the skills to closely read and analyze text. I am able to easily break down characters and their actions into a handful of descriptive words. This way of analyzing is something that I was taught to do [through] my English [courses]. My close reading skills also allow me to catch little descriptive details of characters that sometimes get missed.”

This company is a phenomenal example of how skills learned through the WKU English Department can be translated into different fields.

In the future the business hopes to establish their own website; however, for the time being, the candles can be found on Etsy. If you would like to support this small business, you can visit their Etsy site https://www.etsy.com/shop/WickedWICKedCandles.