Cape Breton news: Grand Etang woman makes felt-covered soap [Video]

A Cape Breton woman has turned a pandemic pastime into a small business inspired by the island she calls home.

Susanne Shearing of Grand Etang, N.S., began making felt-covered soap in 2021 and started The Shearing Felt Co. a year later.

“It’s just become a bit of an obsession, something I never would have thought I’d be doing three years ago,” she says. “It’s kind of a weird little hobby to take off, but it’s taken off.”

Shearing says while people have been felting for thousands of years, she never heard of felt soap covers before she started making them, and didn’t know what they were for.

“If you are having dexterity issues with your hands, gripping things, it’s nice because the bar of soap is slippery, the felt will help you hang onto the soap.”

The other benefit of felted soap is that it can make the product last …