Making Soap for Fun and Profit - Softcover

Meadows, Hidden

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0961963425 ISBN 13: 9780961963422

Publisher: Kopacetic Ink, 1998

Synopsis

Learn how to make soap the old fashioned way using new fangled methods. Making Soap for Fun and Profit offers basic recipes using tallow, vegetable shortening and/or a wide variety of oils such as olive, coconut, avacodo etc.. to make soap which lasts like our ancestors.

The author describes how to incorporate addivitives, herbs and essential oils to vary the color and scent of the soap.

The author encourages the reader to design and create special blends - offering some blank pages for personal notes and recipes.

Resources for materials appear through out the book and are also listed in the Index and resource page. Enjoy the process - have some fun making soap!

About this title

About the Author

Hidden Meadows Handcrafts began in the fall of 1995 by accident. The author, Linda C. Inlow and her neighbor, Shelly Morgan, made soap and other bath products in their kitchens. Family and friends enjoyed the results so much the two women formed Hidden Meadows and began to sell wholesale and low-end retail. Before this venture, the author owned a llama ranch, dealt in real estate and taught at the local college. She continues to teach community education classes such as 'How to Start Your Own Business', 'First Time Home Buyers', and 'How to Get Published'. While managing the businesses, Linda also raises her two children on a seven-acre farm in a small rural community in Washington State. She spends her time writing, gardening, reading, teaching and of course making soap. Other books by the author include: Making the Most of Your Llama (Kopacetic inK) Diary of a Soapmaker (pamphlet) (Kopacetic inK) The Odd Lot: Raising Unusual Animals (Clay Press) Becoming Me: An Autobiography for the Reader to Complete (Kopacetic inK)

From the Back Cover

Making Soap for Fun and Profit is a must have, full of creative ideas and easy to follow instructions for anyone desiring to learn the craft of soapmaking. Upon finishing the very first batch of soap, the soapmaker will be sure to feel inspired and accomplished by the delightful comments and requests formore homemade soap. Chris Lynn, soapmaker

Doubling as a practical tutorial and guide to a nearly forgotten craft, Making Soap for Fun and Profit serves as a delightful case study of how one idea - enacted upon by two aspiring entrepreneurs - became a successful and enjoyable business. While encouraging the reader to nurture our own ideas from the initial concept though the implementation of a business plan, Linda Inlow leads by example and helpful suggestion. Hank Sowerwine, investment advisor, Linsco/Private Ledger

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

My grandmother made soap for doing the laundry in her basement. I can still remember the pungent odor permeating the downstairs. I remember my hands feeling silky from playing with the flakes in her laundry soap box. Later commercial soaps like Ivory and Life Boy became readily available in stores or from salesmen going door to door. The necessity to make one's own soap was pushed aside for modern convenience. The advent of washing machines, dishwashers, and the "need" for different kinds of soap - hand soap, body bars, liquid soap, shower gels, and the like - created a vast new market for commercial soaps. It was not until the 1970's a few women began to 'get back to basics'; this included learning how to make soap. Surprisingly the soap we use today is a fairly new addition to our culture and lifestyle. Before the 1800's soap was used primarily for laundering. It was not until this century that soap making became a strong commercial concern with recipes guarded and fragrances and colors added to the soap. Today I make soap in the kitchen. It feels just as gentle and silky to the skin as my grandmother's. It definitely smells better than hers. The recipes employed in this book are kind to the environment, use products from the herb or vegetable garden, utilize ingredients from the kitchen cupboard and incorporate fats or oils easily purchased from the grocery store. I began to make soap for gifts, then sold a few bars at the local open market and then to a few retail stores on the West Coast. At the open market older people especially admire the soap and made comments such as, "You made the soap? I remember my grandmother making soap. Lye soap it was. It didn't smell or look this good! I've often thought about trying this at home." Making soap can be a fun as well as practical adventure. Unlike the commercial soap makers who still guard their formulas, in this book I share recipes and techniques used in my kitchen. Making Soap for Fun and Profit presents a step by step process of making basic soaps and then explains how to create unique blends using various oils, additives, colorants, or essential oils.

Edition details

• Publisher: Kopacetic Ink
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0961963425
• ISBN 13: 9780961963422
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80