Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea
'Real Kentucky Soap' Made at Kentucky Artisan Center

On Friday, December 15, Lisa Brangers from ‘Real Kentucky Soap’ of Bardstown, will demonstrate the cold process of soap making from 10:30 am – 3:30 pm at the Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea.

Although both of her grandmothers made soap, Louisville native Lisa Brangers taught herself soap making from books five years ago. In her research, Lisa found that the earliest records about soap making were found on Sumerian clay tablets from around 2500 BC. Since then the process has changed very little. Lisa uses a cold process which adds heat only to melt the solid olive oil, palm kernel oil, palm oil, soybean oil, and castor oil that her soap contains. Sodium Hydroxide, a naturally occurring caustic which is formed when water is added to wood ashes, allows the oils and rainwater to join together to form what we know as soap. Once combined and stirred the soap is poured into luffa sponges to create a unique cleansing soap-scrubber combination which is then cut into slices and allowed to cure.

Lisa Branger’s unique luffa-sponge and other handmade soaps can be regularly found at the Kentucky Artisan Center located just off Interstate 75 at exit 77 (Berea). The Center’s exhibits, shopping, and travel information areas are all open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the café from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The Center currently features works by more than 650 artisans from all across the Commonwealth. For more information call 859-985-5448 or visit the Center’s web site at www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov 

The Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea is an agency in the Commerce Cabinet of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.