EW ’s
gift guide 2007
cleanup at the holiday market
LOCAL SOAPMAKER OFFERS FRAGRANT BOUQUET by Anne Pick
S
planned on creating a “burly man” type of
soap. When Thompson began chatting
with Gourley one Saturday while helping
pack up her booth, the title came to her
instantly. Gourley is even
putting Thompson’s like-
ness on the label of
Buckskin Casanova.
In making her soaps,
Gourley uses high quality
vegetable oils such
oap making, bookbinding, writing,
teaching: Paula Marie Gourley
does it all. Gourley moved to
Eugene and joined the Saturday and
Holiday Markets seven years ago. She
sells handcrafted soaps, handbound books
and journals, decorative papers and cards.
The creativity flowing from Gourley’s
imagination leads to unique and interesting
soap titles and fragrances; EW writers, for
instance, favor the Writers Block soap.
Other lines are French, Literary and Hippie
Chick. The Literary line contains Gatsby’s
Beautiful Shirt, stemming from a scene in
the film in which Gatsby shows Daisy his
closet full of shirts and she brings them to
her face and inhales the fragrance.
Gourley says naming the soaps and
mixing the scents comes from “where I am,
what I’m doing, who I meet. It’s just fun
and lets me express myself.” She blends
fragrances according to what she’s think-
ing about, but it’s not a cakewalk: “It’s hard
work, lots of fun and very personal.”
At this year’s Holiday Market, Gourley
will launch her latest soap, Buckskin
Casanova. This new soap is inspired by
fellow Saturday Market artisan and leather
worker Paul Thompson. Gourley had
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as olive, coconut, sweet almond, apricot
kernel, jojoba, avocado and shea butter.
The oils melt and blend together, and then
she adds a lye solution. The chemical reac-
tion between the lye and oils,
called the “saponification”
process, forms soap. Then
she stirs the soap until it
thickens. At this point
Gourley adds the fragrances,
essential
oils or herbal products such as rosemary,
rose petals and ground sage.
She pours the thickened mixture into
molds and insulates it for 24 to 48 hours.
Removed from the molds when sufficient-
ly hard, the soap is then cut into bars. It
must air-dry (cure) for a minimum of six to
eight weeks before Gourley trims, wraps
and labels it. Gourley explains that the
longer soap cures, the milder it becomes.
She says, “I have a high standard and do
not sell any soap which has not been prop-
erly cured. In addition, all of my work is
done by hand, the old-fashioned way, in
small batches (40-50 bars at a time). I use
no animal products in my soaps.”
Gourley taught the bookbinding cur-
riculum in Tuscaloosa for the University
of Alabama’s MFA Program in the Book
Arts for 14 years before relocating to
Eugene. Her booth at the Saturday Market
led to a grant which allowed her to estab-
lish her business, Lilyhouse Studio
Editions, and she taught business and
entrepreneurial classes until the grant ran
out. Gourley now works as the Senior
Connections program supervisor for the
Lane Council of Government. Still teach-
ing, Gourley travels to different colleges
conducting three to seven day classes on
bookbinding and is the U.S. representative
for a French bookbinding company.
The Lilyhouse Studio Editions booth
makes its home in Holiday Hall, a smaller
room to the right of the main hall of the
Holiday Market. Follow your nose:
•
Eugene Weekly’s Gift Guide 2007
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