I ordered the wrong size tins, much larger than the ones needed. This is what I did with the larger tins. Love it when this happens!
The keepsake soap box. An idee that originated by my sweet soft spoken mom before she passed. Lovely soulful feeling to be continuing to create the boxes, painting them, all these years later. Knowing my mom would have loved the way they've progressed through the years and I think of her when I'm making them. Bittersweet...
The cottage apron. I've been using the same 1967 pattern for many years to make the full length pinnies. A collection is holiday hanging at the apothecary shoppe.
Herbal Happiness, these two married. One of the flavors tagging along on the holiday soap menu and not for much longer.
I've only done a tiny bit of Christmas shopping. We've condensed our shopping this year. It feels really good. I'm not missing the pressure of rushing out to purchase gifts. It not only feels good, it's exhilarating! I do love Christmas, but not necessarily the gift part so much. A quiet candle glowing Christmas Eve dinner and an early morning brunch puts a smile on my face. It's always about the food, you see. The gingerbread cake with frosty cranberries will be the highlight of evening before the day.
A stack of index cards that sit on my desk and I pull one from the top of the pile to write the list of items that are needed for the next day. This is my season at the hand made shoppe.
Gathering blessings one after another and my cup runneth over.
Some questions that have popped up lately...
How long has Bittersweet been in the hand made business?
17 years
How did you get started making soap?
I began pondering thoughts of making hand made soap in 1997 after receiving a holiday gift of hand made goat milk soap my Aunt Vivian made in her kitchen. She had wrapped the silky soap bars in beautiful packaging. I was in awe! When I was a small girl I was fascinated and in love with fragrance and flowers. Those thoughts and the seed that my Aunt caring and sharing planted inspired me to be a soap maker. Aunt Vivian continues to inspire me in many ways. Her stories about watching my great grandmother Lucy make soap fill my heart with song. I could easily take this entire page to describe those soulful soap making feelings, but I'm afraid I'd bore you.
In 1997, there were very few soap makers. I recall one book that touched on the instruction of making soap. I researched and experimented and made many mistakes before perfecting the craft of soap making. Having limited information about the craft was to my advantage. I learned things first hand and discovered and created original Bittersweet creations by not having the luxury of reading about it or seeing it on the Internet. Do you recall "dial up?"
How many things do you make?
I make over one-hundred items. Years ago I was curious and thought it would be nice to know how many things I made. I stopped counting at one-hundred. It freaked me out then. Now, I cherish the thought. Funny how perspectives differ years down the road. I still don't count though.
How do you decide what to make?
That's a great question. I make things that I want most of the time. My feelings of creating hand made useful items is always my number one goal. A prototype is created, and then repeats form. An assembly line technique is used when creating.
Where do you make Bittersweet Soap?
In my kitchen.
Do you offer Bittersweet wholesale?
I get this question all of the time. Bittersweet does not offer wholesale.
Why dont you offer wholesale?
My passion has always been making things. Warehouse, employee's, sales reps, and territories turns me off in a major way. Bittersweet offered wholesale of their products early on and for a short period of time. That short period of time when I offered wholesale was not enjoyable. I was rushing to make more product, remember, one-hundred things. It was about the same time that the Internet was starting to take off. I realized that selling Bittersweet wholesale was not the direction I wished for my hand made company and saw an oppurtunity to sell around the world with the Internet without the expense of losing my passionate hand made feelings .
I feel fortunate and blessed each and every day to follow my dream and continue to be a maker of hand made. My little brick and mortar shoppe echoes and fosters these creative thoughts and more. Having one on one contact with people every day is also a favorite part of it all!
Enjoy caring and sharing holidays.
Warmly,
Jill 00 (two hugs are better than none)
