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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; About five years ago, Athena Rittenhouse turned hardship into a hobby.</p><p>Now that hobby, candle-making, is a lucrative business.</p><p>Rittenhouse is the owner of Crooked Wicks, selling homemade candles and wax melts in a wide variety of scents.</p><p>She got into the hobby when she noticed a friend&#8217;s candle wasn&#8217;t burning quite right.</p><p>&#8220;I took it and melted it down to see if I could fix it,&#8221; said Rittenhouse, 30.</p><p>Not long after, the Wilkes-Barre resident said she went through a breakup and lost her job. It was during this time when she started getting serious about candle-making.</p><p>&#8220;I wanted to find something I could do at home,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Rittenhouse sells her scented creations at her parents&#8217; coffee shop, Curry Donuts on South Pennsylvania Avenue, and via her website, <a href="http://www.crookedwicks.com" target="_blank">www.crookedwicks.com</a>. She&#8217;s also been attending area craft fairs to spread the word about her business.</p><p>&#8220;I would love to open a little storefront,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Maybe a little coffee shop and (Crooked Wicks), put them together.&#8221;</p><p>But it wasn&#8217;t easy getting to this point. Rittenhouse said getting the process just right took a lot of research and trial and error. Certain wicks burn better with certain kinds of wax, scents and dyes, so it took some time before she was able to make her candle concoctions perfect.</p><p>&#8220;Luckily I had friends who stuck with me and were willing to be testers for me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It can be a very expensive process.&#8221;</p><p>She got her start using half-burned candles donated from her grandmother&#8217;s church, though it wasn&#8217;t the money-saving tactic she&#8217;d hoped it would be.</p><p>&#8220;That wax wasn&#8217;t for me,&#8221; she said.</p><p>And the name of her business reflects that trying time when she first dove into the hobby.</p><p>&#8220;It was such a pain to get the wicks to be straight,&#8221; she said. &#8220;So I thought Crooked Wicks would be a good name.&#8221;</p><p>Rittenhouse uses 100 percent soy wax and scents from a company in Tennessee. &#8220;I&#8217;m trying to get a local company for my oils but it&#8217;s been hard to find,&#8221; she said.</p><p>She offers around 30 different scents, with a variety ranging from seasonal ones like Christmas Tree and Pumpkin Spice to the more specific, like Maple Glazed Bacon and Root Beer.</p><p>&#8220;I have a friend who loves the bacon scent, so that&#8217;s why I keep it,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Now, she has streamlined the process so she can come and go as she pleases in her work space, which is in her parents&#8217; basement. She uses a soup warmer to heat and melt the wax, mixes in the scents and dyes and then pours the mixture into a mason or specialty jar for a customized gift.</p><p>&#8220;Around Christmas, it&#8217;s kind of crazy,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I can just come in here and mass produce so I&#8217;m backed up.&#8221;</p><p>Rittenhouse said her favorite work is customized projects, which she can do for any occasion. Her boyfriend, Paul Lunski, cuts vinyl shapes and lettering to add a personal touch to glass candle holders.</p><p>She also makes skate wax, which is applied to skateboards to reduce friction when maneuvering grinds and tricks.</p><p>&#8220;My brother is really big into skateboarding,&#8221; she said.</p><p>She started making the wax melts a few years ago and said they have been selling just as well or better than the candles.</p><p>&#8220;And my candles are guaranteed,&#8221; she said. &#8220;If the scent isn&#8217;t strong enough or something is wrong you can bring it back to me and I will fix it.&#8221;</p><p>Rittenhouse went to school to be a pharmacy technician, but said she prefers the freedom of owning her own business. She also works at her parents&#8217; coffee shop as much as she can.</p><p>&#8220;(The pharmacy technician field) wasn&#8217;t for me,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I like the idea of a mom-and-pop family business and something where I can be my own boss.&#8221;</p><p>And that notion has certainly helped her recently. Rittenhouse has slowed down in production lately, as she and her boyfriend are expecting a baby boy in March.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_TTL121816crookedWicks2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crooked Wicks candles come in a variety of scents, from seasonal ones like Christmas Cookie to unusual ones like Maple Glazed Bacon. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_TTL121816crookedWicks2-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Crooked Wicks candles come in a variety of scents, from seasonal ones like Christmas Cookie to unusual ones like Maple Glazed Bacon. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_TTL121816crookedWicks3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crooked Wicks owner Athena Rittenhouse, of Wilkes-Barre, said her favorite work is customized gifts. Shown are some Christmas-themed candles available. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_TTL121816crookedWicks3-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Crooked Wicks owner Athena Rittenhouse, of Wilkes-Barre, said her favorite work is customized gifts. Shown are some Christmas-themed candles available. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_TTL121816crookedWicks1-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crooked Wicks owner Athena Rittenhouse makes candles in her parents&#8217; basement in Wilkes-Barre. She started the business about five years ago and finds it to be therapeutic. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_TTL121816crookedWicks1-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Crooked Wicks owner Athena Rittenhouse makes candles in her parents&#8217; basement in Wilkes-Barre. She started the business about five years ago and finds it to be therapeutic. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Crooked Wicks sellsscented candles, waxmelts and skate wax</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Sarah Hite Hando</p><p>shando@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>LEARN MORE</strong></p><p>For more information about Crooked Wicks, visit <a href="http://www.crookedwicks.com" target="_blank">www.crookedwicks.com</a> or the company&#8217;s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/crookedwicks/" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Sarah Hite Hando at 570-704-3945.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre woman’s candle making goes from calming hobby to business venture