Making and Selling Handmade Soap

Saturday and Sunday Workshops Overview

Our two-day weekend ‘crash course’ will introduce you to all the stages of making and selling soap: Production, processing, drying/curing, packaging, business set up, product development and selling. Part of each day’s workshop will be held at The Soap Shed, providing access to our production, packaging and web fulfillment areas in addition to the seasonal retail shop. Some time each day will also be held at the local Executive Center.

Saturday will focus on making soap, cutting, curing and packaging. The day will begin at 10:00 am, allowing participants from out of town, time to drive in Saturday morning.

Sunday will address product development, setting up your business and selecting the sales venues that fit you, your products and your time, including retail, wholesale, consignment, home parties, craft shows and farmers' markets. Sunday’s workshop will begin at 8:30 am, and end at 3:30 – allowing time for out-of-town participants to get on the road early and arrive home rested.

You can choose to attend either Saturday or Sunday, or both days. The Saturday evening session will include topics of interest to both workshop groups. If you register for both Saturday and Sunday workshops, you receive a 15% discount off your registration fees.

Saturday Workshop

Handmade Soap Making

This one day workshop provides an overview of cold-process soapmaking geared to beginning soapmakers and those who would like to make their very first batch. Cold process soapmaking is the old-fashioned process that combines sodium hydroxide with fats and oils, and creates a soap that cleans with kindness due to the glycerine created and retained in the soap. We do not teach ‘melt and pour’ glycerine soapcrafting in this workshop.

Workshop Topics and Schedule

In our morning session, you’ll experience the first phase of the handmade soapmaking process: Production. You will work with Tim to make at least one batch of soap resulting in 100+ bars. This session will introduce you to

The History of Soap

Basic Soap Chemistry

Safety Precautions working with Lye

Molds, Liners and other Necessary Equipment

Measuring, Mixing and Monitoring Temperatures

Oils, Butters, Milks and botanicals

Essential Oils, Fragrances and Blending

Following a short lunch break, we’ll introduce you to the Processing phase. We’ll evaluate soap to determine its readiness for cutting, and demonstrate how to use a variety of molds, log splitters and different size bar cutters. We’ll show you our current drying rack rooms (as well as different methods when our business was smaller) and explain our curing process. Then we’ll switch gears and begin looking in depth at SAP values for oils and butters you may choose to work with on your own, and resources to help you create your own recipes.

The ‘classroom’ part of our Saturday workshop is over about 5:00 pm, allowing time for dinner on your own, or with your fellow workshop attendees.

Following dinner, we will reconvene at 7:00pm in our suite at the Hotel for refreshments, dessert, and an informal discussion to integrate the day’s experience and answer questions. During these evening sessions,YOUR determine the content we cover. ‘Anything Goes', and questions ranging from handmade crafts in general to “what fragrance sells best” are welcome. We are happy to help you troubleshoot any problems you’ve had with previous soap making experiences, or to begin to envision how your own soapmaking business might take shape.

Participants arriving for the next day’s workshop, The Business of Selling Soap, will join us at 7:00 pm, providing an opportunity for Saturday and Sunday participants to get to know each other before working together the next day. For those registered for Saturday only, the evening session will wrap up about 9:00, concluding Saturday's Handmade Soapmaking workshop.

Supplies and Materials

We will provide all the Supplies and Materials you need for the workshops. Please wear old clothes so if you get olive oil or butters on them, you won’t be heartbroken. If you’d like to be more ‘hands on’ during Tim’s soapmaking demonstrations, and have your own eye safety goggles and/or rubber gloves, please feel free to bring them. We’ll have some on hand, but not enough for everyone all at the same time.

Each participant will receive a notebook with written material on each topic we cover, along with supplier information and recipes to get you started. Each person who attends must sign a Liability Waiver for us before being allowed around ‘lye’ and the production area. And if you don't understand why a liability waiver is needed when visitors are allowed around sodium hydroxide or lye, well, that's one of the first things you will learn!

Sunday Workshop

The Business of Selling Handmade Soap

Our Workshop on The Business of Selling Soap will address product development, setting up your handmade soap business as well as selecting the sales venues that fit you, your products and your time, including retail, wholesale, consignment, home parties, craft shows and farmers' markets. Sunday’s workshop actually begins with an evening session on Saturday night. On Sunday we will begin at 8:30 am, and end at 3:30 – allowing time for out-of-town participants to get on the road early and arrive home rested.

Workshop Topics and Schedule

Karen will provide a planning overview of different ways to create and structure a handmade soap business. We will not spend much time on general business set up (licenses, tax certificates etc) because this varies county to county within each state, and there are numerous excellent books that address those ‘how to’ steps. (Don’t worry - we will identify and review those books for you in the participant notebook!)

