Seasons Greetings from The Emporium!

Our first year running The Emporium has been a real learning curve! Funded by the Princes Trust, with the aim of bringing hand-made crafts into more of our homes (and more unique gift ideas than the norm), we've had great fun finding new crafts and making new friends who make truly amazing gift ideas!

We want to say a really big 'Thank You' to you - our first year of customers and newsletter subscribers. Without you we wouldn't be here! As a treat, we've activated a discount code on the website "NEWSXMAS10" for 10% off all items in your next order. Simply type in NEWSXMAS10 in the voucher code box when you check out.

In addition, we are offering free shipping to all orders over £25 this Christmas - handy when you see our next new items exclusive to the Emporium!


Our handmade candles have been a huge success - LeeAnna, our candles crafter, has been working very hard to make some more exciting scents and ideas, and has really made us proud! Take a look at our life-sized centrepiece candles!

From the vanillary crust to the sweet scented fruits, these candles are truly a work of art! Each of the larger pies are 5" round by 2" deep - making them a fantastic centrepiece for your table, a truly unique gift or a really amazing piece for the home! They smell just as good as they look, too, and will burn for up to 140 hours! If you can't bring yourself to burn them, don't worry - their scent will still lightly fill any room, just like a freshly-baked pie!

These unique, handmade pie candles are exclusive to the Emporium - you won't find them anywhere else in the UK!


We only have limited numbers of the larger pies for Christmas - so be quick! We can also do custom orders for the pies, making them exactly to your design and requirements for an event or just a special gift. Go to our Custom Orders page for more details.


Why not stock up on stocking fillers at The Emporium? We have a great range of smaller gift ideas suitable for kids right up to Nan - with luxury handmade soaps made will all-natural ingredients, our very popular Sock Cupcakes and plenty of affordable pieces of handmade jewellery.

Finally - did you know we can gift-wrap all presents for you? For just £2 per item, we will wrap any gift, along with a ribbon and a hand-written tag!

We will also label the gift with a little removable tag- just in case you forget what is in there! (Just remember to take it off before you give the gift!)

Last order dates for Christmas are the 17th of December for Standard 1st Class Shipping and the 21st December for Special Delivery! Many thanks for reading our newsletter, and we hope you'll be back to our site again soon for more unique, handmade gift ideas.

Artisans Spotlight - Fyne Silver

The Emporium is all about finding one-of-a-kind gifts - gifts you couldn't possibly find in a supermarket or chain shop. Nothing is bought from a catalogue and all our suppliers are talented crafters primarily from the UK.

A great example of one of our talented team is Lynne of Fyne Silver. Lynne lives on the shores of Loch Fyne, Scotland, and loves to beachcomb. She picks up little pieces of what she finds - shells, ceramic, glass and other treasures, then combines them with enamel and 925 silver to create truly one-of-a-kind gifts! (We arn't joking - each of her bracelets is a true treasure and she truly can't make two the same!)



Frosted sea glass is another feature of her works, cleaned and protected to create pieces that are rustic yet refined.



Her mussel shell earrings are a real favourite - we sold out of these days after listing them in the shop. Luckily, Lynne is making more for us to arrive by the 1st December - plenty of time for a unique Christmas gift.



My favourites, however, are the ceramic earrings. These delicate little pieces hang gracefully from sterling silver earwires and are very feminine and delicate - don't worry, the ceramic has been carefully enamelled, protecting them from any harm.

Christmas Stall

This week we set up our temporary Christmas Stall alongside the Charity Christmas Cards in St Peters' Church, Oundle. This means we are out of the elements - although the church is a little chilly, so if you do pop round don't be too alarmed by the amount of jumpers I've managed to squeeze on!

We are there Thursdays and Saturdays and will have a selection of gift ideas from the website available for purchase - have a good sniff of our scented candles and lovely hand-made soaps.





We also will have items not yet on the website - real one of a kind pieces to snap up while they are still there. These include new designs by Dormouse Designs' Anja Schafer and Chain Of Daisies' Caroline Sale. Come try some on and have a chat every Thursday and Saturday up until Christmas.

Artisans Spotlight - GelDLights

We are proud to do a regular small piece on our artisans, their latest work and, of course, how you can have their beautiful creations in your own home. It seemed right for the first post to be about GelDLights, or LeeAnna, an artisan whose works in part inspired me to start The Emporium!

Today I had the great pleasure of unwrapping a wondrous parcel of her creations.



Hand made, gel wax candles, each individually poured, scented and sculpted to create a truly amazing and original piece each time.



From the wax 'biscuit' base, through the vanillary main pillar and then topped with an amazing topping of sweet wax 'chocolate' chips, wax sauces or shining wax fruits, these candles smell and look absolutely amazing - the scent changes as the wax does, with these votives lasting 12 hours in total.



We are proud to have a selection of her candles, including larger centerpiece candles, available here in The Emporium. We also accept custom orders for parties, special occassions and weddings, crafted exactly to your requirements.