Project Mayhem 2006/2007

ASUIV’s Project Mayhem: A Story of Soap

The concept for what is today known to members of the Fellowship by the code name "Project Mayhem" was conceived in March of 2006 during spring break.

It was a question of problem solving. We needed to gather people together during the summer and we needed to meet new people and mix things up in the next school year – all with minimal funding. There were, of course, the usual promotional items, but what do students really need? How can we help? The question was swirling in our collective minds until one day the soap in the shower ran out. The need was soap. We could probably learn how to make soap. It could be a great summer project. We could make a batch or two and give it away. It seemed like a good fit for the Fellowship, so we decided to proceed with the plan.

Upon returning to ASU after the break, a search in the Tempe Public Library catalog yielded a veritable bonanza of books on the subject of soap making. We read all of them and prolifically took notes. Search engines also showed thousands of web pages on the subject. A test batch proved that the idea was feasible. At the outset we had some issues with obtaining quality sodium hydroxide but finally a pure sample was procured.

Video: "We only support human testing"


Video: Testing continued


Video: "I think it works..."

If a batch or two could work, why not ten? If a few bars of soap were so fun to make, why not a few hundred pounds? The funding could be secured in small, unmarked bills if we made the right alumni contacts. So, we decided to make one thousand bars of soap that summer, and imagined the great possibilities. It would be a huge project that would require great commitment but, in the end, we thought, it would be worth it. Besides, what else did we have to do? We were a bunch of listless college students pursuing our dreams. That vision led to the formation of a project that, in the tradition of all great projects, needed a code name worthy of its greatness. Since that fateful July day, our project would be known not-so-originally as "Project Mayhem" from then and forever.

We discovered that although soap was a simple mixture of saponified fats and oils, the ratios would have to be optimized to obtain a good quality product while keeping costs reasonable. Olive oils would provide excellent moisturizing properties but too much would slow curing time, and wouldn't lather more than snot, besides being expensive. Castor oil would provide a thick lather but too much in the recipe would create a bar that would be too soft and deformable for our purposes. Coconut oils would also be necessary for a soap with high lather but a qualtity more than just a small percentage in the recipe would make a bar that would lack moisturizing ability. This was the case for many possible ingredients and their properties. It was a delicate balance between the good, bad and expensive. And then there was the issue of determining the optimum shipping quantities to eliminate waste, all while staying within budget. Suppliers were researched, specific gravities and prices compiled... An excel spreadsheet proved invaluable. A good source of high quality and low cost fats was discovered. After about a month of research and calculations, we were ready for the more extensive test batches.

The recipe was formulated, batched, modified, the shrinkage measured, batched again, and again, and again. Fragrances and colorants were tested in various proportions, molds were built, a conceptual bar size and pouring method was tested. By the end of July, the formulation and method were finalized. We were now in a race to batch the soap as soon as possible, so it would have time to cure before the fall semester began. We emptied our club checking account. FedEx had been delivering boxes of materials for almost a week. A mass email was sent to the IV masses, rallying them to take part in Project Mayhem. We gathered at ASUIV Headquarters at high noon on July 30. The location also happened to be the home of one of the student leaders’ parents. They wouldn’t mind, as long as we got through the day without burning the place down, and how could we anyway? We were taking precautions. Batching Day was planned into synchronized phases, safety equipment and over 250 lbs of raw materials were amassed and the quantities verified. By 1pm the house was teeming with people wearing black t-shirts. A project kick-off speech and safety briefing was given, and soon teams were cutting form liners, weighing chemicals, and heating cauldrons of oil to exactly 105 degrees F, plus or minus five. The glorious Project Mayhem awaited us and our campus. It would be an intense day that followed, but by 11 PM, the last of the indredients had been mixed in the proper proportions and heated to the correct temperatures, mixed to saponification with a hand drill mixer, and poured into readied molds. In one day we had made more than 1,000 bars of handmade cold-process soap. Thirty-six hours after pouring, the mostly-hardened soap was measured and cut into bars with butter knives while it was relatively soft.

Video: "Today we begin Project Mayhem."

After another day passed, the molds were removed and the over 1,000 bars were taken from the garage to inside the house to cure slowly and harden properly. According to some sources, on batching day the house was nearly entirely destroyed, with the dining room table and back patio undoubtedly sustaining serious maiming by the chemical splashes incurred. Therefore, the members of the Fellowship and the visionaries and directors of Project Mayhem would like to express their eternal gratitude and humility in light of these great sacrifices. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

After a month of curing had stabilized the soap chemistry, the wrapping process began with each acceptable bar hand wrapped in paper wrappers that we had designed, bearing the emblem of Project Mayhem and "IV Bath Soap" in large type across the front, and with a description of the soap on the reverse. The soap wrapping would extend for a period of months throughout the fall 2006 semester, eventually reaching completion in early January of 2007.

At the time of this writing, four hundred bars of IV Bath Soap have been distributed at the IV informational table on campus, and the rest will be given out in the weeks following. By the completion of Project Mayhem, our desire to create a useful product and serve others while advertising the Fellowship will have been appreciated by the approximately 1.2 per hundred students at ASU that receive a bar of IV Bath Soap.

Video: Mixing


Video: "Microwave is a bad idea"

The founding of IV at ASU - Oct 15, 1943