Richard and Sheryl Gunn sure know a lot about soaps. Amid a cosmetics and hygiene market seemingly dominated by big brands, their handmade cold process soaps have attracted a loyal customer base across the country.
The Gunns own and operate Clayton’s Way Farm on a 60-acre property in Weare first purchased by Richard Gunn’s great grandparents in 1896. In 2010, the couple bought and revived the Gunn farm, constructing a new home, barn and garden.
While the property has been in the family for four generations, Gunn took up a trade unexplored by his forefathers.
When he began making his own biodiesel fuel 12 years ago, he discovered that he needed to remove byproducts from the fuel to prevent it from becoming soapy. His creative instincts kicked in, and Clayton’s Way Farm Soaps was born.
“I’ve always tinkered around with something,” Gunn shared, lining up pots of essential oil, lye and water in his soap making enclave at the farm. “I think if somebody else has done it, I can learn it too, eventually.”
The Gunns now produce and sell around 50 varieties of handmade soap, including unscented soaps, essential oil soaps, a few fragrance oil soaps and felted soaps.
Gunn practices the cold process soap-making technique. After the soap ingredients are heated and mixed together, they undergo saponification, reaching a pudding-like consistency. The mixture then sits in a mold for a day before it is cut into four to five-ounce bars and placed on curing racks to harden for about three weeks.
Clayton’s Way Farm Soaps do not contain dyes, oxides, preservatives or animal fats. The essential oils used are entirely plant-based, and many of the soaps are made with herbs and flowers from the Gunns’s own garden.
For customers sensitive to chemicals, unscented bars and goat milk soaps provide soothing relief. A “healing neem” bar incorporates a plant renowned for its medicinal properties in South Asia.
“We actually have designed the soap from the oils up, and we’ll never change from that. That’s just what we do,” Gunn said. In addition to handcrafting soaps, he has made his molds and knives, all while working fulltime.
Sheryl Gunn oversees business, marketing and social media. She regularly represents Clayton’s Way Farm Soaps at fairs and festivals throughout the state, including the Concord Farmers’ Market, Dunbarton Arts on the Common and the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen Fair.
The Gunns believe that the key to their popularity lies in their commitment to making quality natural products. Whether they are selling locally or shipping nationally, their mission is the same.
“We try to be very transparent about our soap, because I’ve seen too many soap companies that have their soaps colored vibrant colors and smells and they claim they’re all natural,” Sheryl Gunn said. “We just really try to educate people.”
Richard and Sheryl Gunn share an entrepreneurial spirit that has led them to try their hands at a stencil business, a dairy operation and jewelry-making. Despite the diversity of their past ventures, the Gunns have no plans to move on from soap anytime soon.
“My goal when he retires is to have a good-sized little camper, make soap, travel,” Sheryl Gunn said. “We can set up a booth and sell soap across the country.”