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 I became interested in making homemade soaps
in August of 1996
when visiting my cousin,
Grandma Patches,
who is the old time soap
maker and demonstrator
at the Ozark Folk
Center, in Mountain
View, Arkansas. I discovered
that homemade soaps
retain glycerin, which
helps the skin retain
moisture. I was hooked.
For the next several years we each expanded
our knowledge of soap making and the use
of herbs, as our individual businesses grew.
We experimented with different formulas and
ingredients. We enlisted the help of herbalist
friends, who helped us incorporate the healing
and soothing qualities of herbal medicine
and aromatherapy into a luxurious soap that
would make a simple bath a new experience.
With my retirement and permanent relocation
to Mountain View, Arkansas, Grandma Patches
and I decided to merge our two part-time
businesses, and let our love of soap making
be our livelihood. We selected our finest
products which you see on this website. Our
soaps are cured to perfection before they
ever leave the farm. We chose the purest
most wholesome ingredients nature can provide,
and blend them together for a rich luxurious
lather.
Browse through our wide range of soaps, or let us assist
you in custom blending your own personal
fragrance. Many herbs, essential oils and
fragrance oils are available to you as well
as custom color combinations. Either way,
once you try our soaps, you will never be satisfied with anything
less.
Question? Feel free to Contact Me
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Soap has probably always played a role in
human history as there has always been a
need to remove dirt, grease, etc. from our
bodies and clothes. Even before soap was
intentionally produced, it was extracted
from such plants as soapwart, horsetail and
yucca.
The Sumerian clay tablets dating around 2500
B.C. have the first known record of soap.
One of the tablets recorded the use of soap
for washing wool, while another one describes
soap being made from water, alkali, and cassia
oil.
Egyptian records show that they bathed regularly.
They combined animal and vegetable oils with
alkaline salts to create a soap like substance
for washing.
The name soap is reported to have come from
the Romans. It is said that animals were
sacrificed on Mount Sapo, and the rain washed
the mixture of animal fat and wood ash down
into the Tiber River below. They discovered
that this soapy mixture was useful in washing
clothing and skin.
Roman baths were built approximately 312
B.C. They became very luxurious and popular.
But with the decline of the Roman Empire,
bathing and the use of soap also went into
a decline. Queen Isabella of Spain boasted
of having only two baths in her life, one
at birth and the other when she married.
I wonder if she or her future husband thought
the occasion warranted such a sacrifice.
During the Renaissance people moved away
from the idea of keeping the body clean,
preferring to cover it with heavy scents.
Throughout the medieval period many non-European
cultures maintained bathing practices, but
it was several centuries later that bathing
would come back into fashion in Europe. Queen
Elizabeth I of England is believed to have
bathed tri-monthly whether she needed it
or not. Bathing was again becoming a popular
pastime.
During the seventh century soap makers' guilds
sprang up all over Europe. The secrets of
the trade were closely guarded and the training
of craftsmen was closely regulated. It was
not until the twelfth century that the English
began soap crafting. Soap was such a heavily
taxed item that is was only available to
the rich. It wasn't until 1853, when the
soap tax was repealed in England, that the
trade began to boom and there was a change
in social attitudes toward personal cleanliness.
In Colonial America, however, soap making
was a seasonal chore of the women of the
community. Commercial production of soap
in the colonies didn't begin until the early
17th century with the arrival of enterprising
soap makers from England. They began by making
the rounds to the local households and buying
the fat they would save and then selling
the soap back to the housewives. Needless
to say, most of the ladies didn't mind getting
rid of that job.
As a result of a number of scientific discoveries
soap became more popular and easier to obtain.
In the late 18th century a French chemist,
Nicholas Leblanc, discovered a process for
making an alkali from common salt. In the
early 19th century significant discoveries
were made by Michel Chevreul's about the
relationship between fats, glycerine, and
fatty acids. In the mid-19th century a Belgian
chemist, Ernest Solvay, discovered the ammonia
process that improved the method of extracting
soda ash from common salt.
In 1776, soap and candles were considered
kindred trades, both being made with tallow.
By 1806, William Colgate in New York opened
his company. He bought a kettle that would
make 45,000 pounds of soap. His colleagues
thought he was simply mad. It seems like I have seen that name on some
products recently!! It was in 1830 that soap was first sold
in individually wrapped bars. In 1872, Colgate
came out with Cashmere Bouquet. This perfumed
soap was a milestone in the history of soap
making.
William Procter and James Gamble - one a
soap maker, the other a candle maker-opened
a business in Cincinnati. Soap was carried
up and down the Mississippi River to Pittsburgh,
Memphis and Louisville. In 1875 an absentminded
employee of Procter and Gamble left his crutcher
(soap mixer) on during his lunch filling
the mixture with air, and accidentally produced
the first floating soap. In July of 1879,
the first Ivory was sold with the slogan,
"It Floats".
On the West coast, B.J. Johnson was making
his soaps entirely of vegetable oils (Palm,
olive and cocoa butter.) Vegetable oil is
what "Grandma" uses in all of her
soaps except "Frontier Soap," or
commonly know as old fashioned lye soap.
Peet Brothers merged with Palmolive and then
in 1928 Colgate joined them. In 1953 Peet
was dropped from the title leaving us with
Colgate-Palmolive.
Deodorant soaps came into vogue in the mid-1970s,
with names like Irish Spring, Coast, and
Shield. Next came speciality soaps like Basil
and Oil of Olay.
About this time Ann Bramson published her
book "Soap: Making it, Enjoying it."
This book triggered a revival in soap making
in America and abroad. Many consumers, being
bored with commercially produced products,
have welcomed the small-scale soap crafters.
Together, these small soap factories are
enjoying at least 3 percent of the specialty
soap market. Grandma's Country Thangs is proud to be among them.
Go to: Pioneer Soap Making Folk Lore or How To Make Your Own Soap
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Store Hours - Mon. / Fri. 9 to 5
Opened 24/7/365
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800.526.2207 Fax: 870.269.5849
P.O. Box 2504
Mountain View,
AR 72560 |
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