Despite the unfortunate name, Etsy isn’t all popsicle-stick sculptures and kitten sweaters. Enter: Debunking Etsy, a bimonthly column profiling all the wonderfully talented craftsmen who use the site to peddle well-built, hard-wearing and handsome goods for your home and person.
You know what they say: Every great company is built on absolute boredom. (Record scratch.)
Except… that’s really how the ball got rolling for Brand & Iron, an anomalous design company offering an array of homewares handcrafted in a Vancouver studio.
The company is headed by Jordan Derhouson, who, five years ago this month, underwent a liver transplant. The operation was successful, but the post-knife road to recovery was a long slog. Derhouson couldn’t go to work, and commited himself to honing his creativity and handiness. He spent a year teaching himself candle making and leathecraft. Not long after, Brand & Iron was founded.
These days, Jordan’s team is up to four. While they can hand-pour up to 200 candles in one day, scent development takes up to a year. (And sometimes involves a sabbatical to France.) Each of those scents — Tobacco + Vanilla, Sweet Balsam, Oak + Moss, Yuzu +Birch — will provide your home with an earthy elegance that’ll have Febreze sprinting for the hills in shame.
Don’t sleep on their leatherwares, either. They make an unobtrusive, handsome camera strap and a double waxed cowhide flask that’ll fit nicely in your pockets for the next decade or two.
Below, five of our favorites from the shop.
Oak and Moss Candle
Slim Leather Camera Strap
Sweet Balsam Candle
Aged Leather Stainless Steel Flask
Tobacco and Vanilla Candle
All images from Brand Iron
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