SHARING THE WEALTH

Karner Blue Candle Store Helps Its Namesake
By Hatheway Rawlinson

LYSCHEL BERSCH FIRST kindled the flame for her Karner Blue Candle store when she was young, crafting wax mixtures for fun. Over time, her passions grew and she turned them into the tiny Monroe Street shop, named for the endangered butterfly as luminescent as a flame.

The store is illuminated with a variety of lit candles; tea lights, pillars, votives, Wisconsin Badger candles—oh, and a Star Warsinspired “Death Star.” Visitors can watch the heating, mixing, dyeing and pouring of the wax in a candle studio that extends into the store.

Karner Blue bursts at its seams with other gifts and décor, including locally made pottery, jewelry and garden fairies. Aromas include “Dewdrop,” “Pillow Fight” and the store’s most recent line, “Sugar Shanty,” an artful combination of maple, bourbon and gunpowder. The soy-based candles are phthalate free and the shop also offers plant-based, biodegradable tissue gift wrapping. As the shop’s name suggests, profits from a special dye line go to benefit the endangered Karner blue butterfly—which is lovely, as more Karner blues live in Wisconsin than anywhere else in the world.

1915 Monroe Street, Madison | karnerbluecandle.com.

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