Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Felted Soaps


My dear friend Launa sent me a wonderful smelling package in the mail. I knew right away that it was something Lavender, I could smell it through the box! Upon unwrapping the package I was delighted to find a beautiful felted bar of lavender soap.

Felted soap is a very cool concept. You cover a bar of soap with fabulous wool fiber, then felt* it, and you have a soap and washcloth all in one! Moisturizing, handmade soaps are wrapped in softly spun, naturally anti-fungal wool to create an exfoliating, fragrantly lathering, long-lasting bath time soap/washcloth all in one. When the soap dissolves, reuse the washcloth by making a small cut and slipping a new bar inside

This is also a great idea for children because the soap doesn't get slippery and slip out of their hands, you don't have to have a separate cloth or scrubby in the bath, and if brightly felted is easy to find in a bathtub of bubbles.

I made felted soap a few years back and my niece just loved her bar of felted soap.As I said above, I have indeed felted soap before, and sold many bars at the farmers market. I even had several customers come back and ask if I had more, a whole year later! And while it is a bit time consuming, they are beautiful to look at, fun to use and I have just been inspired to do it again. Look for my felted soaps soon. Thanks Launa!

* Felting ~ Felting is produced by matting, condensing and pressing woollen fibers together. Hot water and friction is needed to mat these fibers together. You can "felt" an old wood sweater by putting it in a hot water wash. When it comes out of the wash, the fibers have all matted together and you can now cut that sweater without it unraveling. I will use fibers that have not yet been spun into yarn, called roving to felt my soap. These fibers will be laid on top of one another and I will add hot water and friction and the fibers will all lock together! Neat-o!

1 comment:

sproutsandsweetpeas said...

Great idea, I especially like the fact it's not slippery! Do you put it in a draining soap dish, like your other soaps? Does it dry well between uses? I could even see using it for a great smelling sachet! I could put it in with my socks (& maybe with my DH's shoes!)