Naturecraft

Our Story

Our Motto: "Truth is the Light"

Who we are, what we believe and how we operate our business.

We are a family owned and operated company in Southern Ohio. Multiple facets of our family trees have been making balms, salves, paper, metals, farm goods and more for many generations. In our family not all of these traditions and methods were discarded with the advent of technology and chemistry. Instead they were passed on, partially for nostalgic heritage and also for economic purposes and quality beliefs. We do not buy soap that we don't like, and we refuse to buy a moisturizer that dries out our skin, we make what we love instead.

We believe, that to survive as a company you must offer something of quality and practical use to truly stand apart in the world's market place today. We look around our homes today and we notice two kinds of products generally: those that we put very little concern to other than price, and those that we are particular about. Many of us have products we swear by and tell people about. This is the type of product we strive to create.

People are most loyal to brands, often due to not being able find a product that pleases us because what we want isn't as high profit for big companies and is even more expensive for small companies. In these cases, where we find no acceptable product we often settle for less or make what we want ourselves.

Why produce a chemical candle, fragrance, skin cream, moisturizer etc. that does not provide any healthy benefit and does not do nearly the efficient or helpful task that a natural, and often less expensive alternative can provide? The reason is to increase profit, by blending the items you look for with cheaper items you do not notice so more can be sold for a lesser cost thus increasing profit. As an example, many lotions and moisturizers advertise in some banner on the front of the container "contains real shea butter" or some similar claim. When you turn this same product over and read the ingredients in order, the shea butter is usually down the label half way or more. Most often the first three ingredients will be water, glycerin and alcohol. We chose to make our moisturizer with only the ingredients advertised on the front and none of the others. Beeswax, sweet almond, cocoa-butter, and shea butter is all that goes into our naked unscented lotion bar.

When it comes to fragrance, we feel the same. Sure, some synthetic items have a place in our lives and skin care products. This is acceptable when those alternatives benefit us over the natural alternative, or condition and enhance natural ingredients rather than enhance the bottom line of the manufacturer with no reward to us. When we create our fragrance formulae we use the same types of ingredients found in our fruit bowl, herb closet and spice cupboard with very few exceptions. This gives our fragrances and our all natural flavorings something special that others cannot duplicate.

We are a company for the people that take care in what they use for their skin and body as well as care what candles they burn in their home. We try to provide a better choice where there is none and make it the best choice. Our patronage take personal care of knowing our product, and our customers tend to appreciate quality first.

Originally, the products we make are for us, our family and our friends. We create and use our goods because they are what we love, what we enjoy, and we believe they are the best candle, soap and skin products for us. Every product we sell to the public is one of these goods. Our employees, our family, our friends, all buy product off the same shelf and from the same batches that we sell to the public. We simply make what we love in large enough quantities to share with our patrons. We will never sell out control of what we make or how it is made because we make our goods for ourselves first. The only changes our products go through is their own evolution to improve quality and enjoyment. Usually this means a new product rather than changing what we have. Once you have it right, why try and alter it?

Why do renaissance festivals? We do not want to live 500 years ago. We do not think life was better then. We do not believe we should abandon technology or chemistry. In fact we believe we should embrace these things. Our business philosophy about artisanship is that the patrons not only come to our shows to buy, they also come to learn, hear, see, smell, taste & touch. The patrons who support our business and the festivals we attend want to see and buy something special and unique. We believe our goods fit this need perfectly.

Renaissance festivals also provide us with a longer show and a perfect venue to demonstrate and perform our craft in a market place that they fit well due to the natural and historical life behind our craft. At our shows, our goal is to not only sell our wares but to explain & demonstrate our craft to every customer who cares to stand around and listen. Families with children (and lots of questions) are something we enjoy and that our business thrives upon. We feel that any show we are a part of is ‘our’ show, not just ‘a’ show. To this end, all detail and depth of our presentation is designed to have the patron leave feeling intrigued. We believe we are not just vendors at a show. We work on the belief that we are performers in our shows and our shop is our stage.

All of this gives us a connection with our patrons that you can hardly ever reproduce in a mall store or an online business. Our patrons are very brand loyal and very close to us. They even end up working for us in many cases, as they will often approach other patrons and explain our goods to them, all due to the practices and beliefs shared on this page.

Lastly, but most importantly, we guarantee every product we make. If you do not love it we do not want you to have it. Customer satisfaction is second only to product quality.

To those who have helped us get here, we, as always adore and appreciate your continued and generous patronage. For those who have just found us, we hope to give you the same type of thrill and excitement over our products that we ourselves and those who have shopped with us for years experience. We have included a comments section on our site, because we believe the best advertising is that of truly pleased customers. We are very fortunate to have an abundance of those.