The weather has been just awful here in the Portland/Vancouver area.  Rain, drizzle and more rain.   Selling handmade soap in wet weather isn’t a whole lot of fun.  Measures can be taken but really it’s the pits!  Anyhow, I’m set up at the Portland Saturday Market in downtown Portland.  This is a large artisan market where people tend to come to buy handmade soap.  After helping some customers choose which handmade soap bars they wanted and sharing some talk about the “lovely” weather, I noticed that most of the  handmade soaps were sitting in a puddle of water in the displays.   I must be really dense because I have no clue how long it had been raining or when the rain had started.   So in my haste, I go to pull the display back out of the rain and get the soaps off of it and the whole thing fell down.   Handmade soaps and display in a big crash on the concrete!  Never in almost 10 years has this happened at any event I’ve ever attended.    Talk about being a bit embarrassed.  Yeah, I was.  Probably a bit red in the face too.   As I’m standing there looking in disbelief at the mess I just made with the rain coming down, three lovely young women stop and bless their hearts help me put everything back together again.   Thank you ladies for all your help and kind words of support!

Popularity: 24%

Every year, when market starts back up I have customers asking what new handmade soap bars have I added.   There are several this season, but I just recently activated two on the website.  The first is Tanzanian Clove which I first tested out during the holiday season to see what kind of response I would get.   It was a success and people loved it!  It’s a traditional warm, spicy  clove fragrance.  The next one is Sugar Kisses which has blue bentonite clay beads sprinkled throughout.   Very pretty!  Now this handmade soap is not easy to describe.  It’s cotton candy and toasted caramelized sugar.    All I got to say is YUM!    Both of these new handmade soaps are available on the website.

(Tanzanian Clove)

(Sugar Kisses)

Popularity: 22%

We are in the process of designing portable new handmade soap displays which should make my life a bit easier when doing shows and markets.  I am getting very excited.   I can see potential for wholesale soap displays in these too.  This is a prototype that was   put together this past weekend.   The finished displays will each hold five different types of handmade soap bars with 15 of each fragrance.  I will be able to load the display in the shop and set it up fully loaded at the event I’m at.  This will save SO much time!    The finished product will be made of birch and black walnut.   It’s going to be great!   Thanks to my wonderful husband who is always thinking of ways to streamline my workflow. 

Popularity: 20%