The brand is named after our daughter Ziya, which quite beautifully means light.

There was no business plan. I was working in sustainable transport and urban mobility, making candles in my free time, and for a long time making them badly or like everything else on the market. I could see what was wrong without understanding why.

Finding out took time. Part of it was self-led: reading, testing, measuring, spending more time and money than I would like to admit getting things wrong before getting them right. Much of it I owe to teachers across Asia and Europe, several of them exceptional, who were generous with knowledge that had taken them decades to gather. And finally I learnt that none of the issues were arbitrary, and none of it is luck once you understand what is happening underneath.

That understanding goes into every candle I pour. And that is what I teach.