Tag: soapmaking

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Mad Scientist at Work Again….

…Please stand by. Our resident mad scientist, aka Dorothy, has been spotted digging thru a pile of research notes, tromping thru the garden with her cutters on a mission, and plotting the reveal of a few new ideas again. She was already murmuring about the info she had learned about a new-to-her allergen when that really great guy in the big brown delivery truck arrived, bringing her another box of goodies she had apparently been lying in wait for. There were squeals of joy as the contents were whisked away to the kitchen. The cauldron and stick blender have been trying hard to keep up and have been heard begging for mercy. As the household is running out of flat surfaces for her to stack soap and her soap racks are almost full, we expect to be able to drag her away from the kitchen shortly. It may require bribery of chocolate or coffee to make her stay in her computer chair but we shall get her to create a coherent update shortly of her crafting.

Happy Washing!

The Minions at
Texas Pioneer Creations

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A Laugh for Friday

As the work week comes to a close, I wanted to share a giggle with you that I’ve enjoyed for a long time. I have always enjoyed a good laugh, especially at my own expense, and know that many other people could use one once in awhile. While gathering rain water this week, I remembered a great soaping laugh I’ve had and meant to share. Whether you are a soaper, wanna-be soaper, or know someone obsessed with the craft, I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have.

Many, many soapers over the years have flocked to Kathy Miller’s soap pages to learn about the nuts & bolts of soaping. On her site, there is an abundance of information about both traditional and modern methods, troubleshooting, and recipes. And that’s just for starters. One of my all time favorite pages on her site is entitled “What Kind of Soaper Are You?” which started from an email she had with a friend. Over the years, many people have added to the list describing soapers in this world and it has grown into quite a good laugh. The list includes great entries like the Mad Scientist, Group Soapers, The Recreational Soaper, (Supposedly) Cured Soaper, and one of the ones I channeled this week- the Rainy Day Soaper. Honestly, I’m still laughing as I’m typing this post today. My cheeks & ribs are sore from giggling. Even if you never plan to make soap, you would probably have a great laugh if you stop by this page! As Kathy has so graciously allowed me to blog about her and her site, here is the direct link for your enjoyment. http://millersoap.com/soapertypes.html (If it won’t link correctly, copy & paste the address into your address bar.) Can you figure out which ones describe me the most often? If someone guesses, I promise to confess my soaping personalities!

I must now sign off for the weekend. I will be working behind the scenes on the website as I hunt down the broken code that’s blocking the pictures. If all goes well, the rest of David Vu’s pictures should be loaded by Monday onto all of the pages. Emails and Facebook are probably the best way to catch me today as I’m not working from the usual location today. Hope your weekend goes well and you have a great laugh to brighten your day!

Happy Washing!
Dorothy

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Zombies in the soap

I had planned a regular posting about some of the soaps that are curing right now but, as is normal around here, something came along that cracked me up.

This week I’m writing about the straight Olive Oil Castile soap that was made about three weeks ago. We used a blend of regular and pomace olive oils and avoided any scents or colorings this time to create a clean, gentle soap. (This was part of my inspiration from our brand new nephew Lex and my cute-baby-obsessed brain.) It is very mild, moisturizing, and is as well-loved by sensitive and mature skins as it is by the wee ones in our lives.

I had made a large batch this time in hopes that I might be able to stash some away for the holidays but was really, really unhappy with the texturing of the top when I unmolded it. Now, if you are a new reader, you may not know that I am one of those soapers who owns a block grater and is not afraid to use it. Luckily, this soap was still very young and I was able to chop it up quickly with my favorite big knife. Lots of little olive oil bits went back into the soaping pot for another round until they melted into submission. I remolded the entire batch and was very pleased once it came out the next morning. These were cut into large bars with a few sample scraps so I made them a home on the curing racks. Sure that I was once again the queen of my soapy domain, I lined up all my beautiful soap bars to cure. I admired their greenish gold tint and made myself swear I wouldn’t start putting any of them to use until they were fully cured, or maybe three weeks, or maybe just one for now…… I mentioned I can be impatient about waiting to quality control each batch, right?

I promise I behaved and left them alone until hubby came home that night. He was checking out everything I had cooked up that day and was intently staring at the olive oil soaps. Confidant I had totally rocked that batch, I waited to hear any questions, comments, or praise he might have. No worries, right? He floored me completely with his reply: “You know, this looks like zombie soap.” Huh?!?! It still makes me laugh but I had to agree once I heard him out.

Soapers can tell you how colors will morph some as they cure and certain oils will give you certain colors in your soap. This olive oil blend has a light green gold hue but as it was curing it made some slightly darker spots that had a brownish tinge too. Dunno how much your family is into zombies but this batch provided us a few giggles for about a week as it settled itself down. I am sad to say that I no longer see the zombie resemblance but now I have some inspiration for another batch of soap. If I can get it to work, we will add “Zombie Soap” to the silly soap line along with the “Cow Pattie” and “Mud Balls.” I’ll make a blog post about those another time; let me find some good pictures of them so I can put it in there, ok?

This batch of no-longer-zombie-looking soaps will be ready to go to new homes around September 25th. I hope to have some good pictures up soon of everything on the rack for all of us who enjoy staring at soap pics. If you are in the Houston area, you can catch us at Donna’s Market on October 13th. Please stop by and say hello, tell a good joke, or just have a chat! I shall sign off here for the week as the sky’s just opened up and the rain is pouring down. Time to go get dirty for an excuse to try out the new experiments!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy