Felted Soaps

Anthropologie is a store that I haunt on a regular basis. It's not just the stuff they sell - although I do wish I could take it all home with me - it's the way the store looks. Worn dining tables, vintage board games, old maps, apothecary chests, all mixed with gorgeous dishes and dresses and necklaces and notecards. I want to just curl up on one of their iron-framed beds next to a candle and read a book.

On a trip there in December, I noticed they were selling felted soaps. I didn't really know anything about felting before I worked at the UCC, and had I seen these little wooly blobs a year ago, I probably would have walked right past. But they're really pretty cool. Since wool naturally felts when it's agitated with water and soap (ever shrink a wool sweater by accident?), all you have to do is envelope a piece of soap in wet wool and agitate it to get it to felt down. Then, viola, you have soap and a scrubby pad all in one!

So with a few of bucks worth of wool and $2 jasmine soaps from Whole Foods, I made these felted soaps for Christmas stocking stuffers. Each one took about an hour of wetting and rubbing (just like you would rub soap in your hands if you were washing them), so I just sat in front of the TV and felted. Every time it was amazing how the wool actually did start out all puffy and then shrank dramatically down around the soap.

I really like how they turned out. They almost look like round river stones. The next time I make them I think I'll use gray and brown shades of wool. They would look so cute sitting on the shelf in my shower.