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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Katie Kerr, owner of Over the Mountain Candle Co., at the Christmas Market held by the Women’s Ministry at Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church on Dec. 3.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Some of Kerr’s hand-poured candles are displayed.
What started as a quarantine project with her daughter has now turned into a thriving business for Brook Highland resident Katie Kerr.
“This is 100% a business that came out of quarantine,” Kerr said. “Everybody was at home, and my daughter and I were playing around with things from craft stores and sold some soaps in our neighborhood.”
Kerr said when things started opening back up and people began getting back out, her daughter left the crafting to her. She decided to see if she could make candles, so she went to Hobby Lobby and got some supplies.
She soon realized that to make quality candles, she had to do a lot of research on where to buy the best wax and fragrance oils and joined several Facebook candle groups. Kerr began making candles to give as gifts to friends, then her venture became more than a hobby.
“Sept. 25 is when I started posting about Over the Mountain Candle Co. on Facebook, and it has snowballed from there,” she said. “I never in my wildest dreams thought it would happen this fast. The whole community has been so awesome to really support me and welcome me.”
During the Christmas season, Kerr received big orders from companies that wanted to put them in gift bags in lieu of having a Christmas party. She also had real estate agent and hairstylist friends requested bulk orders for client gifts and made special request candles.
One thing she has learned is not to overspend on items like vessels, packaging and labels.
“I want to produce quality candles that smell good that people can buy multiple times,” she said. “That’s one thing I really like, not undercutting, but being really well priced.”
Kerr uses soy wax and clean scent fragrance oils from a phthalate-free company. She has been told by some customers that they had to give up candles due to headaches, but hers do not cause that problem.
“Finding the notes to put together to create a scent is like a challenge for me,” she said. “I love to work with people one on one to find out what they want and figure out how to make that scent.”
For Christmas, Kerr had around 12 scents in her holiday line and has around 20 to 30 more scents. She said she is always trying to think ahead and is looking ahead to what scents she will have for the new year. Her creations come in small mason jars, travel tins, dough bowls and more. In addition to candles, other items include wax melts, soaps and room sprays that can also be used as a body mist.
For now, Kerr is working out of her dining room and kitchen, but she plans to move to a room in her basement to give herself more space. She enjoys having customers come by for local pickup and also offers shipping. She has been in talks with a few boutiques about having her candles in retail stores, but she said she doesn’t want to “lose the over-the-mountain-side-of-town special touch, where customers can get in touch with her for what they need.”
A former kindergarten teacher, Kerr works two days a week at Meadowbrook Baptist Church preschool and said she has been working a lot of late nights making candles.
“I have always loved making gifts for people, so this has been a great blessing,” she said. “It’s what I’ve been asking for the last year but just didn’t know what it would be.”
Over the Mountain Candle Co. can be found on Instagram and Facebook @overthemountaincandleco.
