Today we made soap. By we I mean me with Sophie's running commentary from the living room. As always it was an eventful time. I am not sure it would be happening to me if there weren't a few hiccups. For the first batch, I calculated my recipe to use olive oil, coconut oil, apricot oil, Shea butter and cocoa butter. I go to get the butters out of the fridge and they are missing. So this could throw the whole lye balance off and really ruin my day. I substituted avocado butter in a pinch, so I am hoping it turns out. I made a Lemon and Lavender fragrance from an oil I bought at
Natures Garden Candle & Soap Supplies. Just as I reach trace I add all of my add ins. I was putting cosmetic grade mica in and Sophie scared the crap out of me at the same time. This batch is REALLY sparkly.
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| Pretty Sparkly Soap |
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| Mixing Like a Mad Fool |
Second batch I adjust for the lack of the butters I wanted to use and as I am melting the coconut oil in the microwave, I hear a crazy crackling sound from behind me. There was a little piece of foil on the lip of the container and it was ON FIRE! Strangely the shower steam causes the smoke alarm to go off but fire doesn't. Yay, I feel safe. I decided to be the mix master and make up my own fragrance out of essential oils. I used sweet orange, lemon, tangerine, clove, jasmine, rosewood and vanilla. Oddly, it smells kind fo nice. At least I think so. Sophie informed me that she needed to get sick because the smells were making her crazy. A total fib since she is at least half crazy by birth right. This batch traced up way to fast and I had to practically spoon it in to the molds. I really hope it turns out ok because I like the fragrance. Please, please, please work dear soap. I didn't get a pic of the fire because I was too freaked out. Sorry. :)
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| Brass/copper Patina #1 |
As for the patina experiment. One of my friends asked me what patina was. It is a chemical reaction that turns the surface of metal different colors. It is used in artistic applications, or in my case by wanting to be artistic. They turned out awesome until I glazed them. I am afraid I ruined the pieces with the glaze. It is turning opaque white in several places on the pieces. I am praying it clears up when it dries or I will will be chucking these up to a learning experience. I am afraid the chemical I used on the metal may be interacting with the glaze to make bad JUJU. Boo. As you can see from the picture the patina turned the brass and copper a turquoise blue color. If by some miracle they turn out after drying, I will add individual pics because they are really cool.
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| Ugly Soap |
Well, one of the days activities will be postponed until next week. I had planned on making Peep shaped soaps but then realized I only had half the amount of coconut oil that it requires. I have a super fun floating soap recipe that I use for such experiments. I am 90% sure I can manage to pipe out the shape of Peeps, for Easter. No J.J. you can't eat them. They are not the Peeps you are looking for. I usually use this recipe for making frosting on my cupcake soaps.
