Welcome to Kentucky Conjure; where you are the magic!
OUR STORY
Kentucky Conjure is the result of over a decade of candle making, reinvention, and building a handmade business from a tiny apartment in Northern California to customers all over the world.
MadMoonRaven (some of our coven know him as Jonathan 😊) and I have been making candles since 2015, back when we were living in Northern California.
Like a lot of small makers, we started simple. The very first things we made were soy container candles, testing scents and burn quality on friends and family—and probably being a little annoying about it at times (thanks for the patience, fam! 😆). We gave away a lot of candles in those early days, partly because we needed honest feedback and partly because we were making far more test batches than anyone could reasonably burn.
Our tiny apartment had candles everywhere.
Things were cramped back in 2015, but what started as curiosity quickly turned into something much bigger. Not only were we falling in love with each other at the beginning of our relationship (🖤), we were also falling in love with the craft itself. We became fascinated with how candles actually work—how different waxes behave, how fragrance carries through heat, how wick choices affect the burn, and how scent and flame can completely change the atmosphere of a space.
By fall of 2015, we decided to start selling our candles for real.
Over the years we built and operated several candle ventures along the way, including Calloway’s Candles (2015–2018), Five Corners Co (2019–2023), and more recently Practical Candles (2023–March 2026).
Through online sales we began reaching customers far beyond our immediate community. Eventually our candles were shipping to customers all over the world, and at one point our products were carried in around twenty retail locations across the United States.
Like most small business owners, I also spent a lot of time learning how to build something sustainable. Over the years we sought advice and guidance from experienced voices in branding, retail, and product development—people who had built successful names in fashion, beauty, and consumer products. Those conversations (and a lot of trial and error over the years) helped me understand that building a brand requires just as much intention as making the product itself.
In the summer of 2019, we made a major life change and moved from the Sacramento area of California to Frankfort, Kentucky. Not long after we arrived, the pandemic hit and the world shut down. Like many small businesses, we had to adapt quickly. Online selling became incredibly important during that time—it allowed us to reach customers directly while people everywhere were stuck at home searching for comfort, ritual, or simply a moment of calm. Businesses closed and uncertainty was everywhere, but we stayed determined and hopeful.
In 2021, our story—from relocating across the country to maintaining an online business (and our sanity!) during the pandemic—was featured in Frankfort’s longest-standing local newspaper, The State Journal (in print since 1900, ya'll!).
Over time, my perspective on what we were building also evolved. Early on, our work lived somewhere between traditional handmade craft culture and classic witchcraft aesthetics. Eventually that started to feel limiting and a little stale. I became more interested in something that felt modern, flexible, honest, and relevant... something that reflects these crazy and uncertain times... something that leaned into chaos magic (my personal favorite), self-love, self-acceptance, and personal autonomy, rather than rigid traditions or spiritual gatekeeping.
2025 brought the biggest shift, when I stepped in to completely rework the brand’s direction and identity. MadMoonRaven (Jonathan) stepped back from day-to-day branding decisions, and I took over shaping the overall vision and voice of the business. I also finally learned to hone my candle making skills! Around that same time I also restructured the company itself—what had previously been a business entirely in his name became something we now co-own equally, after long conversations on the matter.
Kentucky Conjure is the result of that evolution.
Today I focus on creating candles, incense, and ritual tools designed for modern spiritual practice—tools meant to support intention, personal empowerment, and everyday magic.
The work is a little darker, a little more chaotic, and deeply rooted in the idea that spirituality should belong to the individual. These tools aren’t meant to tell people how their practice should look. They’re meant to give people something to work with—something that can help focus intention, mark a moment, or create a space that feels meaningful.
This is how I came up with the shop's tagline, "you are magic." Because, let's be real: YOU ARE.
And honestly, it still feels a little surreal sometimes. What started with MadMoonRaven pouring soy container candles, affixed with sticker labels in our tiny apartment (while I watched and supported in awe from the sidelines, so full of pride and excitement) has, eleven years later, grown into a long-standing business selling our homemade ritual tools to customers all over the United States and the world.
If you made it this far, you’re probably exactly the kind of people we hope to connect with. Kentucky Conjure has always been about finding the people who resonate with the work and building a small community of curious, independent thinkers along the way.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of our decade-long (and counting!) journey. 🖤
May this next chapter guide all of us toward bigger, better, and maybe just a little more of a magical world and existence.
With love,
KENTUCKY CONJURE
