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Hoist Up the John B Sails

Fisherman soap has hit the sails for the Independence Seaport Museum Gift Shop.  How cool is that?!  If you haven't been before, the Independence Seaport Museum is totally worth a visit - learn all about the history of Philadelphia's seaport, trade, sailing, and Philly pirates or learn how to build your own boat in just two weekends.   We're super excited to be included in such an interesting part of Philadelphia history.  Stay tuned for some custom nautical products to fill the depth of hold, made exclusively for Philadelphia mates.  Lost At Sea Bath Salts?  Mermud Facial Mask?  Feel free to anchor your comments below with your best maritime-themed bath and body ideas and/ or suggestions.

 

Easy Being Green

Ages ago, when I worked at the Black Cat (RIP) in University City, E. (buyer/ gm) bought all of our office paper from a Pennsylvania based green online office supply store.  When I started Volta Soap, I opted to order from them, too.  GreenLine Paper Company sells everything you might need for an office - only green.  We're not the biggest customers - we usually buy a couple packs of 100% PCW recycled cover stock and some Peace Coffee every few months or so.  I like ordering from GreenLine for a couple reasons - the eco products, of course, but also the fact that they're so close makes me feel better about having recycled paper shipped to me.  (Not to mention the fact that I place an order and it almost immediately arrives on my stoop in recycled packaging material!)

Today I have a whole new reason to keep ordering from GreenLine Paper Company.  This morning I got an email that their delivery truck is coming my way soon and if I wanted them to bring me anything while they're close by to let them know.  Who does that anymore?  I love that they're not just playing the green eco friendly card to get my business.  Experiences like this make me remember why it's important to support local, small businesses - because it's not just about the money, it's about providing a service to your community.  Thanks, S., for making my day.

Guest Post At Handmade Philly Blog

Two weekends ago I was given a pair of complimentary tickets to the Sugarloaf Festival in Oaks, PA, courtesy of Handmade Philly blog.  Check it out.
Coincidentally, Volta Organics was accepted to vend at the Sugarloaf Festival in Gaithersburg, MD from April 9-11.  If you're local, please come check us out!

Volta Organics

Volta Soap still makes soap but we are now Volta Organics, which we felt is more inclusive of the rest of our bath and body products.  We are currently making a push to have a large percentage of our products contain certified organic ingredients.  This means that in a couple of months, most of our base oils and all of our dried herbs will be certified organic.  Our biggest success is finding certified organic extra virgin olive oil, the most prevalent ingredient in almost all of our soaps.  The ingredients printed on our labels will be updated as we go to reflect that change.  As you already know, all of our essential oils are all-natural, steam distilled, and therapeutic grade.  Finally, we want to announce our membership with the Handcrafted SoapMakers Guild.  We are very excited to be a part of such a wonderful organization!

Soap Vs. Dirt

Stronger Than Dirt

Easy Sunday listening.

Soap, Drugs, & Rock and Roll

This is old news that I was recently reminded of. Dr. Bronner's makes great soap -- this is a fun video about what is and isn't soap. Enjoy.

Minted Lime + The Fisherman

This past holiday season I had the opportunity to exhibit at, "Cut the Craft," in Manayunk. It was there that I met C. and her husband who asked me if I would be interested in making a custom soap for them. They had been purchasing quantities of soap they called, "minted lime," from another soap maker. That person stopped making soap for whatever reason and they were missing their favorite soap. I took on the challenge and am so pleased with the results that, "mint + lime," is now going to be a part of the regular hand + body line-up.

Next up, "Fisherman," the latest addition to the Identity soaps. Made with anise and lime essential oils, and cornmeal. Fisherman's soap is an old classic in the soapmaking world - fishermen would wash with anise to hide their human scent from fish for a better catch. Some fisherman soaps were also used to get rid of the fish smell after the fact. Either way, we love how refreshing this soap smells and it's now a part of the team.

All-natural soap always takes about a month to cure so these soaps won't be available till mid March.

Soaps pictured above:
*mint + lime with organic spirulina
*fisherman - anise + lime with ground cornmeal
*cilantro - now with organic holy basil
*geranium + cinnamon - now with organic red palm fruit oil

Down Time

The last couple of weeks has been spent re-organizing the work space and focusing on the never ending task of labeling. There are times (in my alternate life as a painter) when I decide a painting is finished, hang it on the wall, and after a certain amount of time looking at the thing, wonder what I was thinking when I decided to stop working on it. I have a similar attitude when it comes to the soap labels - there's just always room for improvement. During the rush, there's never time to fix anything so down time is always filled with tedious graphic design. I often contemplate what it would be like to just hire a designer with mastery of everything Adobe who could probably do what I'm doing, better, in half the time. Then I think about what a control freak I am and how labeling hundreds of bars of soap at a time makes it easy for me to pick out the flaws, and I'm glad I only have myself to blame. This recent overhaul of the labels has born the cross band - many of which are cut from labels that are now obsolete.