We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dorothy Hood a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dorothy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Soap making itself is nothing new and you can find a range of makers that vary from the large corporate manufacturers to your nice neighbor whipping out a few bars of soap on weekends. One of the ways we are different from most of them is our focus on historical recipes and methods with the idea of preserving the past. We happily use vintage recipes, updating them occasionally or tweaking them for a specific goal, and we love to educate the public on how their ancestors could have done it themselves. Speaking to youth about how and why people made these products has been a lot of fun for us. We love seeing the interest vistiors have in the methods, ingredients, and that light bulb moment when they comprehend that it was every day life for their ancestors. It is fun to talk to the public about the many ways we try to preserve historical crafts and keep those traditions alive. Between small scale farming, soap and cheese making, and food preservation we have a lot to talk about. When we can do a live demo for them, it is especially impactful.

Dorothy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Our little family-owned business was born here in the suburbs of Houston in 2011. Our founder, Dorothy, has been keeping the wheels moving for us ever since. She is typically found in the soap room either making products for the booth, shipping orders, researching, or handling the management side of our company. She does still work in our booth at events too. David can be found most of the time in our small-scale farm here on the property and also occasionally in the booth. Now that our children are older, they are often found running a booth for us! Both kids also help in the soap room with labeling, inventory, and other duties as needed. In addition, our oldest started working with our wholesalers and custom label orders once he graduated from high school.

What do we make here at Texas Pioneer Creations? Our primary sales are in old fashioned soaps. We have researched many vintage recipes for soap making and other apothecary goods from the 1800s-1900s. We use those recipes, update to meet current standards since not all ingredients they used are still considered to be safe, and make a variety of soaps that can be found on our website and in the booth at events. We have always done direct sales to the public in person or online with the option of creating custom labels for gifts and special events. Over the last few years, we added more options for wholesalers, private manufacturing, and private labeling. The private labeling has been a lot of fun for the breweries, meaderies, airbnb owners, and our team too! We also try to produce enough in our mini farm to allow us herbs or produce that we can take to the farmer’s market. It doesn’t always work out that way but we are still trying. Other items we make include cheese and butter here on the property but it is not for sale. We use it for practicing the historical crafts and honestly enjoy the process. Selling those items would require more growth and a lot of paperwork to set up!

Is that all we do here? [Dorothy laughed at that question.] This family doesn’t stop there. Both of our children are still full time students in high school and college. They have passions of their own including art, music, & blacksmithing. David has a full time 9-5 job in downtown Houston’s corporate world. Dorothy’s other projects here at Texas Pioneer Creations include research (both for us and for hire), a monthly newsletter specifically for vendors, and assisting at a local farmer’s market multiple times a month. It is rarely a quiet moment here.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We met during spring break of 1995 and have been an item since. Exactly how we met is a story that still makes Dorothy blush a little. The story goes: Dorothy’s uncle had a serious medical issue that he would not survive and she had gone to San Diego CA to say goodbye while the chance was available. David’s family had been friends with Dorothy’s family for years although the two had never met. (That’s a differenct story!) While at her uncle’s house she noticed a nice young man sitting at the dining room table, minding his own business and reading. She decided he looked friendly, much better to spend some time with than the people she was sitting with, and she was brave enough to walk over. She asked if she could sit with him to read the newspaper comics, he agreed, and she immediately joined him. They’ve been together since then.

We married in 1998 and this company was founded in 2011. Dorothy is founder & CEO while David is CIO & runs the farm.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

We have avoided taking outside funding for the whole life of the company actually. We pulled from our own pockets and have worked hard to make the company grow over the years. To date, we are still keeping it all in house.

Contact Info:

• Website: TexasPioneerCreations.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/TexasPioneerCreations

Image Credits
Texas Pioneer Creations