Volta Soap

Wordpress

2010-07-19T15:43:00.001-08:00

New blog home @ wordpress: voltaorganics.wordpress.com

Hoist Up the John B Sails

2010-06-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

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

2010-04-16T06:15:00.001-08:00

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

2010-03-31T08:54:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-31T08:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-31T06:53:00.000-08:00

Stronger Than Dirt

2010-03-28T09:40:00.000-08:00

Easy Sunday listening.

Soap, Drugs, & Rock and Roll

2010-03-03T05:25:00.000-09:00

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

2010-02-13T16:32:00.000-09:00

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

2010-02-11T10:25:00.000-09:00

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.

Identity

2009-12-19T07:55:00.000-09:00

A new line up of soaps: Gardener, Fighter, Herbalist, Nomad, and Punk. We've got more coming so stay tuned. Feel free to make suggestions.

Handmade Holidays

2009-12-18T13:55:00.000-09:00

As much as I think my soap makes a wonderful gift, after seven years of giving soap as gifts I suppose it can start getting old. Last year I made a bunch of ceramic soap dishes to soften the blow of, "soap, again," but this year I just didn't have the extra time. I am a notorious last minute shopper, whatever the occasion. That's not to say I'm a careless gift giver - I do put thought into even the smallest of offerings - but the shopping is often left till I can't avoid it any longer. Today I am thankful for the wonderful sellers on Etsy who graciously promised to mail me my last minute gifts by Christmas. (The gorgeous birdhouse I bought, pictured above, was made by Ryan O'Rourke of I Heart Birds.)

Art Shop Action

2009-12-09T09:54:00.000-09:00

Art Shop neighbors, Lindsey and Jesse. Jesse made wooden earrings and Lindsey made pancake and cocoa mix. You don't really get the full effect of this display from the photo, which was impressive with a sprawling tree branch holding all of the earrings.

The aforementioned stacking crates display and my niece, Madeline, salesgirl extraordinaire. Note my sister's gold and silver tutus in the background.

I traded a jar of Jennie's apple butter for a bar of soap - so delicious and almost gone.

Carina with my niece, Penelope, posing with a chocolate moustachio.

Carina's photo props, silhouette portraits, buttons, and more. So fun! Oh yeah, and all of these photos were taken by Carina who is a photographer by day and a prop maker/ head band knitter by night.

Ceramic plates, cups, ornaments, and more with glamorous prints of animals on them.

Holiday Craft Fair in Phoenixville

2009-12-08T08:11:00.000-09:00

Another last minute fair in Phoenixville on December 12. How are we going to be in two places at one time? Holiday magic, of course!

Location: 400 Franklin Avenue Phoenixville, PA
Time: 10am-6pm

Rock Bass Rainbow Fest

2009-12-08T07:49:00.000-09:00

A last minute addition to the crafty line-up! Rock Bass Rainbow Fest - say that 10 times fast! I just realized today that it's a project spearheaded by Tyler students, which is a funny coincidence considering Tyler is my Alma Mater. Volta Soap will be present on Saturday, December 12.

Location: 2424 East York Street Philadelphia, PA 19125
Time: 11am-4pm

Is You Is or Is you Ain't (All-Natural)

2009-12-07T09:44:00.000-09:00

Natural has become a major buzz word of late. Since there is no standardized definition, the meaning of the words, "all natural," are hazy at best. Due to loosely defined FDA regulations, any company can pass off products that are not at all all-natural while putting that label on their product. Compound that with even looser labeling regulations concerning soap - Is it a Cosmetic, Drug, or Both? (Or is it Soap?) - where businesses can market and label their product as soap and have it regulated as a cosmetic. There are also companies who label themselves all-natural but have a mixture of all-natural and not-natural items in their product line - you might get all-natural one time but not the next if you're not careful. There's a tangled web of half-truths to outright lies that can be difficult to sort through if you care about avoiding synthetics. The following are two of the biggest red flags for spotting not-natural soap or other bath and body products.

Fragrance
Fragrance oils are synthetically produced scents created to mimic smells - any smells, from flowers and herbs to fruit to perfume, and are usually petroleum based. Fragrance oils are not all-natural but are often listed as ingredients in all-natural soap. You might see an ingredient listed as, "rose oil," or, "mango fragrance," for instance, which implies that the ingredient comes from a plant source when it does not.

Colorants
Bright, crayon looking colors should be a dead giveaway that something is not natural but brightly colored soaps, bath salts, and other bath and body are often marketed as all-natural. FD&C, food safe dyes, pigments, oxides, ultramarines, micas - none of them are natural. It's true that some may come from the earth but they undergo enough processing to disqualify them as natural.

