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JAMESTOWN — With the possible exception of some T-shirts, nothing at Susan Stringer's shop is made in China.

In fact, very little of what she sells is made outside of a 30-mile radius of her store in Jamestown.

The Soap Lady, as the name suggests, carries a variety of soaps, lotions and other bath products made by Stringer herself. But the small shop is also a repository for locally made walking sticks, jewelry, pottery and other handicrafts.

"It complements what I have, and it's hard to go get a locally made item anywhere," she said. "So many people come in from out of town that would like to take back a little something from this area. And one thing I heard was that there really wasn't much to purchase, besides Seagrove pottery. They really want something handmade and locally made."

The store (www.madeonmain.com), in a shopping center on Main Street, has been open for about a year and has cultivated a loyal clientele. Friends pop in during the day, and she even keeps a bowl of dog treats near the register for those who bring in their four-legged friends.

"It's just a very nice relaxing atmosphere," said Sara Knight, who sells her handmade jewelry at the store. "A lot of people come in just to say, 'Hey.' Some days they come and don't buy anything. They just want to hang out for a few minutes."

Do not eat

Stringer sets some plastic tubs on a table at the Jamestown Public Library and fills them with corn starch, baking soda and citric acid. She uncaps some brown glass bottles and passes them around to the children watching her. They contain brownie, dreamsicle, watermelon and other fragrances condensed into essential oils.

She pours all the ingredients into a plastic bag, adds some food coloring and demonstrates to the class how to make fizzy bath crystals. Each of the roughly 20 children in the class take home a bag of the crystals, as well as some recipes for scrubs, lotions, salts and other bath products.

The basic process for making soap is also fairly simple -- using mainly glycerin and scented oils. When she began, she would melt the ingredients in a microwave and pour them into a mold, but now she uses industrial melters. She still works out of her home, though, and cuts the bars herself.

Some of the soaps have swirly shapes cut into them. Others have toys inside. Stringer said people sometimes insist on saving the soap cakes, especially those shaped like flowers, sea shells and even ice cream bars, as keepsakes. The soaps don't go bad, Stringer said, but there's still no point in keeping them indefinitely. They're meant to be used.

But occasionally she has to warn customers not to ingest her products, which smell good enough to eat.

"Fudge, gingerbread, peppermint -- they all still taste like soap," she said. "We actually had a customer once who didn't know it was soap and tried to eat it. She was embarrassed. And I've actually tried myself to see if it tastes like what it smells, and it doesn't."

The 49-year-old mother of four makes about 350 varieties of soaps, lotions and scrubs, of which about 70 are available in her store at any given time. They generally sell for between $5 and $8.50 per bar.

A native of Charlotte, Stringer worked for a time as a reporter for a construction industry trade journal, which is how she met her husband, Hank, now an executive vice president at John F. Clark Construction.

She started making soaps 11 years ago, thinking they might be good gifts.

"I made some peppermint swirl soap, and everybody loved it," she said. "People started asking me where I got it. I said I just made it myself."

With $200 in seed money, she started making the soaps at home and sold them out of a basket she kept in her trunk.

"People started saying, 'Oh, I know you. You're the soap lady,' " she said. "And when my tags came up for renewal, I put the Soap Lady on there. That's also a good way to keep your husband out of your car."

'She seems to know everybody'

When she was getting ready to open her shop in 2008, Stringer reached out to neighbors and church friends who made crafts and asked if they would be interested in selling at the store (she takes a small percentage of sales in exchange).

Robin Crosier, a neighbor of Stringer's who makes a line of gift cards and memory books, says her goods do steady business at the shop.

"For me, this is just a part-time thing, but they're doing better than I ever thought they would," she said. "People want something other than the standard Hallmark stuff."

Stinger also carries locally penned books about the region's history, all of which are autographed by the author, as well as locally written cookbooks. Pictures of the Outer Banks and other North Carolina locales, taken by Jamestown photographer Robin Tice Haines, are also for sale.

A potpourri of soap smells hits visitors upon entering the store, with scents as varied as rosemary mint, oatmeal and mango. Jewelry hangs from the roots of an upturned tree stump near the entrance. Jars containing various scrubs line the shelves like an apothecary shop. Bowls, vases, baby blankets, hand-painted wine glasses and other knickknacks sit alongside the bath products.

Most of Stringer's customers are women. But she said she also has many men who come to buy gifts for their wives or get some of the unscented soap (ideal for hunting trips) for themselves. She also carries scents specifically for men, such as Drakkar Noir and peppercorn.

On the last Wednesday of the month, she hosts gatherings at the store with food and drinks from Above and Beyond Catering. About 100 people show up throughout the evening -- luckily not at all once. (The store can hold maybe 20 people comfortably.)

"She seems to know everybody, knows your name when you come in," said Renee Nichols, a former teacher who lives in Jamestown. "And it's nice that she doesn't just order stuff from a catalog or online."

Stringer says she is always looking for distinctive products to put on her shelves, though, she adds, they'd have to be items she'd be interested in buying herself.

Most of the people who sell their wares at the store have full-time jobs and see their craftmaking as a good way to make a few extra bucks and help promote the local arts scene.

"I like the uniqueness of it," said Jamestown resident Lola Henderson, who sells soap dishes and pottery at the store. "It's just a great place to go to buy a nice gift that isn't going to cost you a fortune and has a unique style to it. And this is a good way to let people know what this little town has to offer."

Contact Robert C. Lopez at 691-5091 or robert.lopez@news-record.com