Inventive and generous soapmaker/carpenter Jennifer Patella has created easy-to-follow instructions for making your wooden soap mold. This is a basic three-pound mold. The beauty of this box is the fact that the parchment paper fits perfectly in the box and the next day, the paper just pulls out of the box and peels off the soap very easily. These boxes can be used to make regular cold-process soap and hot-process soap in a slow cooker.

Materials

• 1-inch × 4-inch board
• 1-inch × 6-inch board
• Wood glue
• Nails or wood screws

Patella makes her boxes to fit parchment paper, which is exactly 15-inch wide. You can also make a box to fit freezer paper, which is 18 inches long. (Your soap batches will need to be increased in size to get the final dimension of your finished product the way you want.)

Inside dimensions are 15″ × 3½″. (Please note that a 1″ × 4″ board is actually ¾″ × 3½″.)

Assembly

1. Cut 3 pieces from the 1″ × 4″ board, each 15″ long (one lid and two sides).

2. Cut 2 pieces from the 1″ × 4″ board: 5⅛″ long (these will be the two ends).

3. Cut 1 piece from the 1″ × 6″ board: 16″ long. (This will be the base; it will be the length of the sides plus the width of the end pieces.) You can make the base longer and have a lip all the way around.

4. Lid and handle: Cut a small piece from whatever is left over from the 1″ × 4″ board for the handle on the lid. If you prefer, you can purchase a wooden dresser pull or brass handle instead. Just make sure you don't let the nail or screw be in contact with the soap in the box.

5. Assemble the box with wood glue and nails or wood screws.