Monday, September 17, 2007

Soap Binge

Since when did this become a monthly blog? I certainly didn't intend for it to be that way, but it seems that is exactly what has happened. I'm telecommuting most of the time now, so you would think that I'd have more time for blogging. I'm not commuting every day, saving heaps of time. The fact is, I have even less free time online now than ever before.

I finally moved my "soap lab" out to the country. We're spending more and more time out there lately and I was going into soap withdrawal. My stay there lasted 3 weeks and resulted in something of a soap binge. I'm not telling what scents are in these soaps, because something in these stacks is going to be used for a soap exchange.



I've been playing around quite a bit with colors lately, trying different colorants and techniques. Some have been more successful than others. The two pink soaps shown here are both colored using pink kaolin clay. The soap on the bottom left was supposed to be green. I tried coloring it using ground parsley. It gave me tiny green flecks, but not the green color I was hoping for. Still pretty, though.

I'm *THIS CLOSE* to finally being able to sell some of my creations. It has been a long process, but I'm glad I've taken my time with it. I didn't want to rush things for sale just to do it-- I wanted to be sure that the recipes were tested and came out "just right" before making anything available publicly. It doesn't help that soap takes quite a while to cure. I can't just make this stuff, cut it, and sell it the next day. I have to let it sit for approximately 6 weeks first.

I'll get there eventually. ;)