Saponaceous

I have received several requests for Frankincense Essential Oil soap recently. I am not sure that I will offer this unless I can find a good source of sustainably harvested oil. I think that over the next 10 years especially, it will be extremely important to be responsible in our use of resources.

One more week until the Lititz Rotary Craft Show. Come on out on Saturday, August 10th! I'll see you there!

It is really heating up this week! And I am in the hot seat gearing up for the Lititz Rotary Craft Show in August...I am really hoping for great weather for Saturday, August 10th!

Come out to Middletown's Hoffer Park for the craft fair this Saturday, June 8th from 10am-5pm! I'll have a spot there with my Artisan Soap, some bath fizzies, and lip balm. There will be lots of exhibitors. Let's hope for no rain!

Really honored and excited about this award from the March Soap Challenge Club! This month's challenge was to create inlaid soaps. I chose to create 4 different floral soaps from one base bar that contained 3 inlays. Each of the floral areas was carved and then refilled with cold process soap or soap dough creating a soap inlay. So happy to enjoy Spring this year!

November Soap Challenge Club This month we were tasked with creating some straight thin line designs using basically 3 methods. My inspirations for my designs were Amy's woodgrain soaps, Christmas, apple sage and tobacco & bay leaf fragrance oils. Our choice of 3 methods of pouring are following: method 1-Regular technique- wall pour thin lines of soap into regular log mold 1 layer (1-1.5 inches) deep.... method 2-Regular technique-wall pour thin lines into a tall & skinny mold to the top; the difference is in how the soap is cut. method 3-Advanced technique-using a small slab mold, use squirt bottles to pour lines in the center along a taped center guide Sorry, advanced category, the only slab mold I own is too large. I could've lined a box, but that didn't thrill me this time. Method 2 really captured my attention, and I couldn't get that ombre out of my head! I chose some of my favorite Christmas colors: red, green, and blue and white. I mixed the lye and oils, and they came to a perfect emulsion. After adding the fragrance oil, Bramble Berry Apple Sage, I divided the batter up into the long spouted cups with micas ready to mix in. The batter remained nicely fluid, but like Amy warned, those spouts didn't allow the flow. The lines became thicker, so I improvised and poured some of the colors into squeeze bottles, and used those to control the wall pour. What a difference! Lots of control and some great first fine lines. As long as you follow the cutting directions, your soaps will have some straight horizontal lines. My daughter says this soap reminds her of a stream; one person called it serene; so the name is "Serenity." I loved this method, so I had to try 1 more time. Choosing BB Tobacco & Bay Leaf F.O. because of its great scent, behavior in cp soap, and discoloration to light beige/tan in cp soap, I squirted my wall pour into the tall & skinny mold, one skinny line at a time. Rose gold, burgundy, cappuccino, king's gold, plum dusk (discolors to gray), and natural batter discolored by f.o. made up the 7 colors used in about 50-60 lines of squeezed soap. Both soaps were cpop'ped (is that a verb?) and had a 15% water discount. The fragrance oils used in these batches were perfect choices :) The wood grain turned out great--really happy with the scent and feel of the soap, very little, if any, soda ash thus far. Introducing, "Woody," my first wood-grained manly soap. As always, good luck to my fellow competitors, and many thanks to Amy for the Soap Challenge Club and all of the joy that it brings to so many amazing people around the world!

October 6th Columbia Bridge Bust!!! 8am-4pm See you there! It will be cool and breezy and an easy walk on a partly sunny day.

2018 has been the wettest summer that anyone can remember in south central Pennsylvania. My back yard and garden are still wet and smushy. Although this is bad, many of my friends and folks in towns nearby were not so fortunate. Our southern neighbors in the path of Florence are in great need of supplies. As busy as I am this month trying to manage my yard, I can't imagine losing everything to flooding. Please keep these people in your prayers, and if you can help someone, pl...ease do! My soap is fashioned after the raindrops we keep seeing this summer. The scent used in this soap is some of my leftover Snow Witch by MadOils. I knew this fragrance oil would soap well and not change color. The colors used are titanium dioxide, charcoal, Mermaid blue and Caribbean blue micas by Bramble Berry, and Twilight blue by MadMicas. I used 5 squeeze bottles-the extra bottle had a brighter white than the base. I used 4 different lengths for the bottle tips (yes, they are small mouth, making clean-up challenging too...) I was hoping to achieve a variety of tear drops in different sizes and depths. One specific goal was to make some drops within drops. There are several of these in the soap. The photos don't show the difference between the white base and the ultra white droplets. The lighter blue tones are also close in color, which the cell phone only captures so-so. The key to this challenge was the trace and fluidity of the soap batter, particularly in the bottles. My first batch, the fall colored soap, was more fluid. I should have mixed the bottled soap more and allowed them to thicken a little. Instead of drops, I achieved some interesting lines of soap. It smells great-Autumn Fig Harvest by Bramble Berry! The pattern was ok, but I was truly happy with the linear swirl on top. Of course, I had to try again...Crystal Droplet soaped well due to some of the changes I made in batter fluidity, and also adjusting the pressure used to squeeze the bottles. It was pure joy to see the result once cut :) Thank you Amy for restarting these soapy challenges! I really missed seeing all of the soaps and the joy that this club brings. I am so glad that I could participate this month! Good luck to all the participants and to those who were unable, hope to see your soapy creation next month :)

Saturday Sept 15 & Sunday Sept 16! The time is here. Come to Susquehanna Old Fashioned Field Days in Bainbridge, PA and step back in time. Lots of food, tractors, hit & miss engines, antiques, craft vendors (that's me-Saponaceous Soap), music and fun!

Now that most of the heat of summer is behind us, it's time for some fall arts/ crafts shows! Saponaceous will be at Susquehanna Old Fashioned Field Days in Bainbridge September 15 & 16, and also at Bridge Bust in Columbia on October 6. I will have some new soaps and bath fizzies & shower steamers. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Arts in the Park Elizabethtown, Sat June 2nd...and hopefully no rain...

Arts in the Park, Elizabethtown, Saturday June 2!! See you there

Come see me and my soaps at Temple Beth El near East Petersburg on Sunday, May 6th from 11am-6pm. They are having a Jewish Food Festival and a local artisan craft show. Personally, I can't wait to sample the corned beef on rye :)