For Miriam Owens, soap-making is more than just creating bars of cleaning agent. It's a craft she recalls her father doing, it's an expression of care for family and friends who want or need specially-made formulas, and it's a business.
WGBH spent a day observing her creative process. This is the story of Miriam Owens' soaping, in pictures.
For Owens, soap-making begins with the assortment of necessary ingredients gathered on her kitchen table.
Owens dons a lab coat, gloves, goggles and a hair covering before combining the elements of her soap recipe.
Bowls of oil and shea butter heat in preparation for blending. Once melted, they're mixed with a lye solution and essential oils.
After combining lye with water, Owens monitors the solution's temperature. It and the melted oils must reach a certain temperature range before they're combined.
Owens, 49, glances over her shoulder as she prepares to lift a hot lye solution from her kitchen sink.
Once the lye solution and melted oils are combined, the mixture is blended, then poured into molds for shaping.
Owens applies decorative swirls to the surface of the soap. When the mixture hardens, she'll remove it from the mold, then slice the loaf into individual bars of soap.
Owens displays her curing rack where freshly cut bars of soap sit for three to six weeks. Curing allows the final portion of saponifaction — the soap-making chemical reaction — to take place. It also allows excess water to evaporate from the soap, making the bars harder and longer-lasting.
Owens cradles half a dozen bars of lemon grass soap with a decorative pattern on top.
Homemade soaps allow for a high degree of customization. This bar of rose soap is embellished with flower petals and spices.
Owens hand-wraps each bar of soap for selling.
Individually wrapped bars of soap are packed into plastic bins for easy transportation to farmers' markets and beyond.
When Owens takes a bar of soap under a faucet stream, she's typically making careful notes about the quality of its lather.
