We are OPEN!

After 16 years of making soap, and dreaming of some day owning a soap store, we have finally done it. Except that the product we are selling is not our handmade soap, and we do not have a store front. Instead, we have an online store and we are selling everything necessary for making soap!

February was our opening, and we've been on a learning curve ever since with getting a handle on everything from ordering stock and importing goods to shipping and website maintenance. We are enjoying it, and have met many lovely people from all walks of life, each handcrafting their own unique and beautiful soap and body products. We have been pleasantly surprized to find there are many more crafters out there than we had initially thought, and no matter where we go we can find chemical free, natural products.

The website has extensive soap making instructions as well as recipes for a variety of body products so if you want to try making your own natural products at home be sure to check it out!
http://www.islandartisansupply.ca/

Soap making day

Shredded soap from the base I made last week. Looks like grated cheese.

Into the mold and set aside to cool.

First batch cut and trimmed.

Second batch prior to trimming.

At last, after a busy summer I have finally managed to get some soap made. It is always a rewarding experience for me and I am forever fascinated at the way oil and water, which we all have learned simply do not mix, come together to produce a hard, cleansing, bar of bubbly soap.

Today's efforts yielded 12 bars, each weighing around 4 ounces, and because there were 3 separate batches I have three different scents. The first one is tangerine & spice and smells like Christmas! The second batch is one of my all time favourites - rose with a touch of baby powder, and the third is cranberry orange spice which is truly spicy and absolutely mouthwatering.

I have been invited to place some soap bars in our local art gallery so I will be testing these ones out over the next few days on various family members and if I get a thumbs up some of them just might make their way into town. I love to experiment and do my own thing so I am always playing around with the formulas and getting different results which may not go over well if I had steady customers wanting a consistent supply. But the art gallery would allow me the freedom to produce something unique each time meaning it would remain an adventure rather that become a mundane job.