Soapmaking

Sampling of my handcrafted soaps. Clockwise: cold-process sweetgrass soapballs; orange shampoo bar; glycerine cucumber bar; black glycerine bar; cold-process lemon-cedarwood bars.

I have this thing about plants: trees, herbs, seeds, gardens, fruits, vegetables, natural healing, aromatherapy, soapmaking, and all of nature. I guess I passed this thing down to my older daughter, because she's going for her Masters and PhD in ethnobotany: The study of how plants are used by cultures world-wide. She is presently doing her Masters thesis work down in Guatemala. For an idea of what she's up to, you can visit her site.

One of the most satisfying things I love to do with plants is to make soap. You haven't experienced luxury until you've bathed with rich, fragrant, homemade soap. Sure, you can go to a retailer and pick up a wide range of commercial soap products, or better, to a health store and buy bar of aromatherapy soap for a sensuous experience. But when you make your own soap, you infuse it with care and love and your own special ingredients.

There are many sites and books that teach how to make soap. I learned from a woman who owned her own soap store about ten years ago. I was working for a local daily newspaper and assigned to write a business profile about her. When I went to interview her, the incredible aroma of hundreds of aromatic botanicals flooded the air even before I entered the store.

A few days ago I made the cold-process sweetgrass soap balls you see in the photo. To me, making and using homemade soap is one of the most satisfying things to do. The colors, the texture, the aromas make commercial soap seem like a handful of harsh and synthetic chemicals. Once you use hand-crafted soap, you'll never return to commercial brands. Sure, they cost more, but that's because the ingredients are usually from natural sources. Also, it's one of a growing number of things I'm doing to wean myself from the stranglehold of corporate consumerism. It gives me a means to become self-sufficient.

And one day I know I can barter/trade my soaps for other essential needs.