So, let's start at the beginning... A lot of people here and there have asked me "How did you get into making candles?" (disclaimer: to answer this question, it involves personal pieces of my life - everything is true, and I promise it is not any kind of sympathy ploy!)
All my life I have dabbled in one craft or another and I still do (these days it's mainly candles, quilting and woodworking). Once upon a time, when I was still in high school, I dabbled in making candles and really enjoyed it. My life path took me to the United States Air Force after high school, which also took me away from my family and home in Detroit, MI and deposited me in San Antonio, TX where I have been for almost the last 17 years.
I have built my own family here in Texas which includes my two teenagers. Leaving the Air Force (after 10 years) and building a career in the civilian world while raising two children, made travelling home to visit family more difficult. And then, my then 88 year old grandma was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2014.
I grew up around the block and a couple blocks away from Grammy so we were quite close and I adored her! I went home for 2.5 weeks over Christmas of 2014 to spend time with her and to relieve some of the workload off the rest of my family that was helping to take care of her. During this time, my step mom was showing me all of her soy candle making supplies (she had been making soy candles for a few years.)
With my sweet precious grandma facing the end of her life, I realized I had to find a way to get back up to Detroit more often (at that time, I still had my 93 year old grandpa). I came home to Texas after that visit and immediately decided that I was going to get back into making and selling candles. I got to work and opened my Etsy shop on March 13, 2015 (www.etsy.com/shop/WesternWax).
Western Wax has been very successful during it's first year (actually a little over 9 months at the time of writing this.) I was able to take another trip back to Detroit over the summer with both of my kids. We were able to spend some good quality time with Grandpa and even got him to go out to eat (he hadn't been out much since Grammy passed away in January.)
2015 has been a really horrible year for my family - after Grammy passed in January, Gramps only made it about ten months before he also passed away this past Thanksgiving. I can honestly say that without Western Wax to think about, and the extra income it brought, I don't know how I would have made it through this year.
So, as sappy as the story is, this is truly the reason I started making candles and started Western Wax Co. This is also one of the main reasons I believe in shopping local and buying from small businesses whenever and wherever possible. Each small business owner will most likely have their own reasons for starting their business - but most of them are not trying to buy their third vacation home with a five car garage to store their newest sports cars, they are ensuring their kids have a merry Christmas, go to college, or like me, are able to generate a little extra income to do the things that are important to them.
So - that is my story, and I'm sticking to it!! I hope that if you don't already, you will consider finding more opportunities in your life to buy local or to support small business owners!
