Lori Stoia's eco-candlemaking class at Palo Alto Adult School will include instruction on a variety of candles. Photograph by Yichuan Cao.
Looking for a nice gift that could impress family or friends in this holiday season? A colorful, eco-friendly candle made at home could fit the bill.
Lori Stoia, who has been teaching classes on candle-making as well as making soap and lotion since 2004, will show students how to make a container candle, a rolled beeswax candle and votive candles on Oct. 29 at Palo Alto Adult School. She will walk students through the basics and once they complete the three-hour session, they will be ready to hit the ground running, she said.
"In this economy, if it's a gift that you made by yourself, it will be much appreciated. It's from your heart," Stoia said. She welcomes interested students to take her classes and put thoughts and time into this year's gifts. "I mean, if they could come to take my candle class, soap class and lotion class -- in the end, they will be able to put together a nice gift basket all by themselves," she said.
"It's their own imagination that will take them to the next level. Their creativity is their own limitation," she said. "I make the projects simple enough to encourage my students to actually make the products when they go home. They can go further. Sometimes, my students send me pictures and I have seen them making candles like pie and whatever else they had come up with."
Stoia worked in mass communication and marketing until her company eliminated the job. By sheer luck, her journey toward a home-craft instructor began in January 2002 when she first enrolled in a soap-making class at College of San Mateo.
"I have never thought I would be going into craft-making. One day, I saw a brochure and I found, hey, a soap-making class," she said. "I was like, alright, this sounds kind of cool. It looks creative."
Once she took the class, she found it was simple enough for her to continue on to make the craft. She was soon hooked on making her own bath and products, taking a wide variety of courses including making soap, lotions, bath salts, body scrubs, and, about a year ago, candle-making.
"I took one class, then I started to take another class to see if I can learn something new," Stoia said. "Most of them were taught by Lori Nova of The Nova Studio in Point Richmond, Calif."
By 2004 she began to teach at Michaels craft store and developed her own style of teaching, then she ventured out to Palo Alto Adult School and several other schools in the Bay Area.
She admits that she is a "late bloomer" to craft-making, but she has now found her niche in teaching others.
"What I try to bring to my class is a social and fun learning experience. It's an open environment. I have people from all walks of life. Sometimes people come to my class and they already know something. They can add their information to the other students, and I also learn from my students."
What she likes about her current teaching job is that it's actually flexible enough to allow her to return to full-time work. "Even if I started working full-time, I would still teach classes. It's something I really enjoy doing. I felt productive while teaching a class," she said.
Stoia also writes a bath and body products blog, featuring notices of her upcoming classes, information on where to buy products, recipes and more. It helps her to keep track of her progress and promote her classes. She updates it regularly and the blog has since attracted a large following.
"Most of the readers are here in the U.S, but I also have traffic from Australia and Europe," she said.
3. Color: Once the wax is melted, add an oil-based candle color (wax chips, liquid). Start with 1 drop, stir and just repeat until you reach the desired color you like.
6. Wick: Wait approximately 2-5 minutes (depending on temperature of wax) and pre-primed cored wick. (Tip: Use a glue dot at the bottom of wick and insert prior to pouring wax.)
San Mateo County prosecutors said a 23-year-old Stockton man was ordered Thursday to stand trial and faces 69 years to life for the murder of another man in East Palo Alto last year.
Warren Morrison Jr. was ordered to stand trial for the killing of 31-year-old Jamal Magee on the night of October 25.
East Palo Alto police responded at 9:25 p.m. to the 300 block of Wisteria Drive where they found Magee with gunshot wounds and laying on the street outside of a passenger door to a Chevrolet Volt, prosecutors said. Magee died from the wounds.
The killing allegedly began when Morrison and another man were in an argument with Magee. The two hit and kicked Magee and then Morrison took out a gun and shot Magee twice, according to prosecutors.
Magee got up to run away and Morrison allegedly shot Magee three more times. Magee fell to the ground and Morrison shot Magee two more times, prosecutors said.
Morrison allegedly fled and escaped arrest for two weeks before he was taken into custody Nov. 11 at a motel in Tracy.
Morrison has no previous criminal history in San Mateo County, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
Morrison pleaded not guilty to the murder charge Dec. 9. Thursday, prosecutors were granted a request for an enhancement to the murder charge, which will add 20 years to Morrison's sentence if he is convicted.
Lock him up, throw away the key. Also, clear the rest of the gangsters out of East Palo Alto. The 300 block is a constant problem area with loitering, joyriding and drugs. The Police do NOTHING
A national sailing program is being launched in Panama to bring the simple art of sailing and the sailing culture within reach of all Panamanians.
The sea knowledge in this program will benefit those who plan a maritime career - and - the very poor who go out in small pangas to earn a living. Fishermen through the centuries have gone out and got home under sail. It is a simple art that has been forgotten as the outboard took over.
Fishing in pungas or cayucos along Latin America's Pacific and Atlantic coasts is hazardous. The poor go to sea to earn a living and eat. The survival of the Salvadoran fisherman Jose Alvarenga has brought into the spotlight the perilous and primitive fishing equipment and practices still used in Mexico, and the rest of Latin America.
Fishermen typically take to the sea in small open boats with no cover, no life jackets, primitive communications gear, with only a cloth wrapped around their heads for protection from the sun. For many fishermen, the only thing that stands between them and death on the high sea is an aging outboard motor, a wooden oar, a machete, a few plastic jugs of water and their faith.
While fishermen often depend on God as much as safety equipment, they also rely on sea skills picked up over a lifetime. Relatives say Alvarenga was unusually strong and resilient, and an experienced sailor. However, not all are that strong and resiliant.
In Panama, a fishing panga set out to catch fish for Easter. The outboard failed and the boat drifted to Ecuador. There was only one survivor.
Though these fisherman are tough and canny, they would have a better chance of survival when their outboard dies if they knew how to use a sail and the currents to make their way back to land. Just a simple pole and sail would make the difference between life and death, when the outboard fails.
Learning to sail will give them an age old skill that will not only get them home. It will save fuel and reduce their dependence on the outboard notor.