We’ll take a look at:

Identifying Your Business and Markets

What's in a Name? Naming Your Business

Developing Products and Product Lines

Creating Your Packaging Style

Evaluating and Selecting Sales Venues

• Retail

• Wholesale

• Consignment

• Crafts Shows

• Farmers Markets

• Web Sites

• Studio in Your Home

• Brick and Mortar Retail Store

Pricing Your Products for Retail Sale

Pricing Your Products for Wholesale

Breakeven Analysis for Soap Businesses

When to Go Full Time with Your Soap Business

The Saturday evening session at 7:00 Saturday is a joint session with the soapmaking workshop participants discussing soapmaking, business management and sales. This session will conclude approximately at 9:00 pm. Please plan to arrive the night before to take advantage of this extra session.

During the evening session ‘Anything Goes', and questions ranging from handmade crafts in general to “what fragrance sells best” are welcome. We are happy to help you troubleshoot any problems you’ve had with previous soap making experiences, or to begin to envision how your own handmade soapmaking business might take shape.

Please also keep in mind that if you attend both full-day workshops on Saturday and Sunday, you receive a 15% discount off your registration fee.

Workshop Timeframes

Saturday All Day: 10:00am – 5:00pm

Saturday evening session: 7:00pm - 9:00pm

Sunday All Day: 8:30am - 3:30pm

About The Facilitators

Tim Tyndall started making cold process soap in 1998 when he agreed to make one batch for his wife in her favorite fragrance. Surprised by how much fun it was, Tim started making more and more soap. And because Karen was afraid she’d have soap for the next ten years that all smelled the same, she began researching fragrances, essential oils and blending techniques. After that, Karen also created The Soap Shed to sell Tim’s surplus soap via wholesale, consignment, at craft shows and from the soapshed.com website.

In response to so many requests for soapmaking demonstrations, The Soap Shed opened its doors to the public in 2000. During the Blue Ridge mountain tourist season (May-October), visitors can see soap made and select from 150 varieties in their retail shop.

“Dr T” is actually a science professor by education and training, having been a science teacher and college administrator for 30 years in chemistry, biology, botany and health sciences. And prior to creating The Soap Shed for Tim, Karen was a business trainer and consultant for 20 years, putting to practical use both her Master and Doctoral degrees. Their unusual backgrounds - combined with their first hand experience in creating and running a handmade soap business for ten years - provide Tim and Karen with unique perspectives on making and selling handmade soap.

Supplies and Materials

We will provide all the Supplies and Materials you need for the workshops. Please wear old clothes so if you get olive oil or butters on them, you won’t be heartbroken. If you’d like to be more ‘hands on’ during Tim’s soapmaking demonstrations, and have your own eye safety goggles and/or rubber gloves, please feel free to bring them. We’ll have some on hand, but not enough for everyone all at the same time.

Each participant will receive a notebook with written material on each topic we cover, along with supplier information and recipes to get you started. Each person who attends must sign a Liability Waiver for us before being allowed around ‘lye’ and the production area.

How To Register

We prefer no more than eight participants in each workshop, and do need at least five participants for each workshop to be a ‘GO’. Please feel free to contact us at 877-404-SOAP with any questions you have. Please read our cancellation policy below before signing up.

Cancellation Policy

Our workshops are planned for small groups of 5-8 participants, and often require us to turn away additional participants when the workshops fill. Should you need to cancel your attendance - for any reason - please let us know as soon as possible. If we can fill your space, you will receive a refund of your payment minus a $75 non-refundable deposit. If we cannot fill the space, you will receive half of your original payment in the form of a refund check. If you give us less than 24 hours notice or just don’t show up for the workshop(s), no refund or credit will be given. You are welcome to send someone else in your place if you cannot attend yourself.

Where To Stay

We have reserved a block of guest rooms at The Pinebridge Inn and Executive Center in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Located just four miles from The Soap Shed, Pinebridge is also where we've made arrangements for a teaching suite for Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning as well as our Saturday evening session. Pinebridge includes a full continental breakfast in its $59.95 single guest room rate. We'll include a brochure in your confirmation packet upon registering, but you can click here to take a look at The Pinebridge Inn and Executive Center.

How to Get to Spruce Pine, North Carolina

We are located in Northwestern North Carolina, tucked up close to the Tennessee state line. We are one hour east of Asheville, one hour south of Boone, 2 hours north of Greenville-Spartanburg and 2 hours northwest of Charlotte.

For anyone flying in, Charlotte-Douglas Airport and Greenville-Spartanburg Airport are larger airports than Asheville and therefore offer more flights, but the Asheville Airport is about an hour and 15 minutes drive from here with full car rental services. We're located just 6/10th mile off The Blue Ridge Parkway, with lots of things to do before and after a workshop in our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Because of the distance to the airports, however, we are unable to offer airport transportation assistance.

Additional information