Shari May tried to flex her entrepreneurial muscles back in 1994, but her choice of craft — handmade soap — didn't mix well with new motherhood.

''It's the process. You can't really stop making soap to pick up a baby,'' she said, ''so I put the soap aside.''

But as the last of her three children grew out of diapers, May was free to try again.

This month, the Cottage Farm Soap she's been hawking at arts and crafts fairs, farmers' markets and a store in Hinckley Township the past few years found a national audience when May was featured as one of nine female entrepreneurs in the magazine Country Living.

Within two weeks, she'd landed accounts to provide soap to wholesalers in Oregon and New York, received information requests from eight other distributors, and started filling orders for area Flowerama stores, a relationship that could bloom to 112 retail sites around the country.

''Things are really taking off,'' said May, who is bracing for a holiday season that promises to be extraordinary.

May, a Parma native who moved to Hinckley 15 years ago, taught herself to make soap, relying on how-to books at the local library.

''I kept running up late fines till they suggested I just go out and buy the books,'' she laughed, standing amid blocks of curing soap in a workroom above Cottage Farms, the Hinckley store where she rents space.

She still makes the soap in the basement of her Hinckley home, a process that can take up to a month to be market-ready.

A mixture of natural ingredients is cooked, cut and cured in small batches. After shrink-wrapping the bars, she sends them off to the Medina County Board of MRDD, where work program participants attach labels with decorative hemp rope.

Earlier this year, May — a long-time subscriber to Country Living — answered the magazine's call for female entrepreneurs. Some 100 respondents were then invited to pitch their ideas at a Chicago conference. May was among nine chosen to have their products featured in the November issue.

She's used to people asking her why they should buy a bar of Cottage Farm Soap for $6 when they can get three bars of commercial soap for a buck.

''It's not the same thing,'' she tells them.

Homemade soap is an experience. It's made with gentle essential oils and leaves no film, she said. It's botanical and biodegradable, anti-bacterial and lasts far longer than the store-bought variety.

Many fans of the soap appreciate its aromatherapy, May said. One customer with skin allergies told the soap maker that three bars last her a year.

There are 20 varieties, each christened with a unique name.

The Phone-It-In ''anti-office soap'' is cocoa butter and rice bran oil and scented with sandalwood and rosewood. What's the Skinny ''cellulite soap'' is a loofah scrub with patchouli and lemon scent. Better Left Alone ''PMS soap'' uses lavender and citrus to alleviate irritability.

Even as her soap business is taking off, May is expanding into lotions and lip balms.

Counselors at the Akron chapter of SCORE — a volunteer corps of retired executives who mentor small businesses — are helping to guide her growth.

''It's a very exciting time,'' she said.