May 8, 2017

Meet Deborah Kraemer of Abbey Brown Soap Artisan and The Chicago Soap Company in West Loop and West Town

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Deborah Kraemer.

Deborah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My story was out of need first, more than 30 years ago, I had a son whose skin could barely tolerate water, couldn’t do pasteurized, intolerant little guy.

But it was on a quest to bring a more fulfilled experience to my early childcare block. I was teaching felt making and soap plays a part in that. I thought I could build that into the block.

I didn’t know much about it, other then we rely on it. This was 1998, I found a class, I flew to Virginia Beach, it was the very first Soap conference in the US. About 75 real soap makers and a few of me type rubbed soap together and learned some things that generated a real good feeling about making good skin food. I’ve been learning, growing and teaching since.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’m not sure there are ever smooth roads as an entrepreneur, I would like the think the odd numbered months are the hardest, all uphill battles, the even months are smooth. Every day seems like a learning curve, we are happy to have a manual transmission, once in awhile you gotta just push start it.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Abbey Brown Soap Artisan / The Chicago Soap Company – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We make Soap, it’s the Olive oil that makes it’s pretty great, so, we keep using it. It’s gone up 3 fold since I’ve started making soap, maybe more. There’s some Greek in me, I’m drawn to it and it makes me happy. Then there’s the special care that goes into what we do, using teas and herbal infusions, it brings it to another level. The oils we bring are aromatherapy to the products we create. We are a woman owned operated, no man-dates, or loans got it moving down the track, a grow as you grow methodology.

Nothing separates good skin products, we are ‘apart’ of some mighty fine makers, celebrate us all. We make a difference because we are making a product, using our hands, raising the bar, feeling pretty good in our skin.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
That’s a loaded Q, I have a very big scope, it’s a bubble dream, it’s a good one, maybe I can go into what a difference a bar of soap can make sometime.

A couple of months ago American Express asked us to partner with them, we said yes to the challenge, it seemed impossible, it was an amazing experience to see all 23,000 fans at a Chicago Bulls game receive a hand crafted give away. When was the last time a sporting event gifted a fan a crafted, local, in the community, hand tooled give away?? That doesn’t happen often.

We thrive on projects.

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