Every Titan candle begins the same way — with an original sculpture and a pair of hands that have been learning this language for thirty years. Arian Karami has been making sculptural candles in Vancouver for the past five years. This is the story of how sculptural candles are made at Titan, and how it all started.
Tehran, 1989
Arian Karami was five years old the first time he walked into the Iranian Children and Adolescents Intellectual Development Center in Tehran. They gave him clay, paint, and time. That was the beginning.
Over the next three decades, he moved between mediums — sculpture, painting, music, poetry. Each one a different dialect of the same language. He thought music was his path. Sculpture, however, stayed in the background, a habit he couldn’t quite put down.
Then he met Yasmin.
Yasmin Candles — The First Chapter
Yasmin Ghane Basiri came from a family with deep roots in craft. Her father, Professor Mohsen Ghane Basiri, had spent a lifetime working with his hands and passing that ethic on.
When Arian and Yasmin started making candles together in Iran, it wasn’t a business plan — it was an extension of who they already were. As a result, Yasmin Candles was small, intentional, and entirely handmade. Every piece carved, every surface worked by hand.
It lasted until it couldn’t anymore. The political situation in Iran made it impossible to stay. So they left everything behind and came to Canada.
Vancouver — Starting Over
When Arian arrived in Canada five years ago, he brought almost nothing. What he kept was the work.
In Vancouver, he found a city that understood craft — a place where people still value the thing made by a specific person, in a specific place, with a specific intention. For example, the North Vancouver studio where he works today is small by design. That is not a limitation. That is the point.
He started over. Smaller. Slower. Better. Titan Candles is that second chapter.
How Sculptural Candles Are Made at Titan
No two Titan candles come out exactly alike. That is the point.
Every design starts as an original sculpture carved by Arian. Some pieces, like the Dark Series, are carved directly in wax, to order, and each one carries its own serial number. Others, like the Genesis Collection, are cast from moulds of those originals in soy wax, beeswax or a soy-beeswax blend, depending on the piece and the complexity of the carving. Arian then works every surface by hand, sharpening detail and building texture through a process that takes hours, not minutes.
The faces and forms that emerge from the wax are not templates. Instead, they come from thirty years of muscle memory, from thousands of hours of sculpture and painting. A mould can repeat a shape. It cannot replace the hand that made the original and finishes every piece.
The Kronos, our largest piece at 70cm, takes the better part of a full day to complete. Each piece is signed and numbered, and once the edition closes it will not be repeated. In short, this is what handmade actually means.
Why We Make Sculptural Candles in Vancouver
We make sculptural candles in Vancouver because this is where Arian is, and Titan candles cannot be made without Arian. However, there is something else worth saying about this city.
Vancouver has a community of people who understand the difference between a candle as a commodity and a candle as an object. Customers who want to know who made the thing, and why. Moreover, that kind of customer is exactly who this work is made for.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them.
What Comes Next
We are a small operation by design. Arian handles every piece of production — making, finishing, packaging, shipping. That will not change as we grow. What changes is who gets to own one.
New pieces are announced on Instagram @titan_candles. The limited editions go fast.
If you’d like to know more or commission something specific, reach out.
Titan Candles are handmade in Vancouver, BC by artist Arian Karami. Each piece is one of a kind.