Where She Blooms

The Heart of Mission Crafts Chandlery

Mission Crafts Chandlery exists to create a welcoming space where women can gather, create, and share light through hands-on making and scent. Our mission is to honor creativity, connection, and storytelling, especially among women, by offering experiences that feel grounding, joyful, and meaningful.

Inspired by the legacy of the founder’s mother Sue Fowles, a lifelong maker, Mission Crafts was built as a place where creativity is passed forward and every woman is invited to bloom.

Why This Space Matters

Traditional retail is losing its appeal. Today’s consumers, especially women don’t want to simply buy something off a shelf; they want to experience something meaningful. Generic, transactional shopping fails to engage the senses, spark creativity, or create the emotional connection that builds loyalty and community.

At the same time, many women are seeking spaces that allow them to slow down, create with their hands, and connect with others in a way that feels personal and restorative. Too often, retail environments overlook the desire for creativity, personalization, and sensory engagement leaving people uninspired and disconnected.

A Moment Ripe for Bloom

The opportunity for experiential, sensory-driven retail is significant and growing, but the demand goes deeper than market size alone. While the global candle market exceeds $14 billion and the experiential “retailtainment” sector surpasses $12 billion, consumer behavior reveals something more meaningful: people are craving connection, creativity, and presence.

Today’s customers (particularly women) are seeking experiences that go beyond transactions.
81% of Gen Z and Millennials prefer physical spaces when the experience is engaging.
80% actively scent their homes to shape mood and memory.
71% expect personalization, and
63% are willing to invest more when a product is paired with a meaningful experience.
More than half 56%—actively seek hands-on, participatory retail.

Mission Crafts exists at the intersection of this shift. Built as a women-centered creative space, we offer more than candle-making; we offer room to slow down, create with intention, and feel seen. Through scent, story, and shared experience, Mission Crafts creates a space where creativity is passed forward, confidence is rekindled, and every woman is encouraged to share her light.

How We Create [ and Why it Works]

Mission Crafts Chandlery is an experiential candle and fragrance studio that reimagines retail by blending creativity, scent, and hands-on experience. Designed as a safe, welcoming space for women, our studio invites guests to create something meaningful whether they arrive with friends, as mothers and daughters, or on their own.

Founded in 2019 and entering its seventh year in business, Mission Crafts is led by an award-winning woman entrepreneur and has become a trusted creative gathering space where women design and pour their own candles and fragrance products while exploring scent as a form of self-expression, play, and reflection. Our experiences are intentionally immersive, encouraging curiosity, calm, and connection in a way traditional retail does not.

At the heart of the studio is the Light Wall, a space where women are invited to leave affirmations, motivational or spiritual quotes, and messages of encouragement. Each message is pinned with a butterfly, symbolizing transformation and continuity. These words remain on the wall so others can read them, often offering comfort, strength, or a reminder that they are not alone.

Over time, these butterflies form a kaleidoscope of shared light where many voices and stories are held together in one space. This is where the Mission Crafts community becomes visible: women lifting one another through words, creativity, and presence.

By pairing this shared emotional experience with hands-on fragrance making, Mission Crafts turns shopping into something interactive and emotionally resonant. Guests don’t just leave with a product they leave with a memory, a sense of belonging, and light they carry with them into the world, creating meaningful reasons to return.

In this way, Mission Crafts solves the need for creative, women-centered spaces that honor both expression and connection transforming scent and craft into experiences that last well beyond the studio doors.

Growing with Intention

Mission Crafts is growing and our community is growing with us. Our current studio has become a place where women gather, create, and find connection, but it is also a space we have outgrown. During our busiest seasons, we are often faced with the difficult reality of turning women away simply because we no longer have the room to host everyone who wants to participate.

We are seeking funding to move into a larger studio so we can serve more women, share more creativity, and make space for more light and stories. A larger space would allow us to host more workshops, welcome larger women’s groups, and create additional opportunities for women to gather whether they come with friends, as mothers and daughters, or on their own.

Funding from this campaign will help us:

• Transition into a larger, more accessible studio space
• Expand and enhance hands-on candle and fragrance experiences
• Invest in tools, materials, and equipment to support increased capacity
• Develop new scent offerings and creative workshops
• Create space for partnerships and pop-ups with other local women-owned businesses

This next chapter is deeply personal. Inspired by Marcie’s mother, Sue, a maker who believed in creating with care and intention, expanding our space allows Mission Crafts to honor her legacy by welcoming more women into a place where creativity is shared, stories are held, and light continues to bloom growing not quickly, but with intention, so more women can connect, create, and carry that light forward.

The Women Behind the Work 

Mission Crafts Chandlery was founded by Marcie Anguiano, an award-winning entrepreneur and experiential creative leader inspired by her mother, a lifelong maker. Marcie leads the vision, creative direction, and experience design of Mission Crafts, bringing seven years of hands-on business leadership as the company enters its seventh year in 2026.

Marcie is a regular guest on local television, including Great Day SA, San Antonio Living, and SA Live, where she hosts on-set [and on location] candle demonstrations and shares the value of hands-on creativity. She has been featured as a Top Maker in San Antonio Magazine and named a Business Woman to Watch by San Antonio Woman Magazine. She was also the first entrepreneur interviewed on the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Birds Up Podcast, representing her alma mater and creative entrepreneurship in South Texas.

In 2023, Marcie received the Rising Star Business Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners, recognizing her leadership, innovation, and community impact. She has also partnered with Visit San Antonio, traveling to cities including Houston, Chicago, and Austin to share the story of San Antonio and South Texas through immersive scent activations bringing regional culture to life through fragrance.

In addition to its core team, Mission Crafts proudly mentors young women through a long-standing partnership with Alamo Colleges District’s Alamo On The Job program. Interns work with Mission Crafts for up to nine months, gaining real-world experience in digital marketing, business development, operations, and creative production while pursuing careers in business. Supporting and developing emerging women leaders is a meaningful part of Mission Crafts’ mission and day-to-day work. 

Together, the Mission Crafts team blends creative vision, proven execution, and mentorship ensuring the business continues to grow with intention, integrity, and impact.

Thank You for Taking Flight with Us

Thank you for choosing to take flight with us as Mission Crafts enters a new season of growth. Your support allows this space, and the women within it to bloom with intention, welcoming more creativity, connection, and shared light.

Every contributor will be honored on our Butterfly Contributor Wall, created to celebrate the women who help Mission Crafts bloom. Each butterfly represents a name and story, coming together to form a living kaleidoscope of creativity, encouragement, and care.

Because of you, more women will have a place to gather, explore fragrance, create something meaningful, and leave carrying light with them into the world. We are deeply grateful to have you as part of this kaleidoscope and for helping Mission Crafts bloom and take flight in its next chapter.