| 2/13/2008 9:18:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Back in business: Soap maker starts over
By Arlene Shovald - Special to The Mail
Pam Smith thought she was all washed up after a serious car wreck, but happily, she is back in business, making soap with her daughter, Shannon Daniels.
"Soap making started as a hobby," Pam said. "I saw some homemade soap in a store about 10 years ago and thought I could do that.
"Part of me has always thought I should be self-reliant and I wanted to learn to make soap the way my grandmother did."
Her first batch was made the old fashioned way with tallow and lye, but after that she developed her own recipes and now makes her soap with nearly all natural ingredients.
At first she gave her soap away as gifts, but at the encouragement of friends, went into business, calling the product Mountain Homestead Soap.
"Shannon was in high school when I started," Pam said.
The soap business and everything else came to a crashing halt Nov. 23, 2003, when Pam was driving to Pueblo on U.S. 50 and was hit by a drunk driver.
"I broke both legs and my left arm and I was in a wheelchair for awhile," she said. "It was a long recovery and required a lot of therapy."
Smith was able to return to her job teaching computer science at Salida Middle School a year after the accident, but then, soap making still sounded like more work than fun.
"Before the accident I found joy in making soap," she said. "After the accident and recovery it became work."
It was Shannon who got her interested in making soap again. Shannon had been away at college, working on a degree in anthropology and studying natural healing.
After the birth of her daughter, Dayna, 14 months ago, she began reorganizing her mom's former business, Mountain Homestead Soap, and recently applied for a retail license as Blissology.
"We changed the name because, in addition to the soaps, we make lotions, bath salts and room scent diffusers," Shannon said.
When the baby is sleeping, Shannon joins her mom in the kitchen making soaps and other products.
"Our recipe was developed after a lot of experimentation," Pam said.
Ingredients include a lye and water mix, a combination of oils, cocoa butter, shea butter, fragrance oils, and goat's milk, with different products used depending upon the recipe.
The goat's milk is used in the unscented soaps for people with sensitive skin and/or allergies.
Soap making is a time consuming process. After mixing, the lye and water are cooled to room temperature and mixed with hard oils which have been melted.
Then the mix is again cooled. A blender mixes ingredients before pouring liquid into molds which make 42 bars.
After 24 hours the soap is removed from the mold and cured four weeks. Before wrapping it, Pam and Shannon trim edges of the bars and it's for distribution.
Many of the products have healing properties. Stress-Be-Gone, for example, is made with essential oils to uplift and relieve stress. Some other product names are Juniper Breeze, Angel of Shavano, Lavender, Mountain Showers, Very Vanilla and Honey Almond Oatmeal.
The tiny handmade pots for their room diffusers are made by Margo Perschbacher. A fragrance oil is placed in the bottom of the pot and wicks up specially made sticks to release a light scent into the air.
Locally, Earth Song is carrying the products. Their website at www.thescienceofbliss.com is currently under construction but their products can also be seen at http://blissology.etsy.com or http://www.myspace.com/thescienceofbliss.
Phone orders can be made by calling 539-5295.
"It feels good to be making soap again," Pam said. "I enjoy the process, I like experimenting with new ideas and it's fun to see other people get excited about something we've made."
Shannon agreed, adding, "I like being able to look at finished bars and know I made it and it will give pleasure to someone else."
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