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
Loblaw leaders push back on 'misguided criticism' of grocer as boycott begins
Loblaw's new chief executive, as well as chairman Galen Weston, pushed back on what they called 'misguided criticism' of the grocer as a push to boycott the company gains steam online.
TD Bank hit with $9.2M penalty after failing to report suspicious transactions
Canada's financial intelligence agency says it has levied a $9.2-million penalty against The Toronto-Dominion Bank for non-compliance with money laundering and terrorist financing measures as the bank also faces compliance investigations in the U.S.
Orangutan observed treating wound using medicinal plant in world first
Scientists working in Indonesia have observed an orangutan intentionally treating a wound on their face with a medicinal plant, the first time this behavior has been documented.
This Canadian restaurant just lowered its prices. Here's how it did it
A Canadian restaurant lowered its prices this week, and though news of price tags dropping rather than climbing sounds unusual, the business strategy in this case is not, according to experts in the field.
There's a limit to how much interest rates in Canada and U.S. can diverge: Macklem
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says Canadian interest rates don't have to match U.S. or global rates, but there is a limit to how much they can diverge.
Prince William and Kate release photo of daughter Charlotte to mark ninth birthday
Prince William and his wife Kate released a picture of their daughter Charlotte to mark the princess's ninth birthday on Thursday.
Doctors concerned about potential spread of bird flu in Canada
H5N1 or avian flu has been detected at dozens of U.S. dairy farms and Canadian experts are urging surveillance on our side of the border too.
Airbnb's Icons allow you to drift off in the 'Up' house or rest in Prince's 'Purple Rain' mansion
The vacation destination rental company announced a new category of 'Icons,' a collection of 'extraordinary experiences hosted by the greatest names in music, film, television, art, sports, and more.'
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Goring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.