The Willowvale Road Story

Hi. My name is Caroline. 

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I spent my early years on a dairy farm in NE Victoria, and after moving to Sydney as a child, always dreamed of ending back on a farm. After finding an acre of land between 2 working dairy farms, tucked in behind Gerringong on the South Coast of NSW, my husband and I built a house then packed up and moved with our 2 boys in 2012 from Sydney's Northern Beaches to our dream location. I spent the next 5 years working from home doing medical admin & long hours typing reports. I didn’t love it. In fact, I eventually hated it. My life in Sydney was quite social & very creative after spending 6 years at Brookvale TAFE studying Ceramics. I was suddenly stuck at home doing something completely boring to me. On top of that, it was affecting me physically and mentally.

So in my spare time I started doing all sorts of creative courses including drawing, piano, cooking, Italian, chalk painted furniture, candle making and later, advanced candle making. I fell in love with the range of creativity you need for candle making including scent choice, packaging and labelling. 

Inspired by the beauty of the rolling green hills meeting the ocean (featured throughout my labels) and encouraged by the lovely people I have met since living here, "willowvale road" was born in 2017. 

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In 2019 "The Barn" was built to house my growing business and to enable me to offer Candle & Diffuser making workshops.

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In 2021 I re-discovered my love of clay and joined "Soul Clay Studios" in Gerringong as a resident artist. I now enjoy creating some of my candles "from scratch". Ceramic candles are now available to purchase in the WR online store and a small selection are also available in the Soul Clay Studios store in Gerringong.​

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In early 2021 Donna Barker joined me in the studio as a Senior Candle Technician which allowed the business to grow further as more orders were able to be hand poured. Donna was with me for two (fun) years before I decided to change the direction my business was taking.

In January 2023 I decided that with the increasing costs of supplies, it was no longer viable to sell wholesale any longer. It was time to simplify what I do and enjoy more time for myself. I am back to working only part-time, offering my stock only via my online store, spending more time in the ceramics studio and running workshops, but not as many as I have offered in the past.

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