Our Story

Frostbeard Studio art fair

The Beginning

Frostbeard Studio started out in 2012 as a pottery studio owned by married couple Roxie, a ceramist, and Tom, a commercial animator. Based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, we were struggling to find our creative niche.

Together we had 2 big goals:

  1. Become our own bosses
  2. Make a living as artists

One Kickstarter project later and we had all we needed to get creating: a wheel, a kiln, and a cool logo created by Tom and inspired by one of our biker friends. That first year, we sold mugs, plates and bowls at craft fairs, in local shops and on Etsy.

The Candles

A year later, Roxie tried her darnedest to find a library-scented candle online–but came up empty-handed. Bookish candles simply didn’t exist. And Roxie is a very skilled Internet shopper.

Despite this annoyance, Roxie would not be stopped. When she couldn't find the candles to satisfy all our nerdy, book-inspired sniffing needs, she took matters into her own hands.

Being crafty DIYers, we ordered some supplies and set out to make the bookiest candles anyone has ever smelled. Thus the first ever Frostbeard candle, Oxford Library, was poured.

And that’s how–almost by accident–we became candlemakers.

The Boom

The Frostbeard shop exploded after being featured on BuzzFeed in December of 2013. In February of 2014, we moved out of our home studio, hired an employee and found a studio space in the Arts District of Northeast Minneapolis.

Since then we’ve crafted over 50 scents of literature-inspired candles and have enjoyed every bit of it. We love books, we love candles, and it’s quite possible that all we wanted this whole time was an excuse to run around sniffing books and exploring fictional worlds all day, “researching”.

When we aren’t pouring candles or conducting this very important “research,” we’re creating art and hanging out with our pets. We also love reading at cafes, drinking way too much coffee, and getting outdoors to explore Minnesota.

The Future

Business is booming, candles are burning, and all the while we strive to stay true to our artist roots.

We still love pottery, animation and drawing and hope to share some of these crafts with you in the near future. We also love our cats, plaid, and lumberjacks–all of which serve as inspiration for us as we continue our quest of making cool things for folks to enjoy.

We’ve got some cool ideas for Frostbeard on the horizon and can’t wait to share them with you in our shop. To see our newest items, check out our Candle of the Month!