How Four Worlds Came to Be

Four Worlds had been sitting in the back of my mind for a very long time, probably well before Beckah became what it is now.

I used to write a blog nearly nine years ago, and when I go back and read some of those old posts, I can see that much of it was already there. I wrote about nature, history, old objects, the seasons and the small things people did as part of everyday life. I didn’t have a name for any of it then, but it has always been what I am interested in.

Earlier this year, I injured my shoulder and suddenly had to stop making candles.

The timing was awful. I had just had a busy season of markets, online orders were coming in and, for the first time in a while, I felt as though I was getting somewhere. Then I couldn’t make anything.

For a few weeks, I felt as though I had failed. Even though I knew I was injured, it was difficult not to feel that way. I had spent so much time building Beckah, and suddenly I was doing nothing.

But doing nothing also gave me far too much time to think.

I started looking at Beckah and realised I didn’t really know where I was taking it. I had started with a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to make, but over time I had become influenced by trends and by the idea that I always needed something new.

Another candle. Another mould. Another thing for the market table.

By the end of last year, people were regularly standing at my stall saying:

“There’s so much choice.”

“I can’t decide.”

They weren’t wrong. There was too much choice.

I was having exactly the same problem every time I packed for a market. I would look at everything and think: those sold well last time, I haven’t made those for a while, people always like those, and perhaps I should make some of these too.

So I took nearly everything.

Then, at a market, I overheard a customer say:

“I think this may be too silly.”

The comment kept coming back to me. Not because I was particularly upset by it, but because sometimes it is worth asking why something stays with you.

Eventually, I realised it had stayed with me because I had already begun to wonder whether Beckah was heading somewhere I didn’t want it to go. I had been wanting to simplify things for some time; I just couldn’t work out where to begin. In a strange way, overhearing that comment gave me permission to do it.

While I wasn’t able to make candles, I started gathering together the things I still liked. I saved photographs, wrote down words and went back through old ideas. I looked at the candles I wanted to keep making and the ones I was quite happy never to make again.

Eventually, I could see four groups:

Harvest.

Orchard.

Forage.

Ritual.

Once I had those four names, Beckah made sense to me again.

They weren’t really new ideas. Harvest, orchards, gathered things and the rituals of home were all through those old blog posts from years ago. I had simply found a way to bring them together.

So I removed a lot of candles and began again with the ones that had a reason to be there.

That is how Four Worlds came to be.