I am so pleased to share another beautiful maker on the blog today. I first learned of Frostbeard on my Instagram feed and I have been in love with their products and their logo ever since. I even did a
little review on the product that I ordered. They are an amazing business with a nerdy heart like mine and I will forever have their candles on my bookshelf. Their incredible story of hard work and dedication to produce the candles that they love is done below. I do hope you enjoy.
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Frostbeard Studio started out as "Roxie Art" back in 2008 and it
was mostly pottery. It slowly evolved into pottery and candles, and now we pretty much just focus on candles.
I started
making candles back in high school with my mom. We're both DIYers (she's
a professional quilter) so it was natural for us to make our own
candles rather than buy them.
Back in 2010,
being a huge book nerd, I decided I wanted a "library" scented candle. I
couldn't find one anywhere for sale online (and I'm an accomplished
online shopper) so that meant one didn't exist and I needed to create
it. Oxford Library was my first book-themed candle, and then the idea
was born and I kept making new scents.
I sold
the candles at craft fairs along with my pottery for a few years. Then
around the time I started doing pottery full-time in 2012 my mom
convinced me to put them up on my Etsy site.
The
first candles were in jelly jars and had plain labels printed from our
computer. My photos were horrible and I'm totally embarrassed I put
those on Etsy. My husband Tom came to my rescue and designed the
Frostbeard logo and some fancy labels for me. He also persuaded me to
get better jars and rephotographed all the candles.
Tom
joined Frostbeard full-time in 2012 after getting laid off from work.
Our goal was to have an art studio together eventually anyway, so it
worked out rather well.
When the candles started
outselling the pottery it was clear we needed a more efficient way to
make them. We were melting the wax on my mom's stove top in batches of
six or so, and using her kitchen as a candle workshop. It's hard to
believe that was only two years ago.
We
decided to do a Kickstarter project to raise the funds for a large wax
melter. Over all it was a fun, though somewhat stressful experience. We
reached our goal, got new fans and had fun making the reward items. But
it was a LOT of work.
Making the Kickstarter
video was time consuming. We hired a friend to help film it and then it
took Tom two days to edit. Brainstorming the rewards and price tiers
took forever. We made our project way too complicated.
In
retrospect it probably would have been way easier for us to borrow the
money from a relative. However, I would absolutely recommend Kickstarter
to someone who has a clear cut project and reward, like making a music
album or publishing a book.
The real boost to
our business came from social media. We got mentioned on a few large
book-loving Facebook groups. Then the snowball effect started and more
and more people started noticing us. When Buzzfeed posted our Old Books
candle in a gift guide a few weeks before Christmas our Etsy shop
exploded.
We're insanely lucky. We wouldn't be
able to do what we're doing without the internet. Somehow we found a
niche and a passionate fan base. We take pride in making carefully
handcrafted candles, and our customers reward our efforts by being
repeat purchasers and recommending us to friends.
Now
we have a studio in a cool old brick building in the NE Arts District
in Minneapolis. Because of our rapid growth, we were able to hire a
studio assistant, Erin, to help us with all of our online sales. Our
candles are available at over 60 shops nation-wide (mostly indie
bookshops) and we are the
top candle store on Etsy. Like I said, we're
lucky. And oh so thankful!
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Thank you so much to Roxie for taking the time to put together their encouraging story for us to read. Wasn't it amazing? So far my favorite scent is
Sherlock's Study, which is so cozy. There are the other scents that I am eying up in their store:
I am really interested in this flavor,
this one, and
this one! They also came out with their new
April scent which is now also at the top of my list to purchase. These candles are amazing and I highly recommend them, especially for that ever-book-consuming friend who you don't really know what to get them, because you are pretty sure they have read every book available in stores. Yep. Problem solved = Frostbeard. :)
If you would like to be a part of the Maker Series or if you know of
someone who is creative and should show of their talents, please email
me at knotted home (at) hotmail (dot) com.
The Maker Series is a
place
of inspiration, encouragement, and support to those who want to craft,
create, or live a homemade lifestyle. This series is all about creating a
comfortable and inspiration place in which we can show-off our talents and inspire anyone who has ever dreamed to start something new.
A huge thank you again to the lovely Frostbeard. Happy April, everyone. xo.
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