I LOVE handfelted soap! I love the way it feels, the way it looks and of course the luxurious lather. What is felted soap you say? It's a soap in a jacket or a soap with a sweater! It's a bar of our herbal soap wrapped in a super soft alpaca wool cover.
To make felted soap, wool fibers are carefully selected and blended together, creating a unique look for each bar. Then the age-old process of using soap, water and agitation, shrinks the wool around the soap. The wool is like a wonderful cocoon hand formed around the soap. The photo above is of our lavender soaps that have been felted and are ready and awaiting their final needle felting design work.
Isn't the idea of handfelting soap the coolest concept? Covering a bar of soap with beautiful hand-dyed wool fibers, felting it, and tadah... a soap and washcloth in one!
Design work is more fun with two or three helpers! (My mom and I felting together with daughter Colleen taking photos.)
Felted Soap makes an exquisite gift for yourself or to give to someone else. There is no need for a washcloth or a loofah, just take your felted soap into the tub or shower and it gently exfoliates your skin. Felting soap keeps it from being slippery and allows you to use every last sliver of it. Did you know that wool fibers are naturally anti-fungal?
Colleen needle felting lavender sprigs for extra charm! Our designs are free hand so no two are just alike.
The whole idea of felting soap makes me smile because it’s almost as if we just don’t know when to stop. We’ve already made the soap, but we have to cover it with more handmade goodness and then, for good measure, needle felt a sprig of lavender buds on top.
Part of the magic is that as the soap is used, the wool continues to felt up smaller and smaller, staying tight around the ever diminishing bar. Once the soap is gone, you have a unique pouch that can be scented with lavender essential oil and used in your lingerie drawer. Here's a few clever ideas customers have shared with us for what they do with the remaining felted ball: cats are attracted to wool so it makes a good cat toy, cut it up and toss it outside for the birds, as a natural fiber it can be composted and it's perfect as a little scrubby for cleaning.
Our felted soaps are a labor of love. Colorful and fragrant, they make an extra special treat in the shower, bath, sauna or at the sink. Check them out on our website under "Special Purpose Soap" at http://allthingsherbal.com/index.cfm/felted-soaps-kitchen-garden-laundry-shampoo-bars.
Christine Kennedy
simple ingredients, extraordinary benefits
http://www.allthingsherbal.com/
UPDATE: We were so excited when our Lavender Handfelted Soap was awarded 1st place in the Naturals Division during the Arts in the Park, held in Brainerd, Minnesota on July 1st, 2012.
