Soap wrapping

So besides school and this horribly neglected blog, I also run Sage & Savvy Soap Co. While I have branched out into making other items, my primary product is still soap. I have a rather unique wrapping style, if I do say so myself. It originated when because I wanted to get more than just 4-6 soap labels per sheet of paper, which is generally what you get if you're doing a traditional "cigar band" soap label that wraps all the way around with the ends secured together with tape or glue. But I'm a cheapskate and I still wanted to use a rather pricey sustainable paper, so I decided to try and get 8 labels per sheet. (btw, I use Mr. Ellie Pooh paper, made primarily from elephant dung and recycled materials. It's wonderful and I have yet to find any other papers like it).

Of course, getting 8 labels per sheet meant that my labels would not wrap around completely, leaving the top exposed. So I found some twine that I had lying around from another craft project and tied a bow at the top to make it seem like the short label was intentional. This also had a bonus of showing off the rustic, unretouched tops of my soaps. This is how I started wrapping my soap in the beginning, and it is how I continue to do it today.

What many people don't realize though, is that I wrap each soap by hand, one at a time. I've gotten quite fast and can nearly tie the bow at the top with one hand now, but I still do it bar by bar, bow by bow. And that's not even including cutting the twine, designing and filling out the labels, printing them, and hand tearing each one to keep it looking au naturale and rustic.

I recently doubled my standard batch size to 20 full-sized bars and 4 sample bars per batch, with multiple batches at a time, so it's been interesting to have so many soaps to wrap. In the beginning, I used to just wrap 10 bars a week at the most! Tonight, I wrapped 72, and I just about have blisters on my fingers, but it's quite satisfying to see the completed work:

Featured here are Lilac Meadows, Mango Papaya, and Wild Berry Rose.

Sage & Savvy Soap Co.