Monday 17 June 2013

Guessing Game - Answers

 
 
Answers:  Lye Heavy,  Alkanet/ Ratanjot for colouring. 
 
Here's what happened....  I wanted to
- use up some of my soap shavings that I have been collecting.
- throw together a new scent, maybe using up some of the Essential Oils that I need to use up before their due by date! 
-  try out some new mould lining paper. 
-  work with Alkanet/ Ratanjot in something new to see how it would come out this time... I love how it surprises me...
 
Soap Shavings - As for the soap shaving part, that was the easiest and most successful.  No problems, except when I was pouring into 3 moulds I had lined and it only filed 2?  What the ((!!))?  Could I have mis-measured........?
 
New Scent - Awesome.  Pink Grapefruit, Ho Wood and Vetiver..... nicer than I could have imagined and oh-so-intense becuase of mis-measuring....
 
Mould lining paper - found a fabulous new paper for lining the moulds!   Recently the supplier of my previous mould lining paper changed their sizes and it made it twice as hard to work with.  So I have been looking for another option for some time.   I have even been looking for silicone liners (my dream) but am not prepared to buy ready made wooden moulds with fitted silicone liners as I don't want to change the size of my soaps.  If anyone knows of who I can get custom silicone liners from, please pass on details!!   Then i found this awesome post:  http://innerearthsoaps.blogspot.com/2013/06/lining-your-mould-with-contact-paper.html  and my husband hunted down similar looking paper.  Didn't really know what contact paper was in Spanish, so he brought back 3 different types.  I lined 3 moulds, each one with a different new mould lining paper.   One of them came out perfect!!!  And the beauty of it is that the paper is so sturdy, I don't even have to use tape.  It just stands up itself!! So thank you Inner Earth for the tip!!
(Here - my old paper in the background and new paper in the foreground)
 
Alkanet/ Ratanjot - As the pink grapefruit oil is so orange, it must have reacted with the alkanet to produc green-blue.... now turned army green.   It is also the olive oil I work with.... I just can't get a pretty purple any more because of the deep colour of the organic extra-virgin olive oil I soap with.  Oh well...I kind of already new that.
 
So I picked up a great new scent, a wonderful new lining paper and reinforced what I already knew about Alkanet/ Ratanjot.
 
The only real disappointing thing about this batch was that I won't be able to use it as soap as I mismeasured...  I looked at the 1-mould column when I was measuring some of the oils instead of the 3-mould column...  so VERY LYE HEAVY. 
 
What will I do now with it?  Grate it into laundry soap.
 
Happy soaping, Happy experimenting everyone!!
xo Jen

Saturday 15 June 2013

Guessing Game Day 2

 
Someone guessed correctly about what happened to this soap... Brighid's Witch (link?) - lye heavy, but no one has guessed correctly about the natural colour yet.  Once all is revealed, I will publish more about the experiment, the mistake, and the things I have learned...
 
Todays Clue:   I have worked with this natural colour before but NEVER with results anything like this.  This is not the usual colour that results.  I also need to mention that is has evolved and is turning greener...
 
So far the guesses for colour (none correct) have been:
 
Cambrian blue clay
Woad, guessed
Indigo
Methylen blue
Keep the guesses coming!!
 
xo
Jen

Friday 14 June 2013

Another Guessing Game...

 
What do you think this is?
 
What natural colour do you think I may have been experimenting with?
 
What do you think may possibly have not gone as intented?
 
Trying to breath some life into this blog as it used to be so much more interactive... hoping for some great guesses!!
 
Happy Soaping!!
xo
Jen

Sunday 2 June 2013

Soap Production

200 soaps (192 to be exact)…. Incubating cozy warm…
 
This is the most soap I have made in 1 day.  We made 96 before 10am and another 96 after 8:30pm.  Since I have an open shop… I have to produce outside of shop hours!
 Some simple trays we got out carpinters to make, to carry soaps around.
 
Then I had a productive working day in between.  Supposing I had more moulds, and the shop was closed for the day, I wonder how many I could make…? Maybe 400 or 500 if I was really pushing it…
Soaps on our new trays...
 
I remember reading on someone’s blog, it may have been Patti Flynn’s… that she can produce 2000 soaps in a day????? Wow!
What is the maximum amount of soaps you have produced in one day?  
xoxo Jen