Colleen Kane: Molding life’s journey with soap

BY REGGE EPISALE
Correspondent

Brackney seems like an unlikely place to find an art gallery, and McCormick Road, a dirt lane off of an already small country road, seems like an unlikely place to find a gallery.

But Colleen Kane didn’t see it that way.

She fell in love with an old barn and, with her artist’s eye, decided it would make a perfect studio.

It was a good choice.

With the expert assistance of John McNamara Construction, Colleen restored and improved the old barn. It now serves as a gallery, office, warehouse and as the “factory” for Sea Hag Soaps.

Her Sea Hag Soaps & Art Mercantile partner, a black Goldendoodle named Grace, greets guests at the door. “She works retail all day and then hikes mountains with me,” Colleen says. Grace has her own soap, Saving Grace, Furry Friends and Fairy Soap, a non-toxic, safe, pet soap tested on animals and humans alike.

An artful start
Colleen didn’t start out as a soap maker. She studied art and art history at Brockport University. “In my 20s I thought I would never have kids and that I’d be a famous artist someday.”

Her art included metal work and jewelry design, painting, pottery, rug hooking, wood turning, and any other medium she wanted to try. Her

jewelry was showcased at the Aaron Faber Gallery in Manhattan, and she worked for a goldsmith in Binghamton, N.Y.

Colleen began taking her work to trade shows and selling wholesale. She made up her mind then that she didn’t like retail and vowed she would never work in the retail business again.

But time and life have a way of changing things. “When I hit my 30s, I thought I really needed a baby, and I was sure he/she would play quietly while I created masterpieces. My studio equipment lay rusting for 10 years, but I had two babies,” Colleen says.

She started making soap in 1995. As a little girl – one of nine children – there were huge blocks of soap hanging in the bathroom. Her mother told her that her grandmother made them.

Soap became Colleen’s new art.

The art of the process
Soap making isn’t fast or easy. The process involves mixing water with sodium hydrochloride (lye). This part can be very dangerous to both the skin and respiratory system. Long sleeves and pant legs, masks, and goggles are required. The lye water is then mixed with either vegetable or animal fat.

Colleen only uses vegetable fat, including but not limited to vegetable oil, olive oil, coconut oil, and cocoa butter. Because she uses the cold press process, the naturally occurring glycerin stays in the soap and moisturized the skin.

Each type of oil requires a different ratio of lye to fat in order for saponification to occur (the mixture turning into soap), so recipes are carefully documented in order to reproduce the product. The soap is mixed until it reaches the right consistency.

Essential oils are added for smell and health purposes, and the soap is poured into a mold and insulated to keep it from cooling too fast and separating. After one or two days, it is cut into slices and set in a cool place to cure for four to six weeks.

Colleen makes about 30 different kinds of soap, some vegetable/vegan and some with goat milk.

Sea Hag scents include lavender, citrus, rose, rosemary, bay rum, lilac and many, many more.

She also makes soap party favors, a body balm, lip balm, bug spray, and air spray. All of her products are her own recipe.

There are also some specialized recipes, including a Camp Bar with cocoa butter that is good for shampoo, shaving and bathing; a “Man and Beast” soap kills that keeps insects at bay; and an anti-fungal Tea Tree soap good for acne and dandruff.

The Man and Beast soap has been sent to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Middle Eastern countries with service men and women who are plagued with black flies and all types of bugs.

One service person wrote: “My mom sent me my first bars of Man or Beast while I was deployed to Iraq in 2006. I tried it. I liked it! I cut my second bar in half and gave it to (two) friends. Your products worked liked a dream. The clouds of mosquitoes left me alone, ditto the horseflies, and every other biting pest. Also, it’s a very dry environment over there, and the soaps helped keep my skin and hair from drying out. Thanks!” – Tricia Chapman, 101st Airborne

Return to retail
After swearing it off in years before, Colleen returned to retail. Her store, located in the restored barn on McCormick Rd., Sea Hag Soaps & Art Mercantile sells not only soap, but also showcases art and antiques, organic eggs, and bakery items.

In 1999, she had her first Christmas Open House with about 12 artists. In the years since, Colleen estimates she has met and shown the work of about 400 people. “It’s nice to be able to help artists,” she says.

Special events vary. Some people come to use the 30 beautiful secluded acres with a pond and bridge for weddings. An opera singer whom she met while traveling came and put on a concert, bringing with him a world class pianist. Another family had an Irish wake there.

This year there will be an open house April 30 and May 1, from 2 to 4 p.m. each day, with music and snacks. This year’s crop of artists will have their new work displayed.

Starting in May, a vendor fair will be held on the second Saturday of each month.

Sea Hag Soaps & Art Mercantile is open Tuesday through Sunday in the summer months; and Tuesday through Saturday in the winder. For more detailed hours, available products and special event notices, visit www.seahagsoaps, com.

It’s an evolving life for Colleen. “I’m a happy soul,” she says. “It’s a journey. We get to the point where we shed a lot of skins.”

Wherever the journey takes Colleen, it’s bound to include her art in whatever form she chooses next.
She’s thinking about painting again.