MullersLaneFarm
Well-Known Member
Hey 
My name is Cyndi, my husband & I live on a little homestead in NW Illinois (aka Ill-Annoy)
I've been soaping since 1999, exclusively milk soaps since 2001 using fresh goat's milk when I could, but mostly canned GM. In 2002, we bought a Jersey milk cow (because, my DH said, "No self respecting cowboy would milk a goat.") I started using whole, raw Jersey milk in my soap and loved the extra cream that the Jersey breed gives. I haven't looked back since. We no longer have our Jersey, but we have a small organic Jersey dairy down the road a piece (about 20 miles), so I get my milk from them.
It took my about 2 years of experimenting with soap recipes, making single oil soaps, then combining 2-7 oils at various percentages always looking at the fatty acid (FA) profiles and comparing the results to the single oil and multi-oil recipes. I created an Excel lye calculator in 2001 with all the FA I could find, with hopes I could plug in different percentages of oils and have the calc tell me what type of soap I could expect. Ken (of SoapCalc fame) used this Excel lye calculator (with consent only if he kept the online calc free) as the basis of SoapCalc. Ken has gone above and beyond with my original Excel calculator!
Mid 2002, I got my first spinning wheel and played around with it a bit. Most of my spare time was still spent soaping. Over the years, my fiber arts have taken up most of my time, while soaping is now done 'when I have to'.
I tried to quit making soap many times, but my customers won't let me. I guess it is a good thing, since the money I make with my soaps lets me not only continue to make soap, but allows me to purchase fiber for spinning and yarns for knitting!
One of the things we do on our homestead is teach people how to become more self-sufficient. This includes (for me) teaching people about fiber arts and teaching them how to make soap. My biggest classes are my soap making classes.
I've had folks ask me why, since I sell my soap, do I teach people to possibly become my competitor?? The answer is simple. If people want to make soap, they will. I would much rather be in competition with someone that makes a quality product than with someone that makes carp. I've had too many potential customers tell me they will absolutely not buy homemade soap because of a bad experience with someone's homemade soap. To those folks, I give one of my sample bars and ask them to try it. If they like it, they can use the coupon on the back side of my label to get a discount on their first purchase. 9 times out of 10, they redeem their coupon.
I love helping new soapers get a 'leg up' and I love reading about what seasoned soapers are doing. I especially love looking at pictures of soaps and trying to imagine what some of their scents are.
Glad to be back on SMF!
My name is Cyndi, my husband & I live on a little homestead in NW Illinois (aka Ill-Annoy)
I've been soaping since 1999, exclusively milk soaps since 2001 using fresh goat's milk when I could, but mostly canned GM. In 2002, we bought a Jersey milk cow (because, my DH said, "No self respecting cowboy would milk a goat.") I started using whole, raw Jersey milk in my soap and loved the extra cream that the Jersey breed gives. I haven't looked back since. We no longer have our Jersey, but we have a small organic Jersey dairy down the road a piece (about 20 miles), so I get my milk from them.
It took my about 2 years of experimenting with soap recipes, making single oil soaps, then combining 2-7 oils at various percentages always looking at the fatty acid (FA) profiles and comparing the results to the single oil and multi-oil recipes. I created an Excel lye calculator in 2001 with all the FA I could find, with hopes I could plug in different percentages of oils and have the calc tell me what type of soap I could expect. Ken (of SoapCalc fame) used this Excel lye calculator (with consent only if he kept the online calc free) as the basis of SoapCalc. Ken has gone above and beyond with my original Excel calculator!
Mid 2002, I got my first spinning wheel and played around with it a bit. Most of my spare time was still spent soaping. Over the years, my fiber arts have taken up most of my time, while soaping is now done 'when I have to'.
I tried to quit making soap many times, but my customers won't let me. I guess it is a good thing, since the money I make with my soaps lets me not only continue to make soap, but allows me to purchase fiber for spinning and yarns for knitting!
One of the things we do on our homestead is teach people how to become more self-sufficient. This includes (for me) teaching people about fiber arts and teaching them how to make soap. My biggest classes are my soap making classes.
I've had folks ask me why, since I sell my soap, do I teach people to possibly become my competitor?? The answer is simple. If people want to make soap, they will. I would much rather be in competition with someone that makes a quality product than with someone that makes carp. I've had too many potential customers tell me they will absolutely not buy homemade soap because of a bad experience with someone's homemade soap. To those folks, I give one of my sample bars and ask them to try it. If they like it, they can use the coupon on the back side of my label to get a discount on their first purchase. 9 times out of 10, they redeem their coupon.
I love helping new soapers get a 'leg up' and I love reading about what seasoned soapers are doing. I especially love looking at pictures of soaps and trying to imagine what some of their scents are.
Glad to be back on SMF!
