Crate and Barrel: Made in China

Ok, so we haven't posted in awhile. Well, some more technical difficulties have been experienced but this was due to our own doing. On rearranging the pad here to accommodate new, separate bedrooms for Caden and Ava, the external hard drive containing all of our pictures took a tumble to the floor. Unfortunately, we cannot plug the cord in because the USB port got damaged. Hopefully the tech guy at Tony's office will be able to fix it, if not we'll have to wait until we take it home with us this summer to get fixed. So, we'll have to give you a recap once we can access those photos again.

But, as for the new...

On Thursday, May 10th I had the opportunity to visit a candle making factory with the Women's Expat club. Surprisingly, it was not unlike the factory that I visited with Tony that made wheels, however the end product and the overall smell of the candle factory was much nicer! Supposedly, this factory makes candles for Crate and Barrel as well as other stores back in the states.

If you are like me, you probably assumed that the candle making process was all automated - not here. This wax covered, tootie fruity smelling factory is powered by hard working Chinese men and women who poor the melted wax by hand into molds from tea kettles.

Once set the wax is removed from the molds and two gentlemen polish up their shape and drill a hole down through the center for the wick. The wick is thread through, a final finish is put on the candle with a wire brush by hand and then it goes through the assembly line you see here to be packaged for final shipment. Again, all stickers and labels are put on the boxes by hand which are also assembled by hand. They looked and sounded like they were having a good time while doing this - most likely at our expense (crazy dressed Americans!).

After our tour we were led into the store that you see below for browsing and shopping at extremely reasonable prices. If they weren't so darn heavy I would bring one back for everyone!