About Us

Behind Hearth & Hammer is us—Ariane Scholl and Andy Kenney, we are high school sweethearts living in our hometown of Batavia, IL who believe in illuminating literature through aromatic storytelling.

Our scents are inspired by literature and books themselves. Whether it’s the woodsy notes of Thoreau’s Walden Woods or the nostalgic scent of the sea present in The Green Light inspired by The Great Gatsby, our candles are meant to bring your favorite stories to life.

We believe the story is in the details, which is why we craft our candles from all natural domestically sourced soy wax, high-quality fragrance and essential oils and cotton-braided wicks to give them a clean burn and full-bodied fragrance. Our candles are phthalate-free, additive-free, preservative-free, eco-friendly, cruelty-free, vegan and hand poured in our hometown studio.

We launched Hearth & Hammer in 2014 as a vintage goods booth in our hometown and later as an Etsy shop. Ariane had the idea to craft literary candles while attending a novel writing program through the University of Chicago’s Graham School. She had been creating candles as gifts for friends and family and became enamored with the idea of bringing her favorite books to life. Andy designed the Classic Collection labels, which are still the current labels used today and from there things took off.  Soon after the candles were featured in a Refinery29 article, and were then highlighted in Chicago-area Target’s through a collaboration with the New York City based company, Of A Kind and from there demand grew.

On October 26, 2019 we opened Hearth & Hammer General, a brick & mortar general store, candle studio and workshop space in Batavia, IL. Since then, we've grown into our current 4,700sq historic home at 160 First St. in Batavia—creating a home for locally-inspired goods, retail & shopping, local events and community building. Come on in and visit, we would love to see you.  

 -Ariane & Andy