The path of the heart -a possibility talk with Dominique Vrkljan; a hand made candle crafter and a poet

What drew me to Dominique Vrkljan is her contagious energy of abundant possibilities. She is a multi-faceted young creative always working on several different projects, be that at her University, in her parents garden shed, or in her community. She is studying Entrepreneurship in culture and tourism in the city of Zadar, and as for her heart calling, which took her from candle making to poetry, I leave it up to her to tell you more about it…

In Dominique`s own words….

As a student, I am currently working on my masters that covers the subject of greenwashing in the beauty industry especially when talking about the skincare industry. My main focus during all my university years has always been marketing.
And as a creative soul, I host candle making and essential oils distillation workshops in my family’s summer garden house, surrounded by our beautiful Mediterranean and olive garden. The workshops are a result of a family tradition in the production of olive oil and the distillation of aromatic herbs. I also make soy candles that are mostly inspired by the Mediterranean way of living and enjoying life to its fullest. Besides working on my masters I am in the process of finishing my first ever poetry book, and being a self-published author one day, has always been a big dream of mine.

Even though candle making has never been my full-time job, considering I work in the tourism branch and most likely I would love for it to stay this way, my workshops, poetry and candles are the way I communicate with the world. I always knew I had a creative side in me that I needed to give out to the world and I always knew that I want to work with people which explains why I chose to study and work in tourism, but also why I host my workshops…it’s the people that I am drown to. On the other hand, no matter how outspoken and outgoing I can be, sometimes I still need that little piece of me for myself and this is where writing poetry comes through.

This year for the first time ever I decided to share it with the world and people around me, cause if there is something I can re-share as a certain moto of mine are a couple of things that beautiful Amie McNee (@inspiredtowrite) said and wrote:

-˝ You are not being annoying, you are not bothering us. Send the e-mail, post the content, take up space and promote your creations.˝

-˝ Staying away from your art because you fear youll be average is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Youll become mediocre as fuck. Never finishing, never trying. Ordinary. Middle of the road, unremarkable. That˙s not you. You are so very remarkable. Take up space. ˝

-Amie McNee

In addition, if you are a creative soul, whether we talk about writing, making something with your own hands or creating in any way I strongly suggest following Amie because she is a true inspiration especially if you ever feel insecure about your crafts or art. I was very insecure at the begging of my workshops and candle journey. One thing I don’t really talk about a lot is that I actually first started with the essential oils distillation workshops, the candle workshops and making came quite a bit later.

Sometimes it takes a bit of time

The poetry work on the other hand has been in my life since I was a teenager but I just never felt ready enough to share it with people, and let me tell you something you probably already know: it will never feel ready or to say you will never feel 100% ready to share your arts or crafts with the world, so just do it! It sure took me a long time to do it, but I hope it will be worth it!

When I first decided to host workshops and make candles, I did it for my friends and family, as they were the closest to me and the first ones to give me honest feedback. It took me quite a bit before I actually created my Instagram account which started only as a candle (and sometimes workshops and gardening account) but now works as my own creative place where I plan to share all my creative work, especially the poetry stuff. So when it comes to being at the very begging, starting something new, creating and sharing your most intimate pieces of art or crafting; you can say I am going through it all again this year considering I decided to change my narrative when it comes to my Instagram as a platform where I share all of my creations.

But from some of my previous work I can say that sometimes it takes a bit of time to receive that first acknowledgement from the outside world, and it takes some time to receive that first review or first order, but as long as you do it cause it truly makes you happy and fulfilled it is most certainly worth it.