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Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)I have been dealing with some lovely Wisconsin folks, a family business who sell honey (Gentle Breeze Honey) and a number of Bee's Wax Candle products. I found these DARLING candles at Whole Foods and have decided to send them as Gifts to special ppl & customers. They are the perfect size and price and thought that some of you might also like to know about this family.
I wrote to them to ask if they would be equipped to deal with us (small orders) here is a bit of our correspondence. I can vouch for both their Great customer service and wonderful communications!
Me:
Your items which I'm purchasing are so unique, and such a perfect item for friends of mine in the bear community to also use as I will be, because they are non-fragile yet small & light for shipping, hand-made which is highly valued in our field and just an all-around perfect item for us to send along with purchases of our hand-made bears or as gifts and Thank You-s to our clients, that I'd love to be able to pass on your name/contact info/website but wouldn't do so unless I knew that you were equipped to handle 'small orders' like mine.
Please let me know if you have minimums or how you would handle this type of marketing - or if you would prefer not to! - as my fellow artists are spread across the country and indeed around the world, on one list in particular.
This is the main list, reaching thousands of readers (I sent them the link to come here to view Teddy Talk)—artists and collectors alike—which you can check out: you'll see that it is broken down into several different categories. I would like to post a note, with whatever contact & sales directives you'd like to be known & pix of these 2 which I have and your other candles under the 'General' category, which is read by the most visitors to the site.
So please LMK if you'd allow me to let my friends know about these darling little Beehive and Beehive Bear Candles!
Others use bee's wax to wax build up layers over the stitched noses of their bear to give them a glossy sheen: they purchase little 1" x 1" x 3" blocks for this purpose. Some of your smaller Floating Star candles look perfect to get into tight little corners for waxing!
(The Woller's website is: http://www.gentlebreezehoney.com/our_products.htm )
The Wollers, in bits from different emails:
The bear with hive is available for $2.50 and the large beehive votive is $3.75.
What quantity would you be interested in? Please let me know how I can be of further assistance.
Hello again. We are pleased you’d like to let your friends know about our candle offerings. We’d love to have you do that and feel we are equipped to handle the small orders. They just need to be aware we are a small family business and are not set up with credit cards, etc. We request checks with their orders which has worked for us up to date. We also have bulk beeswax in small blocks and also ½ # and 1 # blocks.
We trust you will be happy with the product and let us know if we can help you in the future. Again, thanks for your encouragement and support. Donna
Me:
I'm off to pick up my order of Beehives and Beehives with Cubs today (the Wollers are in Wisconsin but they delivered it to one of their daughter's business in an IL town nearby to me!) but I wanted you all to know about this family business.
Wonderful customer service and they're great communicators!
The Beehives are 2 & 3/4" tall and the ones with the Cub are 2 & 1/2" tall.
The Pix:
The candles are very sweet, and I can personally vouch for their honey - yummy! (It's available in grocery stores in this area.)
Thanks for the tip!
Becky
Back Road BearsOh, how adorable, Bobbie!!! I think sending sweet things of any kind is the prefect gift to go with our bears!!
Being from Maple Syrup country I send wee jars to my US customers and maple candy to my international ones when its sugaring season and everything is fresh... which will start late next month!!
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)Yes, Becky, they have WI pretty well covered with their products but only come down into the Chicago area for out-of-staters.
I, too, love the idea of sending along a little something extra, Daphne, though with miniatures, these are the same size and even heavier than our pieces! But the element of Surprise and going that extra distance is what counts.
Special people, especially repeat customers, deserve a little Thank You now and then. I like to send them just before Thanksgiving.
Daphne's choice of the two different products for domestic and international shipping makes sense and I like the idea of a local New England product.
I use the best I've thought of - a shiny new Land-of-Lincoln Penny - and I try to get them dated in the year I created each bear.
Back Road BearsLove the Penny idea, Bobbie! I went with the candies for int'l customers because they weigh a little less for shipping and I wasnt' so sure about shipping liquid overseas. I supposed it'd be just fine but with the flying I do I guess I got it stuck in my head "no liquid"!!
Bobbie,
Thanks for the info, these are so cute! I love Daphne's idea of sending something that is from her local area. Being the practical woman that I am, I send mini lint rollers! I make special labels for them and call them "Hairy Hug Removers."
Hugs,
Alison
The Littlest ThistleAww, those are so cute! What a great wee gift idea too. Now I come to think about it, I'm sure I've come across local handmade beeswax things up in the Trossachs, so may have to investigate that further.
Back Road BearsAlison, I love it! 
I too send local things like blueberry , or maple products. Or, locally made candy. I have one couple where the hubby looks forward to the candy and wife gets the bear LOL.
Allison , I love your lint rollers , too funny !
I wouldn't send liquid or honey...I sent molasses (made in our area) and it burst open on the plane and destroyed the contents of the package...and, yes it was in a separate plastic bag which didn't hold either!
Back Road BearsWell, my US customers haven't complained of bottles (plastic) of maple syrup rupturing in any way in the 8 years I've been shipping them and many of those packages have been on planes across the US. I just question what int'l customs would think/do with the syrup but I'm guessing it could slow up delivery of the bear and I'd rather not take that chance.
The Littlest ThistleCustoms in many countries are very strict about importing food, especially in Australia! It's not worth the risk really
Back Road BearsWell Katy, I've been doing it for years with out a problem so I'll just keep right on doing it until an issue arises. In 8 years I haven't had a report of any overseas packages even being opened so........
"Importing" food and sending a tiny package of candy as a thank you with an order I should think would be two very different things. Besides, seems the world is much more concerned with weapon material being shipped at this point than they are bits of candy.
The Littlest Thistle"Importing" food and sending a tiny package of candy as a thank you with an order I should think would be two very different things.
Oh no, it really isn't unfortunately, it's to do with what the food could contain that could bring thing into the country. As I said, the Australians especially are extremely strict about this - you can't even get through customs at the airport with sweets and things. You've probably got away with it if you haven't declared it on the customs note and they haven't had any other need to open it. I got my knuckles rapped about 3 boiled sweets in a parcel from a Scrapbook company from the US once too that they'd opened to check the declaration, and the UK isn't as bad 
Hi Bobbie,
They are precious and I plan to order some of the bears & beehives! Thanks for sharing.
Hugs & Blessings,
Janice
Donna's Duin BruinsThanks for the idea.
I just got back from our local honey farm with a handful of bees wax. They also had the candles. They had a different bear candle that I really liked. From now on when we go to get honey, I will have to check out what they have in the gift shop also.
Donna
Oh these are adorable! What a great idea to give as gifts too! I may be ordering some. I love them!
Thanks for sharing this Bobbie!
Beth