And just to clarify, I don't think there's anything wrong with buying your favorite bright purple raspberry swirl soap - it really is a matter of taste. I just think that people have the right to know what they are spending their money on.

Here's a bullet point list from The Natural Ingredient Resource Center about what is or ain't considered natural:

NATURAL INGREDIENT CRITERIA

Natural Ingredients include
plant, animal, mineral or
microbial ingredients...

present in or produced by nature.
produced using minimal physical processing.*
directly extracted using simple methods, simple chemical reactions or resulting from naturally occurring biological processes.*

Natural ingredients are...

grown, harvested, raised and processed in an ecological manner.
not produced synthetically.
free of all petrochemicals.
not extracted or processed using petrochemicals.
not extracted or processed using anything other than natural ingredients as solvents.
not exposed to irradiation.
not genetically engineered & do not contain GMOs (genetically modified organisms).

Natural ingredients do...

not contain synthetic ingredients.**
not contain artificial ingredients including colors or flavoring.
not contain synthetic chemical preservatives.

Bricks + Mortar

2009-12-03T06:21:00.000-09:00

Soap in stores - yay! As always, we're loyal fans and supporters of VIX Emporium and now we can add these fabulous stores to our list: Bambi, Vagabond, Essene. Know of a store near you that might like carrying Volta Soap? Let us know!

Art Shop Excitement

2009-12-02T15:36:00.000-09:00

Art Shop is coming up this weekend, which will officially kick off my frenzy of craftiness for the next few weekends. I've had a table at this fair since year one (I think we're on year five now) and it's always fun to see familiar faces and beautiful handmade crafts. People and stuff like Lauren and her lanterns, William and his prints, Stephane and her fabulous bags and quilts, the chocolate guy, and the woman with the red pepper jelly. When I started out, I was half of Loth & Volta but my partner in lye, H., was whisked away by her dh to upstate NY. Last year's Art Shop was my first year going solo and it just wasn't the same without her. So this year I'm excited to be sharing a table with my sister. I'm especially proud of this great book that she wrote and illustrated just in time for the holidays not to mention the gold tutus, the booboo buddies, and whatever else she's come up with. It's the first year either of us has shared a table, which is funny because I think we've both made more stuff than we've ever made before. I went to AC Moore and bought us some stacking wooden crates for space efficiency on the table - a concept I lifted from the gals of Rogue Theory who I had the pleasure of meeting at Cut the Craft a couple of weeks ago. Speaking of Cut the Craft, I also want to give a shout out to girls can tell and these awesome anatomical sweet heart tea towels I traded some soap for. Did I mention that you should buy handmade for the holidays?

Winter Blast in Astoria

2009-11-18T20:18:00.000-09:00

TIME CHANGE! This event is now running from 10:30am-4:30pm.

Pennsylvania SPCA Benefit Craft Fair

2009-11-16T08:11:00.001-09:00

New Listings on ETSY

2009-11-10T15:55:00.000-09:00

Check it out - voltasoap.etsy.com

VIX Emporium

2009-11-10T08:09:00.001-09:00

Find Volta Soap and other fabulous handmade gifts at VIX Emporium in West Philadelphia.

http://vixemporium.wordpress.com/

Art Shop

2009-11-10T07:46:00.001-09:00

Volta Soap at Art Shop!

Cut the Craft!

2009-11-08T03:44:00.000-09:00

Volta soaps will be here Nov 21 & 22!

2009-11-05T06:15:00.000-09:00

Voltasoap is in production again. We modified the Magnolia Cypress (all-in-one shampoo) soap to include hemp oil, which made the bar a beautiful lime green color. New flavors include patchouli, evergreen, coriander, and a delicious smelling clove and vanilla kitchen soap with coffee grounds. Our website is about to turn into a store so stay tuned!

2009-06-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

Artspiration at Fleisher Art Memorial last Sunday.

Teen lounge of Fleisher Art Memorial. They had all these great pillows for $5 a piece!

Shadow was, hands down, the most popular dog at the fair. Supposedly he hates the attention but that's what he gets for being so small and cute.

Josh Mills builds Philadelphia and Pennsylvania themed lamps, flower boxes, and window hangings. I really liked the City Hall lamp. Really nice craftsmanship.

Stephane Rowley sews costumes, quilts, bags, purses, and more. The early bird bag is great and that blue and yellow bag would have been mine if it didn't sell in the first hour or two.

Volta Soap was there too, of course.

2009-05-30T06:49:00.000-08:00