A rewarding endeavour

Emmie Roelofse has taken on a tremendous—and enjoyable—challenge

Roelofse is enjoying every minute of her new life. —

Photo courtesy Emmie Roelofse

Emmie Roelofse took ownership of Kootenay Candles on September 15, 2009, and she has brought her personal touch to the well-known candlemaking business. Located in Creston, B.C., the company has been operating for 51 years, and it was a perfect fit for this entrepreneur.

“I was looking for a business that was unique,” said Roelofse. “The fact that it had to do with hand-made articles immediately tickled my fancy. I am a jack-of-all-crafts kind of girl. All (the business) needed to grow was a lot of love and attention.”

Prior to purchasing Kootenay Candles, Roelofse owned a day restaurant for seven years, as well as a bead shop. As if that weren’t enough, she also taught arts and crafts.

“It is my opinion that if you work very hard at something—even if it is a little scary at times—it will be a success eventually,” she said. “A very dear friend of mine once said the only way to grow is to look fear in the eye. She was right.”

Roelofse is fuelled by a happiness in her work, something that becomes quite apparent when you see the quality of her products.

“I love making the candles,” she said. “You have the good feeling of working with the warm wax and then of course the constant honey smell soothing your senses. You also have a real sense of achievement every time you make the perfect candle.”

A beneficial industry A key motivation for Roelofse is the community she works in, and the benefits of the products she manufactures.

“The most rewarding aspect of this endeavour is the fact that I get to live and work in a small town in the country where my children can grow up more care free,” she said. “Beeswax is such a healthy product without any side effects for humans or on nature. It is definitely one of the green products. It emits negative ions as it burns—cleaning the air of dust, pollen and bad odours. It is hypo-allergenic. It doesn’t smoke or soot and is naturally dripless. We get the raw wax from the beekeepers. We then filter it to clean it of any pollen or dust. We have no additives to our beeswax and if we do colour them we only use vegetable dyes.

“My plan is to make this a business that provides more jobs to the local community. (I also want to) inspire more people to go green and burn beeswax candles. I want to keep the history of the old Kootenay Candles whilst giving it new wings for the future.”