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ELF Pizza Party: An Educational Field Trip

Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

The BB crew took an educational field trip to our “brother” company,  ELF Industrial, to learn the ropes, see some new molds and bond over some ‘za (what we used to call pizza in the 80’s). My younger brother, Erik, is the manager of the company and was a gem to take the afternoon to show us the ins and outs of the company. Erik also runs Bramble Berry’s retail store, Otion the Soap Bar and The Soap King blog. I am especially thankful to have Erik on board running these two ventures with the little Bramble Bump about to make his appearance any day now (April 23 is the due date!).

Yummy pizza from Pizza Pipeline in Bellingham. Have you ever had Taco Pizza? We have and it’s heaven!

Korey from ELF is teaching me how to use the fancy schmancy, air pressured, mold cutting machine. I’m a bit terrified of its strength to cut plastic (and fingers!)

The BB crew watching the CNC machine at work. We’re in silent awe.

The CNC machine (Computer Numerically Controlled) is what cuts out our mold designs before we actually make them into molds. We program the machine to cut a design out of  a porous aluminum product. The final product is called a “die”, which is what we form the plastic around for a finished mold.

These are a bunch of dies made by the CNC machine; a beautiful (and expensive!) sight.

DJ and Kalea from BB warehouse crew are using a special cutter to round the corners of our 3D molds (and hamming it up for the camera)! Check out out 3D mold designs here.

Toby the guard dog checking the mold inventory.

See more ELF mold designs here! Want your own custom mold? Erik does custom molds out of silicone, clear plastic and white plastic. More information on that here.

Have a question about this blog post? Come join us at Bramble Berry’s Facebook page and we can help you out with any of your soapy questions!
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18 Comments

  1. I have ALWAYS wanted to see inside ELF Industrial….
    thank you for the Sneak Peek! It’s just so good to feel that connection!

    The other SO good thing I like about these pictures; you get to work with young people!

    Just to see the raw materials you are working with really brought a smile to me today! If they will allow you, you can help to pattern for them stepping stones for their own exciting futures. (ok, waxing poetic here…=)

    Oh, and I got a tiny little handmade something for His Majesty Mr. Diminutive Bramble Bump today! EEEK!

    XO!

    • Oh you are SO sweet! He’ll be here before you know it! I had a Dr’s visit today and he’s dropped so that is VERY exciting (albeit a tinch uncomfortable).

      Yes, my crew is very young and I love it. They keep me young with their music, conversation and their social habits. When I read their FB posts about going out at 11 p.m. and I’m in my sweats, answering emails, and yawning … well, it makes me smile =)

      PS – Love this title! His Majesty Mr. Diminutive Bramble Bump

    • Thank you =) And yes, little nephew dog Toby is adorable. He is my sweet little friend.

  3. What an interesting field trip, and pizza! Are the ELF molds for MandP soaps, or are they used for Cold Processed soaps?

  5. LOVE IT!! I LOVE the ELF molds and will totally have to check out the Soap King blog!!

    • Erik and his team keep the creativity and energy flowing on the blog – they post almost as much as I do! =) When you’re talkin’ soap, it’s easy to do.

    • The CNC Machine is really beautiful when it’s working too – mesmerizing would be a good word.

    • Of course! The team at BB was excited too. Many of them hadn’t seen the warehouse and they were excited by the process and the ability to see how the molds were produced (and produce their own molds too!)