12/3/2003 A soapmaker's story: Store owner finds patience, peace in creating beauty products
Kelly Westhoff
It's peaceful inside Rituals, a new boutique at 3750 Minnehaha Ave. in Minneapolis. Water bubbles in small fountains, incense wafts through the rooms and pretty soaps and decorative candles line the walls. Antoinette S. Williams, owner of Rituals, mother of six and grandmother of 15, is welcoming and warm. As she talks, her fingers fly through the air and her many silver rings dance. Her laugh is genuine and easy. Listening to Williams, it becomes apparent that this shop is a reflection of her soul.
Perhaps it's because Williams herself made most of the items for sale. Her own line of beauty care products, Antonana, is composed mainly of handmade soaps, but also includes lotions, lip balms, bath salts, body butter and fragrances. Antonana products are made with natural ingredients like rosemary and lavender, some of which are harvested straight from Williams's own backyard. Williams is happy to talk about oils‹avocado, palm, coconut, almond‹and describes the process of infusing olive oil with marigolds as if it's child's play.
Williams started making and selling soap in 2000, when a friend steered her toward the process as an exercise in meditation. At the time Williams was frazzled: trying to hold together a large family and work left little time for relaxation or herself. Learning to make soap did indeed slow her down. "When you make soap," Williams explained, "you can only do one thing‹make soap."
The art of making soap forces patience, Williams said. Ingredients must be heated and stirred; fragrances and oils are added at precise moments. The time it takes soap to set and cool can seem like forever, laughed Williams. Often she is anxious to inspect her final product, but the process hurries for no one, and Williams must simply wait.
Since her first forays into the soap-making world, Williams has kept careful track of recipes and steps. Her record-keeping helped her create her entire line of scents and products.
For Williams, soap-making was a natural extension of long-held interests. More than 25 years ago, when her kids were still young, she developed a curiosity about herbs. She read books on the subject and asked for advice from older relatives: her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother had all used herbal remedies, Williams said.
Her own children, she chuckled, would "laugh and run away" as she tried to doctor them with her homespun cures for colds and everyday afflictions. But she paid their giggles no mind. She dug a garden and experimented with different plants. Today, Williams's children take their mother's kitchen laboratory in stride. "My children say that I go to a different place when I make soap," Williams said.
Then one day that peacefulness was interrupted. "I got sick one Sunday afternoon, and the next day I had cancer," Williams said. The diagnosis came as a shock to Williams and her family. As the bedrock of the clan, Williams pictured herself as perfectly healthy and strong. She fought the cancer with chemotherapy, radiation and alternative methods like acupuncture, meditation and dietary cleansing. In February she had surgery to remove a tumor.
February?
"Yes, just this year," she clarified. "I was very sick."
Yet the woman running Rituals appears healthy and full of life.
That's when the story comes out‹the birth of Rituals. The shop space was a gift and an incentive from her family, who could no longer bear to see her weak in bed. One day this past spring, Williams's son carried her out of the house and put her in the car. He brought her to a two-story building in south Minneapolis that sat in a row of small businesses and took Williams on a tour. Confused, Williams asked why they were there, to which she said her son replied, "You get up out of bed and this place is yours."
That was April. Rituals opened in July‹a dream turned reality for Williams's soap line. Now Williams is back to a full schedule. On top of running the store, she also works a paying job to maintain health insurance and cash flow for Rituals' start-up costs. Williams's days are full, so nights have become her soap-making time.
Since her battle with cancer, Williams's soap line has become even more meaningful. She views her products as an extension of love that helps her customers slow down and take care of themselves‹a lesson hard learned through her own recovery. "Soap is very practical; it is nourishing and pampering," she explained. "Bathing is a very loving thing to do for yourself. This is a fast-food culture that doesn't encourage people to sit. But you must take care of yourself daily."
Rituals' inventory will be growing soon, as Williams will acquire part of the inventory of a Cedar-Riverside boutique and art store that closed in October. In addition, local artists just keep finding her. The longer Rituals is open, the more bead artists, candlemakers, photographers and greeting card designers are dropping in and arranging to sell their wares at the shop. Sculpture and jewelry from Kenya are on display.
Williams would also like to host discussions and soap-making classes in the building. She has a friend who would like to start a quilting circle in the space.
A website is up and running, although some pages and links are still missing. Williams had hoped it would be completed by now, offering her customers a way to shop from home, but she doesn't intend to fret about the missed deadline. Instead she sees the website's hangups as proof that this life still plans to teach her patience. "You know," she smiled, "life gives us exactly what we need to learn our lessons."
PDA Dates December
Thursday 12/4
"Girlfriend" event
"Behind Every Successful Woman Is Š a Girlfriend!" WomenVenture celebrates its 25th anniversary with the girlfriends who have helped you to succeed. Music and refreshments provided. Women in business share their own inspiring stories. Radisson Plaza Hotel, 25 S. 7th St., Mpls. 6-10 p.m. $10 in advance/$15 at the door.
Monday 12/8
Career transitions workshop
Women in Transition offers a workshop for women considering significant career changes. Learn how to apply skills to a new career. Aptitude testing, skills identification and values clarification are included. Runs five consecutive Mondays at Lenox Community Center, St. Louis Park. 6-9 p.m. Sliding fee scale. 612-752-8444.
Tuesday 12/9
eWomen holiday networking
Michelle Groehler from American Express Financial Services explains why financial power is the most important gift women can give themselves. She will help you plan for the unexpected and learn to work toward financial security. Marriott City Center, 30 S. 7th St., Mpls. 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Call Kristine Spangard, 612-824-9512 or visit www.eWomenNetwork.com/events.html.
Wednesday 12/10
NAWBO holiday luncheon
Keynote speaker Jeanne Cotter discusses why the holiday season is the time for entrepreneurs. After writing and performing music for years, Cotter took things into her own hands by starting her own record label, publishing house and management firm, Mythic Rain. Clothing donations for "Ready For Success" will be accepted at the luncheon. Metropolitan Ballroom, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. $40 members, $60 nonmembers. 952-929-7921, info@nawbo-mn.org.
Saturday 12/13
Metro West holiday brunch
The Metro West Business and Professional Women's Group hosts a holiday brunch. Richard Kofsky speaks on getting through holiday stress. Singer Robert Borlee provides holiday music. Child care available; call for reservations. Holiday Inn Minneapolis West, St. Louis Park. 10-11:30 a.m. $13.50. Terri, 763-559-2957.
