Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 14/00) - From the veranda of Jay Wisintainer's make-shift workshop, you can see Frobisher Bay.

He comes up here to think. Behind the shop is rolling tundra, cotton grass scattered here and there.

When the right gust of wind glides across the tundra at the perfect angle, it catches the scent. Wisintainer is trying to trap this scent and squeeze it into candles.

"Tundra is everywhere, but there aren't any tundra smelling things," he says, holding up a little bag full of tundra grass.

He's trying to establish a candle factory in his small workshop and to date has produced 600 Nunavut flag coloured candles, with the star and the red inukshuk.

"My plan is to create a candle industry," says Wisintainer. He wants it to be part of a greater souvenir industry he plans to spread across Canada.

Wisintainer already has his fingers in the carving industry, running the Iqaluit Inuit Art Gallery and holding carving sessions in his shop with local carvers.

He sold the flag candles to local businesses and the Nunavut government which is currently waiting for 100 more.

"I like those candles," says Sally Patty-Curly, executive secretary to the legislative Clerk, John Quirke, who ordered the candles on the GN's behalf.

"I think they're cute," she adds.

Wisintainer sells his candles at $4 each wholesale. Right now, he is waiting for about 900 kilograms of wax to come up on the next boat so he can make more. "It's not feasible flying it up," he explains.

He eventually wants to churn out 300 to 500 candles a day and has plans to hire workers to help with the process.

The candle making process is not all that complicated. He pours melted wax into a multi-chambered candle mould which sits in an oven he built with parts from the dump.

Next he chills the mould -- each holding 63 candles -- for two hours in a refrigerator he bought for $5 from a recent fire sale.

"I hope to someday build a souvenir production plant on Federal Road somewhere," he says, leaning over his veranda, holding a tin mug full of ice water, waiting for the wax to chill.