Back with Amy Warden’s soap challenge again, this one adapted from the dirty pour fluid acrylic technique. I used a Bastille recipe with olive oil, rice bran oil, coconut oil and castor to keep things fluid.

I used several color micas that seemed like they would look good, but I’m not so happy with the final product colors. I’ll try again with different colors. I used Apricot Freesia fragrance since I know it does not accelerate (learned this from an early soap challenge with Amy.)  I mixed oils and lye around 110 F and stick-blended to emulsion.

The slab mold is cut from a cardboard shipping box; I really need to get a real slab mold!  Here are my mold, couplers for pouring and the micas I used.  The micas teal, apple green and neon green, orange and neon orange and purple (which I forgot to put in the picture.)  I added a bit of pearly white (Brambleberry) to the plain batter.

And just the mold and couplers.  This cardboard mold was a bear trying to line.  As you can see, it leaked anyway.

I poured the green and teal in the outer coupler, the orange and purple in the smaller one.  Part way through, I poured the plain soap into the corners.   I finished pouring the colors and let the couplers drip onto the soap.

I think my batch was too deep to get really good movement when tilting it.  It stayed nicely fluid though, but I will use a smaller batch next time.  I think a shallower batch will work better.

So, here it is.  Not bad for a first try and rushing to finish.  Already thinking about the next one!

I just took a little meander around my yard and gardens, picking plantain.  This will be used for salves and creams.  Right now, it’s drying on the back deck before I infuse it into olive oil.

Plantain is an amazing plant.  It grows in the most unlikely places.  Gravel, walkways, parched spots?  Check!  Give it a little love and space and water, and it loves you back with lush huge leaves.

Here’s a a leaf from a plant in the high tunnel and a leaf grown outside with no  care from me.  (I moved an outside plant into the high tunnel earlier this summer.)  They both have the same qualities, but the plants are loving the easy living with plenty of space and water.  

It happily soothes abused skin along with its friends calendula, lavender, comfrey and St John’s Wort, just to mention a few.   Plantain is also very helpful for soothing bug bites and itchy skin.  I keep a jar of the salve in my car and next to my chair.  It’s that good!

 

I am working on a new quilting project this year.  It’s called Machine Quilting Block Party  (MQBP) with Leah Day.  Leah is a genius young woman and has a gift for teaching quilting.  You can find her here.  leah day quilting

MQBP is a block of the month project, so small do-able monthly projects instead of big projects that can overwhelm.

It’s June and we are half way through.  On to the pictures!  These are the first five blocks sewn and quilted.  I am using the “class” colors and following all directions for this first group.  I love the bright, sunny colors!

I wanted to do this pattern in cooler colors and the one on the left is what I came up with.

Not really pleased, so I continued to explore more color combos.  I used Joen Wolfrom’s tips on color from her Craftsy class “Colorplay.”   Here are the new colors.  I like it!

 

What a difference quilting makes!

Here are two of the same blocks, different colors.  My quilting improved by the time I got to the second color blocks.   I love them both.

I’ll be updating this post as the year and new blocks come along.  Thanks for stopping by!

The Great Cakes Soapworks May Challenge is a teardrop soap.  Intriguing, yes?

I used a Bastille recipe that I know traces slowly as the success of this look depends on the batter being fluid through the pour.   I didn’t get any photos during the pouring since I was pouring and didn’t stop to snap pics.   I poured about a third of the plain soap, then poured s l o w l y, tiny little strips of color layered over each other.  After the colors are layered, you simultaneously and s l o w l y pour the rest of the plain batter down each side.  With luck, you’ll get a raindrop or teardrop in the middle of the soap.

I used Mad Oils Maniacal Pea green mica, Vibrance Teal and Purple from Nuture Soap.  The white batter is the natural color from the oils.  Scented with Energy from Majestic Mountain Sage.  Three of my favorite suppliers!  The soap is made with olive oil, coconut oil and castor oil…simple and awesome.

This looks like a raindrop to me, so Alaska Raindrop it is.

Finally, I am getting a new workspace.  I have massively grown out of my soap workspace and my sewing has taken over our guest cabin.  After much thinking, figuring and sweating over the decision, I decided to make the leap to build my own space.  One end of the building will be for my soap and body care things.  The other side will be a sewing and design studio.  If we ever sell this place, we will have his and her shops!

Day two.  A lot of progress!  It looks like a building.

Every construction project needs a building inspector!

Day three.  A roof and now won’t leak.

Day four.  Metal roof on, windows and middle divider started.  This is exciting!  I can “see” where my tools and workspaces are.  Can’t wait!

Time for another soap challenge with Amy Wardens’ Great Cakes Soap Challenge!  (Final soap is at the bottom of post!)   This month’s  theme is  Winter Wonderland (must have an element of winter/snow)  and there are two categories.   “Natural” colorants and scents is one and the other is “synthetics” ingredients.  I’m working within the naturals category.

Being so close to Denali, I am hoping to capture the look of glaciers grinding down the mountains.  I am fascinated by the colors in glaciers and  the different rocks that become part of those rivers of ice.

This is a photo of Denali and some glaciers from the National Park Service.

I used alkanet, indigo, rose hip powder, kelp (I’ve tested kelp in soap in the past.  It initially has a distinct “oceany” scent, but it fades over cure time), dried peppermint leaves, and vanilla bean seeds as glacier colors.  The vanilla bean seeds give a look of gravel within the colors.  I added a touch of white kaolin clay, tussah silk and coconut milk powder to the batter. Tussah silk and coconut milk is so luxurious in soap, I add it to all my soaps.

I wanted an outdoor, fresh scent.  I used  an essential oil blend of spearmint, lavendin, Siberian fir, cedar wood, eucalyptus, and lemongrass.

My recipe is olive oil (67%), coconut, palm kernel, and castor.  One of my requirements of my soap is that it feel luxurious and luscious on your skin.  This much olive oil tends to make for a long cure time, but it’s worth it!

My first test batch turned out well, but not quite the look I wanted.

Batch two.   I was more confident, so made a full size batch.  Because the first batch was a bit soft, I reduced the Olive oil an bit and added some illippe butter to help with the hardening  of this batch.  Illippe butter is also white, so it will help with the look of snow.  For this one, I poured about ½ to 2/3 of my plain batter into my tilted mold.  I then poured down the lower side of the mold alternating dark and light batter.  I then tilted the mold to the other side and finished pouring the colors.  I did a bit of a hanger swirl and topped off the batter with the rest of the plain soap.  This batch stayed very nicely workable for a long time so had to give it a few minutes to thicken before I could finish the top.

I really like this one, but I may make one more (searching for the Holy Grail here!) trying to perfect my soapy glaciers.  The scent is fabulous, btw.

So, I did make another batch.  Instead of hanger swirling, I did a spoon swirl.  Saponifying as I type.  Tomorrow, the cutting!

Well, batch three did not turn out as I’d hoped.    The batter was too liquid to get the definition of color I wanted.  About half the bars in this batch are more like the bar on the the left.  Nice, but not as dazzling as I’d hoped.

Here’s a picture of all three batches.  From left to right, batch #1, #2, and #3.

So batch two it is.  (For my official entry photo)