Every summer I have a few workers graduating from college. It's both joyful and sad as they move forward in their career path. We are like a family at GoPlanet, so when someone leaves us, there are tears. As we wipe the tears, we welcome our new replacement workers into the fold.
Part of their initiation rite is learning to make soap. We call it our Summer Soap Camp. I'm a firm believer employees must be equipped with knowledge to provide great service. Summer Soap Camp helps acquaint new workers with the business they represent.
Day One: Basic soap making techniques are demonstrated. This includes how to melt, color and scent melt and pour soap. Opacity is discussed and how it affects color outcome.
Day Two & Three: Three easy dual pour projects using Mold Market's Soft Serve Ice Cream mold (#239), Funky Flower (#267) mold and Button mold (#265). Pouring dual colors, monitoring pouring temps, demonstration on injector soap tool and importance of using rubbing alcohol to promote adhesion.
Day Four: More complex use of the injector tool for beginning soap makers. This included pouring a grape cluster soap. An introduction to pouring loaf soaps with embeds was also on the agenda.
Our GoPlanetEarth newbies had no problem grasping the techniques presented at each session. Everyone showed great enthusiasm and caught on easily to multiple color pours. At the end of day four, they were hooked on soaping.
Day Five: This was the final session allowed everyone to "create your own" soap. Two soaps that stood out were the granola bars and embedded loaf. These were rather advanced soaping projects for beginners, but the outcome was awesome.
Gabby's loaf mold was a partial success. It was a learning curve in the importance of pouring layers at the right temperature to ensure the each layer adheres. When the loaf was released from the mold and sliced, several slices separated.
I was impressed that she carefully monitored her pouring temps and none of the embeds had a melt-down. That alone is quite an accomplishment.
Chelsea's granola bars were quite impressive. I will be posting a future tutorial on how to make these yummy smelling bars.
It's been a fun week training staff. The excitment displayed when the finished soap is released from the mold reminds me why I love this business.
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