09/12/2026
Maybe Soap Was Just One Medium----
Can I be honest about my art degree and college?
I wasn’t actually the best artist.
I can’t draw. I couldn’t really paint anything realistic well. But I was pretty good at selling things. 😂
So if the final product wasn’t exactly perfection, I could explain the history, my intent, and the process behind it. Somewhere in that pitch, I could usually invoke enough emotion for you to understand what I was trying to do—and hopefully receive the good grade.
But here’s what I genuinely loved about art:
The process.
I was drawn to art forms that weren’t necessarily the most popular or the easiest. I loved the ones that required layers of effort to get to the end.
You start with a blank canvas—or fabric, yarn, wood, whatever the medium might be—and then you begin. You shape. You change colors. You change direction. Sometimes you change your entire perception of what you thought you were making.
Until eventually, it’s finished.
And then it hangs on the wall.
Or, in my case, maybe the fridge.
I Wanted Art You Could Use
By my senior year of college, when it came time to create my final thesis show, I knew I wanted my work to be about the process as much as the finished product. But I also wanted that finished product to be functional.
I didn’t want to make something that existed only to hang on a wall.
I wanted to create art that could be used.
Now, you also need to understand that this was 2003. TLC was really popular, and some pretty crazy things were happening in home decor.
So naturally, my senior art show included a giant faux-fur neon orange couch—because apparently that seemed like a completely reasonable design decision in 2003.
Beauty was definitely in the eye of the beholder.
But the process was well executed.
And apparently, more than twenty years later, I’m realizing that maybe I’ve been fascinated by the same thing all along:
Transformation.
From Fiber to Soap
That desire to create something both beautiful and practical never really left.
After working with fibers—floor rugs, quilts, knitted wearables—moving into soap didn’t seem all that far-fetched when my children began having reactions to store-bought products.
Once again, I was creating with my hands. There was a process to learn, recipes to develop, and plenty of experimenting.
But something else started happening.
Creating something that could actually help heal an ailment became just as important to me as the creative process itself.
As Hilltop grew, so did my relationship with the Lord. My faith grew, and so did my expectancy for Him to move. I began praying very intentionally that Hilltop Designs would be a blessing to everyone it touched.
Then the testimonies started coming.
People would tell me how products were actually working after they had tried so many other things. Sometimes someone would come to me with a long list of products—or even prescriptions—that hadn’t helped.
My job was to listen.
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