#6 Inside the Making
Nik & Robynn
The Hands That Shape Us
The best things we’ve ever made weren’t made alone.
They formed through conversation, curiosity, and care,
by people who still believe in the slow joy
of making something real.
The Companions began this way too,
not in a meeting,
but in a series of moments.
Friends, neighbours, people we met by chance –
each creating something small and honest,
each guided by love long before business.
These hands shaped the collection.
Not strategy – people.
The Oil
When Nik moved to Cape Town,
his host parents shared something they’d been nurturing:
pure, locally grown CBD oil.
They were growers, not marketers,
people fluent in soil, not slogan.
They cared more about the seed than the sale.
The first time he tried it,
he felt that familiar pull,
the certainty of something too honest to ignore.
Years later, as Wild & Soft found its form,
we knew the oil belonged here.
Made slowly, with trust and patience,
no rush, no shortcuts.
We refined the brand,
but the heart stayed as it began:
something grown with love,
shared because it works.
Some things don’t need reinventing, only protecting.
The Wash
The wash, which expanded into the Calm & Clean Ritual,
came from two dear friends who speak fluent dog.
Cape Town’s favourite dog walkers, The Great Dames,
women who know the difference between an anxious bark
and a relieved exhale.
They began brewing their own gentle shampoo
simply because they wanted something kinder
for the creatures they loved most.
You can feel that care in the formula,
as if it remembers the calm
that follows a long walk, a towel dry,
and a creature who trusts you enough to lean in.
Care leaves a trace; you can feel it in what people make.
The Toys
The toys arrived by chance.
A stall beside ours at a local market,
hand-stitched cat toys shaped like childhood sweets.
Zoo biscuits. Marshmallow mice. Little soft hearts.
We watched her sew with a quiet joy,
as if the act of making was its own form of devotion.
She made the first ones for her own cat,
then for friends,
then for anyone who needed a small softness.
We knew immediately:
this is the kind of creation we want to stand beside.
Joy is a material – you feel it in the things made slowly.
The Circle We Found
We never planned to gather a circle of makers.
It formed on its own, through friendship, coincidence, and those small inner yeses
that tell you something belongs.
Each one reminds us:
real craft can’t be rushed.
It isn’t about scale or speed.
It’s about making something that feels true in the body,
a quiet expanding when the idea lands right.
These aren’t just products.
They’re proof that care spreads.
That making together can feel like belonging.
That work shaped by love carries that love forward.
Belonging isn’t built, it gathers.
What Stays
When we hold these pieces now,
we feel gratitude.
Pride, yes, but also tenderness.
They remind us that community isn’t strategy.
It’s a living network of hands and hearts
choosing to make with meaning
and share what they love.
The Companions will always be about that:
small distances bridged by care.
Made together.
Meant to be shared.
That’s the whole brief.
Your Making
Is there something you create – with your hands, your time, your attention – that steadies you?
Please share with us in the comments below.
What’s Next
Next, we look at what truly stayed – the sounds, the lessons, and the small, human truths that carried us forward through this first chapter of business (and life) together.
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