How to Run | Soap Making Workshop

This is a step-by-step of how to organise and run your own soap making workshop.

This workshop is intended as a fun introduction to working experimentally. It is recommended that the person running the workshop has had a go at making soap themselves so that they can offer examples, helpful tips and suggestions that help the participants get the most out of the workshop.

Importantly, there should be no right or wrong way for participants to be involved with the workshop. This is not an exercise in following a recipe, on the contrary, participant are encourage to try out novel ideas and seek out unknown results.

To prepare for running this workshop it is good to do some research.

We looked at:

• Other DIY melt and pour videos, like this one by YouTubers Evan and Katelyn to understand the process, the equipment required and to see how people that are new to the process engage with it.
• The professional soap market (i.e. Lush) to get an idea of what colours and fragrances are used.
• The science behind soap so that we can be as informative as possible during the event. We tried to understand why soap works, it's chemical makeup and safety aspects.

Additionally, if possible, it is good to be able to run a small practice event in your space to get a better idea of the process, the workflow and how it will work best in the environment you have available.

The aim when organising the workshop environment is to create somewhere that is safe for participants to be involved in the workshop, is easy for you to run the workshop and helps to promote the experimental process of the workshop.

This is achieved by organising the physical environment, and also the prep done before the workshop, the introducing given at the beginning and the support and encouragement that participants receive throughout the workshop.

The following are our tips to promote the experimental process of the workshop:

• Do your research

Know the process so that you are able to give a concise introduction so that participants know what to expect.

• Admit when you don't know

You might be asked questions the you didn't anticipate or don't know the answer too. In these instances it is good to own it and revel in the unknown, especially in regards to the outcomes of something experimental.

• Be able to offer a starting point

Participants should be encouraged to get stuck in as quick as possible and it can help to offer a bit of initial direction. This could be some of your own experiments and how you achieved certain results. Or show samples of what. the different colours look like and scents smell like. The highly concentrated scents smell very different in the the soap compared to from the bottle.

• Be ambiguous

You will be asked "what happens if I do this?", "is this a good idea?" Try to answer these kinds of questions with ambiguous language, aim for "it might" rather than "it will".

• Space to collaborate

Have to participants work on one large table with the ingredients in the middle. This allows them to see what each other are doing, share their ideas and experiments, and inspire each other.

The following is how we partitioned the physical environment into working areas.:

• Soap base preparation

This is where the soap base was cut into small cubes, melted and distributed to participants. To prevent contamination you will want to have a separate mixing pots and heat sources for each type of soap base you are using. For safety this area should not be available to participants.

• Ingredient mixing

This area had all the available ingredients laid out. Examples of how the ingredients can be used. Space for participants to collect up the ingredients they want to use, mix the ingredients into the soap base and pour the mix into moulds

This area can get very messy with spilt soap and discarded ingredients. It is recommended that something is used to cover the working surfaces.

• Moulds and curing

Space is required to set the moulds aside to cool and cure. The ideal is to have trays ready to transfer to a fridge over night.

As previously mentioned. It is worth running a small test event to discover exactly how the workshop best runs in your environment.

These are the types of things that you may require to run the workshop

Ingredients:

• Soap base
• Colours
• Scents
• Botanicals

Equipment:

• Moulds
• Cutting board and knife
• Pots
• Heat sources
• Small mixing pots
• Little mixing sticks
• Ladle

This is a full list of what was used in a workshop for 10 people making 3 soaps each:

• 2 kg of Shea Butter soap base
• 2 kg of SLS free clear soap base
• 30 individual silicone soap moulds (mix of oval and square)
• 2 large non-stick stock pots
• 2 electric hot plates
• 2 wooden spoons to stir melting soap base
• Cutting board and knife to cut up soap bases to encourage fast melting
• 30 100 ml plastic mixing pots
• 2 jugs to transfer melted soap base to small mixing pots
• Lots of mixing sticks
• Geranium, Tea Tree, Lemon, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemongrass, Orange, Bergamot and Peppermint essential oils
• Dried Lemongrass, Chrysanthemum, Lavender, Calendula, Mint, Siraitia, Myosotis, Rose, Jasmine and Gomphrena petals
• Dried Orange and Lime slices, Turmeric powder, Ground and whole pepper corns, Sea salt, Ground olive stone
• Pink, Blue, Sea Green, Purple, Orange and Green liquid colours

These are the steps taken in the setup, running and clear down of the event:

Setup:

• Do the research. Watch some videos, read some blogs and visit some soap shops.
• Buy some of the stuff for a test event. Consider the minimum amount of equipment that you could get to do a simplified version for yourself and one other person while still getting an adequate idea of the process.
• Run a test event. Take note of what went well and what caused problems, think how these might change when scaled up with more participants. Ideally do the event with someone that knows nothing so that they can feedback from a participants point of view.
• Re-adjust your shopping list and buy the rest of the stuff. Again, think about what was used in the test event and how more participants will effect this. From experience, the increase in equipment used is not linear.
• On the day create small examples what each colour and smell is actually like once combined with soap base. Have these marked or labelled so that participants can pick them up and return them easily.
• Have examples of some of your experiments for participants to look at and be inspired by.
• Cover you work area with plastic or paper sheet. This makes tidying up much easier and allows participants to no have to worry about making a mess.
• Lay out all the ingredients, examples and equipment participants might need in the centre of the table.
• Cube up the soap base and begin to melt. Aim to have it pre-melted for when the participants arrive.
• Welcome in your participants and explain the purpose of the workshop and what they can expect. Explain each step of the process and guide them to take a look at the examples and ingredients.
• Give them time to plan what they want to do and collect up the ingredients.
• When each person is ready begin to pass out the their desired soap base and let them get mixing.
• As the participants continue to plan mix and pour their creations into the moulds, be on hand to help keep their workspace tidy and to reset the ingredients and examples in the middle of the table.
• As the workshop comes to an end, be sure that participants mark their creations and are confident of what ended up in each soap.
• Keep the soaps to cure for 24 hours and invite the participants back to remove the soaps from their moulds when they collect them. Allowing participants to remove the soap is important, it is the final reveal and outcome of the participant's experiments.