About Post Objects | Sculptural Candles by Liz Wycherley

Post Objects is a sculptural candle studio in Titirangi, on the western edge of Auckland, New Zealand. It was founded by Liz Wycherley and Simon Oosterdijk, whose first body of work, the Flow series, grew out of fluid simulations the two developed together. Liz, a ceramicist and former womenswear designer, now leads the studio.

Each form is cast by hand in wax and released in small editions, in series of three.

The studio has made work for SSENSE, Completedworks and Monument Gallery, London, whose opening was featured in Wallpaper* and Vogue.

Press, stockist and commission enquiries: info@postobjects.com

For Liz’s ceramics, visit lizwycherley.com

Liz Wycherley on her process

Something in me is utterly compelled by the squish of a balloon, the ripped edge of clay I’ve sliced with a knife, the charred edge of wood I’ve set alight. I’m drawn to any process where the material takes its own path and I become more of an observer. It’s the pull a child feels with playdough: the urge to push the button, crack the egg, pop the bubble.

I’m never fully in control, and that’s the point. The material makes it clear what it wants to do; my preschoolers understand this better than anyone. Working this way takes me out of the equation and leaves something else open. You can see it in the forms: the energy of the material, still alive.

For me it’s almost a compulsion. I get so much enjoyment from doing the sorts of things with material that I know toddlers like doing. It’s about channelling that desire to push buttons, squish things and rip things. Every human has that in them. This work is about those joyful, magnetic feelings. It is about satisfaction.

I’m doing these experiments for the sheer joy, and I hope that feeling translates to others from looking at the forms. There’s a lightness in the way they’re made, and I love that about them. I like to think of them as little beacons on your shelf, encouraging you to follow your strange creative impulse.

I chose wax deliberately, for its ability to change again once it’s lit. Lighting a form releases it into a second process, one that can be just as captivating as the first. I also love that it can disappear.

I’ve always been obsessed with casting multiples and replication. It brings me real happiness to know that the forms I feel so compelled by can be with other people too, not just held by one person, me.

Post Objects candles burnt down, wax pouring over the edge of a shelf

That said, I know people who have kept theirs unlit for nearly ten years. When one is lit, it has a cathartic quality (what’s more cathartic than setting something alight?) and a sensory decadence that feels scarce at the moment.

Each form is named for the energy it radiates to me, but that’s subjective. They’re three-dimensional Rorschach tests. I’ve watched people stand at the studio shelves for over an hour, unable to decide which one feels right. The names are just a way in.

I love the idea of friends sending them to one another, as trophies or totems, when they know someone is going through it.

That is what this work is about: following desire and satisfaction in materials, and letting people feel and share that energy, whether they keep a form as it is or set it back in motion.

Liz Wycherley

Material references for the Flow series: honey, lava and mud

1. The Flow series: how it’s made

We began by collecting material behaviours: honey folding into itself, lava cooling at its edges, mud pools bubbling. From these, we chose the ones that might hold as solid forms.

Fluid dynamics simulation for the Flow series

2. Setting up the simulation

The references were rebuilt in a fluid dynamics simulation. Rather than designing a shape, we set the conditions: should it spin as it falls, should the viscosity become unstable, should the surface tension be pushed higher?

Fluid simulation renders used to choose Flow series forms

3. Choosing what’s made

When a simulation looks promising, we test whether it can actually be produced. Will it release cleanly from a mould? Are there undercuts that make it impossible? Is it balanced enough to hold its shape?

3D-printed resin master for a Flow series candle

4. Printing the master

The chosen form is printed in resin, layer by layer, then sanded and refined by hand. Every mark on this surface will be carried into every candle that follows.

Silicone mould box for a Post Objects sculptural candle

Silicone mould for a Post Objects sculptural candle

5. Making the mould

The master is set in a custom 3D-printed mould box and silicone is poured around it. There have been leaks, blowouts and whole batches of silicone lost to the floor. The process is more controlled now, but never entirely certain.

Pouring wax into a mould in the Post Objects studio

6. Pouring the wax

With the mould ready, the wick is threaded and the wax is heated and poured. The room is held at a steady temperature so the form sets cleanly. It’s a simple step on paper, but wax has its own behaviour, and we adjust as we go.

7. Demoulding

The first demould of a new form is always tense; after that, it becomes our favourite part. The mould is peeled back slowly, in the hope the form releases in one piece. If it doesn’t, we start again.