Luce · ledge

Berlin · Germany

Milena Kistenmacher

“Grandma, LUCE is for you.”

LUCE creates candles inspired by everyday objects, an espresso, an artichoke, a wedding cake, each made as a one-off in small candle workshops in Italy and Spain. Milena Marie Kistenmacher founded the label in Berlin in 2023 after several years in the cultural sector, drawn by the idea of working on her own terms and surrounding herself with people who shared her curiosity. She visits every workshop herself. Today the collection includes around sixty designs, with new ideas arriving as quickly as she can make them happen.

I have three questions for you, and something in return.

Three questions.

Selected pieces

LUCE Interior · Berlin, Germany

A table where everything is wax

LUCE makes figure candles modelled on food and kitchen things, an artichoke, a moka pot, a baguette, all made by hand in candle manufactories in Italy and Spain. Milena Kistenmacher founded the Berlin label in 2023 as an homage to her grandmother.

A richly set table, laid for the occasion, you might think.

The launch table in Kreuzberg, November 2023

To launch the label in November 2023, Milena hosted an event in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, arranging the candles like a still life. Yes, every piece was made of wax. Today, the collection includes around sixty designs, with new ideas limited only by Milena's imagination. Throughout 2024, she continued to introduce LUCE through a series of pop-ups, including one at KLINKE in Kreuzberg.

The woman it is for

Milena dedicates LUCE to her grandmother. A grande dame of the KaDeWe, Italian by choice, an entrepreneur and a style icon. Someone who lived the dolce vita, drove around Berlin in her Twingo, played canasta to Eros Ramazzotti and served the best Königsberger Klopse, meatballs in caper sauce.

The grandmother LUCE is dedicated to

The candles are made in small candle manufactories in Italy and Spain, several of them family businesses that have been making candles for generations. Whether any of those makers had ever shaped a fennel out of wax before Milena came along is another question. The candles are still finished by hand, and Milena is clear about what that means: no two are exactly alike. Their colour, shape and burn time vary from piece to piece.