Sometimes I almost hate to wrap my soaps, because I’ve noticed that the prettier the wrapping, the less likely people are to unwrap and use the bars. I’ve been told that many of my bars sit on bathroom counters and shelves for months because “they’re just too pretty to open.” One friend no longer even notices that the bars I gave her a year ago still sit on her living room coffee table, directly in front of us as we chat.
As you consider the following options, be thinking about the odds and ends you have around the house which can be recycled to wrap soap. Some of the seemingly outrageous ideas often turn out to be favorites.
Fold lightweight fabric squares like wrapping paper around the bar. Holding the bottom ends in place, tie four or five strands of raffia in one bundle lengthwise across the bar, in a shoelace bow. Tie another four or five strands crosswise in the same manner, using a tight knot to keep the loops in place. Fluff out the strands and loops casually and attach dried flowers, like statice, gomphrena, or rosebuds, with a hot glue gun to the center of the bar (figure 1, A–C).
Figure 1.
Center a strip of simple or decorative paper on the bar, wrap the strip around the bar, and glue the edges together, leaving both ends of the soap exposed. Use either a professionally printed label or your own hand-drawn design. You might design an image that reflects something special about your soap (figure 2).
Figure 2
Stamp a plain square of white muslin using a favorite stamp and fabric ink, then center the soap in the middle of the unprinted side and fold package-style. Be sure that the stamp is situated nicely on the top of the bar before glueing the bottom edges to one another with fabric glue (figure 2).
Sew a drawstring fabric pouch using a 4-inch by 10-inch piece of tightly woven lace, or another fabric for the pouch. Cut a 10- to 12-inch length of lace seam binding or a strip of finishing lace for the drawstring. Fold the wide piece of lace in half, right sides together. Stitch up the sides. Fold the top edge inward, leaving a 1- inch seam. Stitch a ¾- inch seam to hold the drawstring, leaving a ½- inch opening. Using a safety pin, ease the seam binding into the seam allowance, and tie the lace into a bow or a loop. Turn inside out and tuck soap into the pouch. Attach some dried rosebuds, or other dried flowers, for a final touch (figure 3, A–C).
Figure 3
Find a favorite sponge (huge natural elephant ear sponges and loofah work nicely) and carefully slice into the sponge with an exacto knife, or sharp scissors, removing a piece from the middle. Tuck your soap into the slit and wrap the sponge with natural raffia. For a special addition, tuck a small bottle of herbal almond oil into the raffia loops and secure well (figure 4).
Figure 4
Set a bar of soap in a small wicker soapdish or basket and wrap with cellophane, or leave the bar exposed, wrapping only with raffia and dried herbs, flowers, or baby pine cones (figure 5).
Figure 5
Wrap soap in a natural cloth, like hempcloth, and tie with raffia, ribbon, or braided cord. Tuck in some dried flowers or herbs (figure 6).
Figure 6
Tuck a bar of soap into a pretty soap mitt, fold the open end over, and secure with a carefully disguised safety pin. Attach a small gift tag, preferably hand drawn.
Make a unique baby gift by tucking extra mild soaps into a pretty basket, along with a few creatively folded hunks of natural cloth, like hempcloth. Weave raffia, cord, or ribbons through the basket material, and tuck in a drawing of a nature scene printed on recycled paper. Decorate with gentle, natural colors, skipping the candy pinks and blues (figure 7).
Serve your soap as brownie bars by spreading a pretty linen dish towel onto a decorative platter, then lay a variety of soap bars, brownie-style, on top of the cloth. Cover the bars with the corners of the cloth (four triangles folded over inward). Attach a card to the cloth, warning that these bars are to be served in the bath and the shower.
Figure 7
Fill wooden crates with a variety of soap bars, either wrapped or unwrapped. Alternating the natural color variations makes a beautiful arrangement. Weave raffia in and out of the wooden slats of the crate and attach some dried botanicals with a hot glue gun (figure 8).
Figure 8
Make dinner party favors by wrapping soaps with fabrics, or even beautiful paper dinner napkins. Dainty fabric ribbons or bows can be glued gently to the napkins, or wrap with splashy foil strands.
Use plain brown parcel paper folded around the soap like a package and tied with the natural color raffia or rough twine. Use a hot glue gun to attach small pine cones and dried flowers and herbs.
