Felted soap is my handmade and cured goat milk soap, covered in layers of Blue-Faced Leicester sheep wool. The wool becomes both a wash cloth and a gentle exfoliator, so mild it can be used on your face.
A few years back, a fiber-artist friend introduced me to a neat looking fiber called Blue-Faced Leicester Sheep. She told me that this wool is awesome for felted soap since it’s from …”a longwool breed of sheep whose curly threadlike wool makes it considerably lighter than others.” She knew that once I tried it, I would be hooked.
She was planning to make felted soap bars and thought I’d like to felt along with her. At first I thought I could use the mohair from my angora goats, but the process was too long. The mohair needed to be sheared, cleaned, and sent to a fiber mill to be turned into a product that I could use in the felted soap process.
As we worked side by side, I mirrored her process on my own bar. This was a perfect way to learn as I could feel the wool’s texture change, then I just copied what she was doing on my own bar. After I completed my first felted bar, I was hooked!
Now I make 50 felted bars at a time to sell at my fall festivals. I don’t felt them all at once though! I choose my peppermint goat’s milk soap for the Christmas festivals and pomegranate goat milk soap for the fall events. For spring and summer I’ll felt lavender, lavender lemongrass, and rice flower and shea bars.
