New store features healthy soap and unique locally made items
“Everything in here is a one of a kind piece,” Patty Ruhe explains about Forest Fresh, a new store at 140 W. 3rd Street in Jasper that specializes in Patty’s handmade soaps and lotions along with many handmade items from local artisans.
Patty’s journey to opening the new business began when she started to explore option to help her with the skin problems she had dealt with all of her life.
“I am allergic to all synthetic fragrances and some of the chemicals used in commercially made lotions and shampoos. So, I went on an all natural path to see what I could do to make my own products,” she says.
She took many courses and began to experiment with her own recipes of natural soap.
“I took lots of courses, watched lots of videos and made lots of mistakes,” she says, “Basically, my family were my guinea pigs.”
The self-described mad scientist who holds a bachelors in geology from Ball State and a masters in geology from IU uses her scientific background to blend together the formulas to create specific effects for herself and her customers.
She began selling at local farmer’s markets and craft shows until recently when the space became available on 3rd Street. She and her husband, Brian, renovated the store — the two had worked together as contractors for several years — so she could better serve her current customers and attract new ones.
One of her bestsellers right now combines salts and mud from the Dead Sea to create a complexion-clearing scrub.
Another soap contains bentonite, a clay Patty was familiar with when she worked as a geologist for Exxon in Texas drilling oil wells. For Exxon, and locally, bentonite is great for sealing wells, but Patty adds the clay to create a great shaving soap.
“I love science. With my science background, I feel this is what I have been working towards becoming all my life,” Patty explains. “I love creating and I love helping people.”
Patty begins each day at about 7:30 a.m. working on her batches of soap. Using a hot process, Patty mixes together the chemicals to create soap, a fat mixed with water and a base (like lye). They mixture is infused with essential oils, butters (shea and cocoa), and other nutrients and then poured into molds to cool. The resulting molds are cut into soap and then cured for about two weeks before they are put on the shelf.
To create lotions like a Dead Sea salt and honey infusion on her shelf at the shop, it takes several days. Each day a new ingredient or oil is added and then it has to sit for a day before the next ingredient can be added. It is a process that Patty perfected through trial and error.
“I love making soap. I love creating new products. I feel like I’m a mad scientist sometimes because I am always creating new products,” Patty says. “I have been on a mission since I have bad skin. I don’t think people realize that what you put on your skin goes in your body. Put good things on your skin and good things go in your body.”
Along with her soap, Patty insists that everything in her store be unique. Ties, pajamas, and scarves from the Chinese Silk Market are on display with locally-produced paintings, photos, handmade jewelry and pottery. It is a great place to find a unique item or gift.
In that same vein, Patty’s brother-in-law, Noll Staff, displays his custom laser engraving and cutting work at the shop.
Noll operates the laser engraver from his home shop in St. Anthony. Besides showing off his work, the Staff Laser Showroom provides a way for him to meet with potential clients.
Noll has been operating his laser engraving business for about a year and a half now. He began to explore the idea of using a laser engraver to personalize a couple thousand metal shake mixers his son purchased to sell a couple of years ago.
Besides engraving metal, the laser is powerful enough to cut wood and leather. Several wooden Christmas ornaments Noll created with the laser are on display in Ruhe’s shop to demonstrate the lasers ability.
“It is a very precise machine,” Staff acknowledges.
According to Staff, he can cut a piece of leather sitting on a sheet of paper and not even mark the paper. More powerful lasers can cut a greater variety of materials.
Noll is exploring other options for his engraver. He can see it being useful for local manufacturers to label parts. As local schools continue to roll out more technology for students, Noll sees his engraver as a way to help schools keep track of those tools.
“For example, iPads have an aluminum case. I can engrave a seriel number or other identification on the back of each one for the schools,” he says.
Forest Fresh is open holiday hours the rest of this year. Those are Tuesdays through Wednesdays from 11 a.m to 6 p.m.; Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. It is closed on Mondays.
The shop has a Facebook Page here and a website here.
Staff maintains a website here and his number for the business is 812-827-9812. His email is noll@stafflaser.com.