Make an accordion wrap by folding a large piece of solid-colored, fine-quality paper, accordion style, then place the soap in the center of the wrong side. Wrap as you would wrap a small package, folding the sides over the bar first, and then fold and tape or glue the ends in place. The narrower pleats keep all of them in place. Also, by folding the paper tightly against the bars, the pleats stay in place better. Use fabric glue to secure the bottom edges together and decorate with dried botanicals using a hot glue gun (figure 9, A–C).
Figure 9
Wrap soap in a paper doily, without large holes; then tie and bow lengthwise and crosswise with lace seam binding. Glue rosebuds or other dried flowers onto the doily.
Make use of some unusual gift wrapping paper to wrap the soap package-style, then tie with many strands (4 or 5 for each direction) of ribbon. Curl each individual ribbon strand with scissors. Decorate with bows, party favors or balloons, and tie a gift card to the ribbon strands through a punched hole in the card.
Figure 10
Use washi paper instead of fabric to wrap your soap. Washi is an expensive Japanese paper made from quality plant fibers. It is a porous flexible weave which wraps gently and easily around the soap, into a variety of folded styles. Wrap washi around the soap, using ideas from this chapter and from the book Gift Wrapping: Creative Ideas from Japan (see page 172). Tie some of these designs with mizuhiki, a multicolored Japanese cord, for a festive holiday look. (See page 161 for information on how to order washi and mizuhiki.)
Make a strand of soapballs by laying two rectangular sheets of washi or fabric on top of one another, wrong sides together. Trim the short ends with pinking shears (figure 10A). Keeping a 2-inch border at both ends, space the soap balls evenly across the lower longer edge (figure 10B). Wrap the bottom edge over the tops of the soap balls and continue rolling up the paper or fabric slowly (figure 10C). Tie the ends with string, then tie between the other soap balls. Finally, tie and bow pretty ribbon, raffia, mizuhiki, lace, or braided cord over the string (figure 10D).
A Soapmaker’s Story
Karen Voigts/Maple Hill Farm
In the early 1980s, Karen and Tom Voigts moved from the city to a small farm in Michigan with a deserted barn that looked ready to be revived. Karen and Tom had no experience in animal husbandry. Their son was allergic to cow’s milk, so a goat became the animal of choice. “Goats seemed like such friendly animals, and we could see how well our son could tolerate goat milk,” recounts Karen. “We settled on raising a goat, but soon discovered that goats are too sociable to be alone, so we had to get another.”
By spring, with newborn kid goats, Karen and Tom had more goat milk than they could possibly use. Karen tried to use it up, making ice cream, custards, cheeses, and fudge. Then, one day, she saw a recipe for goat-milk soap in a magazine. “Wow!” she says. “Another way to use goat milk!”
“Aunt Karen’s Goat Milk Soap” is made with lard, tallow, coconut and olive oils, and pure essential oils. Karen also makes “Goat Milk Shaving Soap,” sold as a refill, or as part of a shaving-soap set, with mug, brush, and round soap. Karen searched long and hard to find suppliers who offer preservative-free fats and oils. She uses no artificial coloring; instead, when she wants to color her holiday bars, she adds liquid chlorophyll for a festive, green soap.
Their soap is made in Karen and Tom’s big country kitchen, with pure, fresh goat milk. Though their soapmaking business has grown from local sales to nationwide distribution through wholesaling and retail mail order, “we still manufacture our soap in the same handcrafted manner, because we find that people are always searching for handmade quality products,” says Karen.
A furoshiki is a piece of fabric wrapped to form a carrying handle within the design. This works well for wrapping a single soapball in washi or fabric.
Method 1 (for a single soap ball)
1. Lay the fabric square with one corner directly in front of you. Lay the soap ball in the middle of the fabric.
2. Tie the tips of corners 1 and 3 in a knot, with just ½-inch of material hanging from the knot to make knot 1–3.
3. Then cross corner 2 over corner 4, over the front top of the soapball.
4. Turn the ball around and bring the loose ends around to tie snugly against the top surface of the soapball, enclosing the lower part of knot 1–3.
