There was one candle and gingerbread making shop in Kralja Aleksandra Street before the Second World War. Milan Bojović was the owner of the shop, which was destroyed during the burning down and bombing of Gornji Milanovac on 15 October 1941. After the war, another candlemaking master Pavle Aleksić (1924-2006) opened a candlemaking shop in the town. Since candlemaking trade went together with gingerbread making trade, Pavle did both at first, but later on he opted for candlemaking exclusively. He made gingerbread only for a couple of years. He made gingerbread hearts, lollipops, ice cream, and sold them at street fairs. He didn’t inherit this business, but he learned the trade in Čačak and got his certificate in 1952. He had seven children, but no one continued the family business. Candlemaking is a difficult and tiring job, because candles were made only two to three times a year, but the process itself would last for seven days. Besides his wife Vera, who worked together with him in the shop, the whole family (two brothers and a sister) were included in the process.
Everything was done manually, which made the process simple and slow. There were two ways of making candles. Candles for saint’s days were made by being poured upon, and they were of high quality. There was a round wooden object with hooks on its ends. It was placed centrally over a copper wash-tub with melted wax. Fire was used to melt paraffin and wax. They had a very low melting point –720C, and they had to be lukewarm to be poured. Cotton thread was put on hooks so that it could be poured upon with a big metal ladle. The wheel was turned a couple of times, and when the wax cooled down, the candle would get the shape of a cone. In the middle of the process, they took the candles off the wheel and turned them upside down. Then, they would continue the pouring process until they get the desired thickness of the candle. The other way of making was used for small candles. There was a frame with wooden bars on the top and bottom side, with the metal ones on the lateral side. The space between them had cotton. The frame was dipped first in a metal vessel with melted wax or paraffin. Once the wax hardened, the frame would be dipped again, but from the other side. When everything dried, the candles would be cut to the desired size. This process was shorter and faster than making poured candles for saint’s days. Working round the clock in seven days, they could make as many candles as machines nowadays can make in a couple of hours, or a day. They could make candles neither in the winter because it was cold, which made the wax harden fast, nor in the summer when it was too hot, so the wax couldn’t harden at all. Master Pavle worked for a short while after he retired, but the shop stopped working when candles started being sold in stores, florist’s… Pavle didn’t sell his candles anywhere except in his shop. The paraffin which he used was Ina’s, which he coloured in black and ochre. He was doing this business in the time of Communism, when it was neither popular nor acceptable to do that job. That was why he did it with a certain amount of anxiety and fear. Even though he was offered various other jobs to do, he never wanted to leave his trade.
