Good clean fun: N.S. woman makes felt soap covers inspired by Cape Breton landscape
A Cape Breton woman has turned a pandemic pastime into a small business inspired by the island she calls home.
Susanne Shearing of Grand Etang, N.S., began making felt-covered soap in 2021 and started The Shearing Felt Co. a year later.
“It’s just become a bit of an obsession, something I never would have thought I’d be doing three years ago,” she says. “It’s kind of a weird little hobby to take off, but it’s taken off.”
Shearing says while people have been felting for thousands of years, she never heard of felt soap covers before she started making them, and didn’t know what they were for.
“If you are having dexterity issues with your hands, gripping things, it’s nice because the bar of soap is slippery, the felt will help you hang onto the soap.”
The other benefit of felted soap is that it can make the product last longer than a regular bar of soap.
“What happens as you use it is the wool will felt and shrink around the soap,” she says.
Shearing’s process involves taking a bar of soap and wrapping it with wet felt. She then puts it in a mesh bag under running water and rubs her hand over it.
Susanne Shearing wraps a bar of soap with felt. (Darryl Reeves/CTV Atlantic)
“As you agitate it with your hand, the fibers will start meshing together. Then I let it sit and dry, probably for 24 hours,” she says. “And essentially, the next two-to-three hours is poking your wool.”
Shearing’s finished products feature images of the local landscape, complete with lighthouses, fishing boats and plenty of animals – and she doesn’t have to look hard to find inspiration.
Examples of Susanne Shearing's felt-covered-soap on display. (Darryl Reeves/CTV Atlantic)
“Out one window, I have the ocean, I have Cheticamp Island, I have eagles flying around, we have harriers, we had a moose on occasion coming up into our yard,” she says.
Shearing adds she’s been “pleasantly surprised” by how well her pieces have been received, and never would of thought people would want to buy something she made.
“People contact me just to say how unique it is, how beautiful it is, and every time that they look at it, it puts a smile on their face and makes them feel happy,” she says. “Honestly, that’s quite a compliment for some little thing that I made. If it makes somebody happy then that’s all I can ask for.”
Shearing’s products can be found on her Instagram page.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Darryl Reeves.
For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than half of Canadians say freedom of speech is under threat, new poll suggests
A new poll suggests a majority of Canadians feel their right to freedom of speech is in danger.
NEW Kim Kardashian brand kids' sleepwear and more: Here are some recalls to watch out for
Here are the latest recalls Canadians should watch out for, according to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Is your password 123456? Here's why you should make it stronger
With the sheer number of passwords needed today, it may come as no surprise that over 60 per cent of Canadians feel overwhelmed, and over a third reportedly forget their passwords monthly.
Britney Spears and Sam Asghari are officially divorced and single
Britney Spears and Sam Asghari are officially divorced and single.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.