This past weekend was one of my favorite soapmaker’s workshops, Central Soapers Workshop in Kansas! It was so good to be with old friends, make new friends, talk about soap and Lovin’ Soap Project and make plans for the future!

Kenna and her team did an amazing job of making this event happen and making it happen in a big awesome way! The speakers were amazing, the hands on open soapmaking lab by The Sage was awesome, the swag was mighty…many good things! I am in awe of Kenna for doing what she does and am always impressed by what that girl has going on! Great job, Kenna!

I got to see my best friend, Holly Port and my best friend/partner, Benjamin Aaron!  Lovin’ Soap Project had a booth and we sold shirts, aprons and soap made by OFEDA to raise funds.  We raised about $500 from sales and donations!  WOW!

Benjamin and Amanda at Central Soapers Workshop

Amanda and Holly

I got to meet Lela Barker of Lucky Break Consulting and hang with her a bit. We had the chance to chat about Uganda (she’s been and we’re going). Her talk was about getting press! I used to work for a magazine and now work in marketing so have been on both ends of the press machine and she was spot on! What a great and inspiring talk!

Charlene Simon of Bathhouse Soapery talked to us about retail.  You can catch some more retail advice from Charlene in the Soap Collaborative!  She talked about creating a customer experience and walked us through what her girls do on the sales floor when a customer walks in to the store.  She has an amazing story and is a fierce entrepreneur that we can learn a lot from!  And her willingness to share is one of the best things about her.  She’ll be at the HSCG conference this year.

Tanya Rasley did an awesome demo on the mica swirl!  What an easy technique…well she made it look easy!

I got to do a demo about swirling.  We talked about formulating a recipe and how to make your own peacock swirling tools!  Thanks to Holly and Sister Cathleen for coming up and swirling while I talked!  Bramble Berry donated my favorite mold, the 18 Bar Birchwood Mold with Silicone Liner which a lucky soapmaker got to go home with!

Sister Cathleen Swirling

Peacock Swirl

My other talk was about doing good things as part of your business plan.  Benjamin came up and we got to share about Lovin’ Soap Project and what we’re doing to empower women through soapmaking.

Benjamin Aaron talked about setting goals and how to keep a journal of your “I AM’s”.  What you want wants you!

Both Benjamin and I won awesome door prizes that we can use for Lovin’ Soap Project!  Benjamin won a Bud Cutter!  Bud generously donated a cutter to each of our groups in Haiti so this one will be going to Uganda in July (more on that soon).  So Bud is 3-0 in providing cutters for our groups!  How cool is that!?

Bud Soap Cutter

I won a gift certificate to Soapequipment.com who was there for the show so decided to get about 16 spatulas!  Our groups can’t have enough spatulas!  Both Bud and Soapequipment.com have been supporters of Lovin’ Soap Project so it was just so crazy awesome to have won their door prizes!

Spatulas from Soapequipment.com

Holly Port taught Happy Hour Soapmaking!  You can catch her at the next Austin bootcamp!

There were many other classes and demos which you’ll be hearing about over on Modern Soapmaking’s blog!

What a wonderful time of friends and soapmaking!

NEXT UP!?  Both Benjamin and I will be at the Tennessee Soap and Candle meeting!

Happy Soaping!  -Amanda