Meet Lauren Rock of Calliope Candleworks in Lincoln Heights

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Rock.

Lauren, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started making candles as a hobby and a way to give handmade gifts for the holiday season. I eventually shifted from making them for friends to starting a business online, despite there being many, many small candle businesses that already existed.

I tried to make my candles stand out with unique designs and pop culture themes—movies, television, theater, and video games. I originally called my business Boonzy Arts, “boonzy” being a silly endearment made up by me and my then boyfriend, now husband.

I changed it to Calliope Candleworks a couple of years ago, both in honor of the muse from Greek mythology, as well as mine and my husband’s beloved cat of the same name.

A few months after starting my business, I decided to run a Kickstarter campaign for a set of candles designed for tabletop role-playing game like Dungeons and Dragons. The candles are themed around different realms players might explore in a D&D campaign—Lair of the Dragon, Fortress of Sorcerery, Forest of Enchantment—with metal dice embedded in the wax.

The idea’s a fairly popular one in the candle biz; many candle-makers embed jewelry in the wax, but because don’t really care for jewelry, I thought it might be fun to include something I *did* care about. Metal dice seemed like a perfect fit. Happily, my Kickstarter was a huge success.

I asked for $3,500 to make a few hundred candles but ended up raising almost $32,000—900 percent more than I asked for. Thanks to the appearance of my campaign in the Kickstarter newsletter and a mention on the popular Dungeons and Dragons streaming show Critical Role my project went viral.

I ran another campaign the following year for a comparable set of candles, only these included metal gaming coins and were themed around various settings in tabletop gaming—horror, pirates, science-fiction, et cetera. All told, I’ve raised almost $50,000 on Kickstarter. It’s been an invaluable part of my business.

I’ve got plans for another campaign that should excite the gaming community. These days, I try and release a new line of candles a couple times a year based on the ideas that pop into my world.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting a business is definitely a bumpy ride. As a creative person, I tend to skimp on things like, say, a business plan or accounting, which are of course big parts of a small business. I was very lucky to have a viral hit in the early days of my business; the customer base I built from the Wheel of Flame Kickstarter campaign has been loyal and vocal, spreading the word about my wares on social media, which is so, so helpful.

Last year, I ran a Kickstarter campaign that I thought would be as popular as the Wheel of Flame campaign, but it just didn’t gather as much steam as my past projects did. I was able to get a decent amount of backers, but not enough to reach my goal. I was deflated and questioned my ability to come up with exciting new products. But hey, I lived through it, and Calliope Candleworks didn’t falter–the biggest hit was to my pride.

I love being my own boss and being in charge of my business, even if it means having to do paperwork every now and again!

Please tell us about Calliope Candleworks.
Calliope Candleworks is known for creating geeky and pop-culture themed candles, and most popularly gaming candles with embedded metal dice or coins. Our unique fragrances and label designs make us stand out from other small candle businesses.

For now, we mostly sell online or at occasional markets, though we have a few stockists who carry our products in-store. We are also newly a part of the retail collective AllRight, which just opened at its new location in Silverlake this month!

Pricing:

• Premium candles and Pop Culture candles $17
• The Word on the Street candles $24.99
• Wheel of Flame or Coins of the Forge gaming candles $23

Contact Info:

• Website: calliopecandleworks.com
• Email: lauren@calliopecandleworks.com
• Instagram: @calliopecandleworks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalliopeCandleworks/
• Twitter: @calliopecandle

Image Credit:
Raquel Rocky Natalicchio

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