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The soap junkies story....from my kitchen table...into a factory unit and back home again!
How it all Began
People often ask me how I started out making soap, it all came about as a reason to use up our surplus goats milk. In 1997 I was living on a little smallholding in Bellingham, Northumberland with my (now ex) husband, our four children, six cats, two dogs, a sheep, twenty hens and my two beloved goats. Lottie our nanny goat was a prolific milker, we had more milk than we knew what to do with, I made goat cheese and yogurt, poured it on cereal, mixed custards, gave pints to the cats but we still had loads left. I wondered what else I could do with it so I popped onto the internet for ideas and found a recipe for goats milk soap, it was a basic "old timers" cold kettle recipe, it got me started but I wanted to know how to make up my own. So, after a very long process of trial, error and careful calculation I formulated an olive, palm and coconut base and began to make all kinds of soap for my friends and family using the milk, flowers and herbs from my garden.
Farmers Markets
At the end of 1999 I thought maybe I'd had enough practice so I'd better start selling some of the bars piling up to fund my addiction and the Bellingham Soap Company was born. After rigorous checks with trading standards I started out selling at the Hexham Farmers market, I think took about £30 on the day, I went straight to Safeway and spent it on more soapmaking ingredients before I even got home...a confirmed soap junkie!
Craft Fairs and Kirkharle
I kept my stall at Hexham, sold to some nice shops and regularly did craft fairs for 3 years until the business grew too big to work from my home. We had converted part of our house into a soaperie but it wasn't nearly big enough, we had no scope to extend so I looked for premises and moved into the "Kirkharle Courtyard" a craft workshop complex near Kirkwhelpington, I had a pleasant modern work space inside a lovely old stone barn, twice the size of my workshop at home with a shop at the front.
Trade Customers
Lots of people came to Kirkharle on holiday and bought goodies from my shop, when they returned home with my soap in hand quite often they would tell a shop owner in their area and I would get a call, word spread fast and soon I had lots of shops selling my products all over the country, encouraged by this I did a few nice trade fairs and picked up some more customers. After 4 happy years I decided to concentrate on the trade side of my business which had grown far more than the retail, this meant closing the shop. Sadly I couldn't stay at Kirkharle without keeping the shop open so I had to move out in May 2007.
Home again in my new workshop
I'm now living with my partner Derek and my two youngest children in a house with a three roomed workshop that I found in the South Tyne valley just outside of Plenmeller near Haltwhistle...I love working from home again, I have just as much space as I did at Kirkharle. My trade customers often pop in for a cup of tea and a natter when picking up orders and I'm onsite if my family needs me. I'm busier than I have ever been and couldn't be happier. My soap recipes have come a long way since the early days, lot's of tweaking and honing of skills have gone on, I still love it as much now as I did then when it was all new, soapmaking is my passion...I hope it shows in my product.