5. Pull knot 1–3 up through knot 2–4, tightening the material around the soapball to form a little carrying handle.
Method 2 (for a single soap ball)
1. Lay the fabric square with one corner pointing directly toward you. Place the soap ball in the middle of the fabric.
2. Tie the tips of corners 1 and 2 in a knot, allowing just ½ inch of material hanging from the knot.
3. Tie corners 3 and 4 in the same way. Pull knot 1–2 under knot 3–4, making the fabric fit snugly around the soap ball.
4. The fabric should thoroughly cover the soap ball, with the knotted loop forming a carrying handle on top.
Method 3 (for a bar of soap)
Make a scarf wrap using linen, silk, washi, or any free-flowing fabric with finished edges (kerchiefs, bandannas, or scarves work nicely).
1. Lay the fabric square with one corner pointing toward you. Lay the soap in the front third of the fabric, with one of the shorter edges of the rectangle facing you.
2. Bring corner 1 up over the soap to just reach the other top edge of the soap.
3. Holding the fabric in place, roll the bar over, along with the fabric, one or two times toward the opposite corner of the fabric (corner 3), until just a bar and a half of fabric length remains.
4. Fold corner 3 toward you, over the side of the bar nearest you.
5. Lift corners 2 and 4 and tie a knot, crossing corner 2 over and under corner 4.
6. Complete the knot by moving corner 2 back over and under corner 4 and pulling both ends to tighten the knot.
A Soapmaker’s Story
Sandy Maine/SunFeather Herbal Soap Company
In 1979, Sandy Maine was working as an Adirondack Wilderness guide when she decided that a second occupation was needed to round out her irregular schedule. It was then that the idea for SunFeather Herbal Soap Company came to her one morning. “Off I went to my dear grandmother, whose stories of making soap had always intrigued me,” says Sandy. Grandma and I made it a day of soap research — from Olga Nielsen’s kitchen, over to Helen Sorenson’s, and then to Mrs. Jorgensen’s basement, where a forty-year-old bar of ‘Granny Soap’ was unearthed.”
Sandy spent the following six months in search of the perfect soap recipe. “Libraries, bookstores, antique book shops from Peabody’s in Baltimore to the Smithsonian, . . . no stone was left unturned.” Then she stumbled upon Ann Bramson’s book, Soap: Making It, Enjoying It, and read it cover to cover without interruption. That night, Sandy made her twentieth test batch of soap. “The following day, I turned a perfect chunk of soap out onto the counter of my farmhouse kitchen with a great thump.” says Sandy.
The next five years were spent building a company. As SunFeather grew more labor intensive, Sandy’s wheels were spinning, thinking of labor-saving equipment. Sandy, and her resourceful husband and friends, designed collapsible molds, large drying racks, hydraulic hand-operated cutting machines, and pot-tipping girdles. When Sandy started out in 1979, she knew of no other soapmakers. Resources were scarce — building SunFeather was truly a pioneer effort.
Today, SunFeather operates out of approximately 5,000 square feet in a renovated bar. “SunFeather has evolved from a one-person operation to a family of sixteen women, all performing different, yet complementary, roles,” says Sandy. “The women who work at ‘The Soap Shop’ describe work as having a family feeling.”
SunFeather’s products reflect Sandy’s philosophy, which she has always shared with other start-up soapers. “I have always tried to encourage people to ‘go for it,’ but please do it your own way!” SunFeather’s unique approach includes donating a portion of each sale of selected bars to assist different environmental and peace organizations.
SunFeather makes 100-pound batches of soap from olive, coconut, palm and castor oils, and both essential and fragrance oils. The natural color sources include clays, seaweeds, dried botanicals, grains, fruits, and root and spice powders.
They also sell soapmaking kits for beginners and distribute raw materials (fats, oils, essential and fragrance oils, sodium hydroxide, french clay powder, comfrey root powder), and supplies (thermometers, soapmaking books, and molds). Sandy urges all soapmakers to use well-calibrated scales and thermometers and to pay exact attention to detail.
Sandy has enjoyed watching this grassroots industry take hold and she encourages all new soapmakers to be creative and autonomous, rather than simply reproduce someone else’s creations. “Thankfully, soap is a consumable product, and there’s lots of market to share!” exclaims Sandy. She is finishing up a book entitled The Soap Book and is also designing a soapmaking video. Both works are sure to educate and inspire.
