LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Applaud if you believe in (soap) fairies |
by Fay Jacobs |
The aroma is amazing. Walking into the Soap Fairy's manufacturing plant in Lewes is like aromatherapy meets the industrial revolution.
The SF, a.k.a. Scott Blackson has been in the business of making vegetarian hand-crafted soap since 1997. Formerly a professional photographer, Scott got into the soap business by happenstance and now heads an expanding business located in a 1930s era historic slaughterhouse tucked away off Pilothouse Road in Lewes. It's ironic that two vegetarians are making veggie soap in an old slaughterhouse, isn't it? Scott says. True, but no less strange than how he and his partner Ron got into the business in the first place-and how they've built it into a thriving business and tourist attraction. The adventure started when Scott was going for his Masters in Natural Health through Clayton College and its internet program. One project was to make herbal soap. "I looked up some recipes and realized they all included cow fat. That's what soap is, fat and a caustic. Most soaps are cow fat and lye. There had to be another way." So Scott experimented with vegetable oils, came up with a recipe and started giving it to his friends. "Hey, make more of this stuff and I'll buy it," came the response. At first, it was just soap for friends and family, then a few craft shows, and pretty soon he started to clean up-everyone he knew. And there were soap fixings, bars, chips and oils all over the kitchen. "We were mixing it in 5 gallon pails, all over the place." Scott says. "At first we were just buying the supplies at the grocery, but that was really expensive, so we started seeking out soap-making internet sites and other suppliers." And the Soap Fairy name? "It seems a little obvious," says Scott with a grin." We were giving the stuff out and my brother told people it "came from the soap fairy and the name just stuck!" When living in a soap factory started to get a little old, Scott and Ron started to look around for a place for manufacturing and retail sales. The site, known as the Lewes Ice Plant started off as a slaughterhouse in the 30s and still has some of the rusty old overhead paraphernalia in place. Other rooms are still freezers from its 1950s life as an ice plant. But now it's home to the Soap Fairy operation and they are expanding all the time. Scott, who's officially the CEO of The Soap Fairy, Inc. got creative in putting the operation together. He started out adapting things for their specific soap-making needs, either from kitchen or antique stores. A commercial soap ball press costs $700; Scott uses a 25 cent Swedish meatball maker he got at a flea market. A major piece of equipment is an old bee-keeper's tank. "What's really exciting, " says Scott, "is that not only don't we use animal fats, but some of the exotic emollients like mango butter and almond oil super enrich the soaps and make them wonderful for your skin." A visit to the plant finds the soap-making centerpiece a huge 85-gallon double boiler mixing tank. In it, olive, coconut and palm oils are warmed (not cooked, says Scott) stirred with a large paddle (and a paint mixer attached to a drill), and then poured into buckets-14 batches at a time. Each bucket can have a different color, flavor, flowers or essential oils added. They are then poured into 18 lb. bricks in molds, and two or three days later, voila! It's oatmeal, peppermint, St. John's Wort, or chocolate, soap! The list of colors and scents is endless. The guys use piano wire to cut the bricks into slabs and the slabs into bars of soap. Then it takes three weeks to cure and get the residual water out, print up labels and send it off to store shelves or mail order routes. In addition to retail (on site and at stores all over the area, the country and even overseas) tours are available at the plant ("We advertise in the local papers and it's a great thing to do on a rainy day for tourists," says Scott). The Soap Fairy plant is a busy place-turning out thousands of bars of soap each month, all made by hand. Their motto: "Cleaning up the world, one person at a time." Scott and Ron came to the area eight years ago from California where Scott pursued his free-lance photography and Ron raised emus. Partners for nine years, they live in the Long Neck area and are happy with their own thriving business. Just recently, Ron was able to give up his job with a local drug store chain and join Scott full time at soap-making-and the pair of soap fairies have never been happier. As for the name Soap Fairy, the guys did worry that it might be a problem at some craft fairs or shows. But so far, except for some grunts from a few farmer-types, everyone loves the name as much as the soap. In fact, it's a good thing that Scott copyrighted the name, because they found someone else using it on the Internet. "We had to go and shut them down," says Scott. "There's only one Soap Fairy and it's us!" |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 12, No. 04, May 3, 2002. |