I Think I Made Too Many Things

For a long time, one of my favourite things about running The Hobbyist was that if I had an idea, I could just make it. A new candle scent, a botanical soap I couldn't stop thinking about, a bath product, a plant perfume, an essential oil blend — sure, why not? For years, I said yes to almost everything. 

That curiosity is a huge part of how The Hobbyist became what it is today: a small-batch, family-run business making place-based scent, botanical soap, candles, bath, body and home fragrance here in Tofino, on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Some of those ideas became staples. Some opened doors I never expected. Some I completely fell in love with. And some just had their moment and stuck around a little too long. 

But there was another side to all of those yeses, and lately I've had to look at that side a little more closely.

How We Somehow Ended Up With More Than 100 offerings..

At some point, I looked around our little Tofino studio and realized The Hobbyist had grown to more than 100 individual products. One hundred products for a very small handmade business. When I actually stopped and thought about it, it was kind of insane.

Because every product has a much bigger life behind it than what you see sitting on a shelf or on our website. There are ingredients to source, essential oils and fragrance materials to keep on hand, bottles, jars, candle vessels, labels and packaging to order — often in minimum quantities that aren't particularly friendly to tiny businesses. There are production schedules, inventory, photography, website listings, wholesale line sheets, storage, and a surprising amount of money sitting on shelves in one form or another.

And then, of course, someone actually has to make all of it by hand!!!!

For years, I had more support in the studio, which made a collection this size possible. But The Hobbyist is changing. We're moving toward being a much smaller family-run operation, and that has forced me to take a pretty serious look at what we're making, why we're making it and whether it still makes sense.

Why The Hobbyist Is Simplifying

What I've realized is that I don't actually want to make more things. I want to make fewer things, really, really well.

So I've been going through The Hobbyist offering by offering and asking some fairly simple questions. Do people actually come back for this? Does it make sense financially? Do I still love making it? Does it deserve the space, ingredients, packaging and time it requires? And maybe the most useful question of all: if I were starting The Hobbyist today, would I choose to make this?

For some offerings, the answer is an immediate yes. There are scents and products that have become such a part of The Hobbyist that I couldn't imagine this business without them. They're the candles you burn through and reorder, the botanical soaps I still love pouring, and the scents that somehow continue to feel right year after year.

For others, the answer is no. And that's actually been harder than I expected.

Some of the things we're retiring are products I genuinely love. They aren't bad products and this isn't a bin of things nobody wanted. Some have been around for years and have very loyal little followings. They were part of our story, and they helped get The Hobbyist here. They just don't necessarily belong in where we're going next.

Making Room for More Seasonal Making

This is the part that makes me really excited about what comes next.

A smaller permanent collection doesn't mean I want The Hobbyist to become less creative. Quite the opposite. I think carrying fewer permanent products gives me more freedom to actually make things again without every idea turning into another SKU that I somehow find myself producing for the next six years.

I want to pour more seasonal botanical soaps. I want candles that arrive with the weather and disappear again when the season changes. I want autumn here to smell different from summer. I want winter batches, spring botanicals and little runs inspired by whatever is growing, blooming, washing ashore or occupying my brain at that particular moment.

I keep thinking about them as swing hitters — offerings that can come in and out depending on the season, what I'm excited about and, very practically, what we have the capacity to make in the studio. Some might return every year. Some might show up when the timing feels right. Some might be poured once and never appear again.

That feels exciting to me. And honestly, it feels much closer to why I started The Hobbyist in the first place.

Getting Back to What The Hobbyist Was Built Around

I didn't start this business because I dreamed of managing more than 100 products. I started because I loved making things. I loved plants and scent and learning how ingredients worked together. I loved taking pieces of this place — the forests, beaches, botanicals, weather and seasons around Tofino — and trying to translate them into something you could hold in your hands and bring home with you.

Over time, that idea of place-based scent has become one of the clearest threads running through The Hobbyist. It's in our coastal candles, our essential oil blends and our botanical soaps. It's in the names inspired by beaches, islands and inlets around us, and in the plants, weather and memories that so often become the starting point for something I make.

That's where I want to put more of my energy again. Less product simply for the sake of having product. More intention, more seasonality, more experimentation and more really good things.

The Biggest Sale We've Ever Had

Of course, there's a very practical part to making a business smaller: first, you have to clear some space. And in our case, quite a lot of it.

So from September 1–8, we're holding the biggest sale we've ever had at The Hobbyist. A collection of retiring candles, botanical salt soaks, plant perfume, reed diffusers and body oil will be 30–40% off while the remaining inventory lasts.

These aren't seconds or imperfect products. They're offerings we've decided no longer make sense as part of our permanent collection. Some have been with us for years, some I will genuinely miss, and I'm fully expecting a few emails asking me what the hell I'm doing!!!

But when the remaining inventory is gone, it's gone. There isn't going to be a mysterious restock three weeks later. We're actually saying goodbye because we need the room — physically, financially and creatively — for what comes next.

A Tighter, Lighter Hobbyist

The Hobbyist isn't getting smaller just for the sake of getting smaller. We're becoming more focused. There will still be a strong permanent collection built around the scents and products you come back for again and again, but around that core I want much more freedom.

There will be more seasonal botanical soap, seasonal candles and small-batch scent releases. There will be experiments, limited runs and probably a few strange little ideas I can't stop thinking about. There will also be more room to respond to the seasons and to our actual capacity instead of feeling like every product we've ever made needs to remain available forever.

For years, I built this business by saying yes — yes to ideas, opportunities, products, collaborations and the constant little voice in my head saying, I wonder if I could make that? I'm incredibly grateful I did, because a lot of those yeses built The Hobbyist.

But I think the next version of this business is going to require me to get much better at saying no. No to making something simply because we can. No to carrying products that no longer earn their place. No to trying to be everything. And a much bigger yes to the things that work, the things I genuinely love making and the kind of small-batch business I actually want The Hobbyist to be.

We're making some room for whatever comes next.

And apparently, goodbye is a little easier at 40% off.

The Edit SALE will run from September 1st –8th, with up to 40% off retiring Hobbyist offerings while quantities last.