Sarah Mohrman and Julie Beagley from Main Street Mercantile located at 46 W. Main St. organized the upcoming Hand Maid Christmas Market in Tremonton.
TREMONTON – Sarah Mohrman and Julie Beagley from Main Street Mercantile, located at 46 W. Main St. in Tremonton, are preparing their wares for the Hand Maid Christmas Market on Dec. 17th in the Box Elder County Fair Grounds Fine Arts Building from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Main Street Mercantile has been in business for a year and a half and business has been good and growing. When the city started its farmers market across the street from their business at the city square things really picked up.
The two organized the Hand Made Christmas Market and found 66 vendors who were willing to bring their items to a booth in the fairgrounds.
“There are a lot of makers here in our county,” said Mohrman. “Many of the Box Elder County crafters will bring their handmade things to sell before Christmas.”
The two ladies are adding to their inventory. They have turned the basement of their shop into a candle-making factory where they melt the wax, add the scent, set the wicks, and pour it into cans and tiny glass molds for the final product. The products have nice packaging with smart graphics to tidy up the presentation.
The candles were supposed to be inventory for the upcoming event, but they have been selling them as fast they can make them. In just a month, they’ve sold 600 candles.
“We use soy-based wax so there is no residue when it burns,” Mohrman said. “We buy all of our supplies from small businesses and work with as many local businesses as we can.”
Neither had made candles before but they found some books and learned how to do it on their own. Making candles turned out to be good thing. Beagly worked 20 years in compounding pharmaceutical goods so understanding how to mix things was a natural thing.
“The math and formulas are the same,” she said. “But this is a lot more fun.”
They have learned the best ratios to use for mixing their scents to their wax. So far, they have 15 different scents with more on the way.
“We have a Honey Beehive representing the state and Mountain Trail that represents the county,” she said. “We have a Marshmallow Fireside scent that represents our local fire department and Apple Cider Donut scented candles representing our police department.”
Main Street Mercantile has several different coffee scented candles.
“We found the coffee smell is one of the most popular scents,” Mohrman said. “That surprised us because most of the people around here don’t drink coffee but must like the smell.”
Besides the scented candles, the ladies are making other things to put on the shelf of their store. Morhman has some knitting goods she sells and some of her husband’s prints. He is a professional photographer and has several prints hanging on the walls for sale.
Begley has succulents for sale and the shop is filled with merchandise from other county crafters. The store has several packages where they combined candles, succulents and other merchandise in a nice combination box for sale.
Among the many booths at the Market there will be metal art, ceramics, bath products, T-shirts, baked goods, leather goods, home and Christmas decorations.
While most of the vendors are from Box Elder County there are some from Logan and as far away as Orem. There are also some vendors from Malad.