Amy of  Great Cakes Soap Works Challenge spurred us on to do a combination soap.  It is a contest and I had so much fun with the first entry, I did a second one!

On the curing rack just one more of the cold process soaps with a combination of cold process and melt and pour inclusions.  For family and friends just cut Pink Champagne.

I don't think I will use the vertical mold again with the dividers.  It seems that the soap curing process is delayed in this mold.  The top 3X2 inch part of the vertical mold where the soap is exposed to the air just isn't enough surface area I think.  The melt and pour and the cold processed soap after 48 hours is very soft.  My next use of this mold will be paper lined that is my plan as I enjoy using the mold!

So my husband and I did the tubes with melt and pour and cold process about 4 days ago!  Needed those extra pouring hands and he was a real champ!  We had a time getting the tubes out of the molds but once we figured out how to do the small one, well snap it was easy.  Freezer for an hour.  Long screwdriver, a 25 cent coin and voila' out came the pink champagne bubbles.

These tubes aired out for a day and then into the vertical mold for a pale pink cold process over pour!   In the final soap I variegated the different size tubes ah bubbles!











A bit soft yet but I like the look.



















 I'll let these sit a day or two before I clean them up as they are softer than an open molded soap would be after two days.  They smell so effervescent and fresh!  In the bottom photo you can see that the melt and pour is still a touch moist but that will change soon!  Tomorrow when the sun rises I'm going out with one of these babies.  I love how the sun shines thru the soap!

This was such a fun project and I've learned a few more tricks to add to my future soaping adventure.

Thank you Amy for the nudge!   Happy  Pink Champagne bubbles for New Years everyone!

Oh she is at it again!  Amy Warden  of Great Cakes Soap Works  fame.   Great Cakes Soap Works  has reared up the soap pot and challenged soapmakers to get in the game for another challenge!

Amy's imagination and enthusiasm for trying new things had her testing out  the Magma Soap kit offered by BrambleberrySoapMakingSupplies and doing a video of her process!  In the video she debuted a 5 pound wooden mold with a silicone liner the prize for the challenge!   Seriously drooling over that silicone liner and mold here!  Committing to 5 pounds of an experimental soap is very brave!

The challenge was to combine a cold processed soap with a melt and pour glycerine soap.   I must thank Amy for this challenge! The combination of cold process with melt and pour has been done many times by many soapmakers.   Here is one I did for The NOVA Studio Swap of 2011.  Such fun to do and THEN I promptly forgot about the combo technique!

2011    Day At The Beach Nova SWAP

2012  Tide Pool 

A year later and revisiting the process of mixing the cold process with the melt and pour I have two new ideas to try!  Amy thank you so much for stirring my imagination.  You have helped me decide what to do with a  touchy fragrance that I have 5 pounds of!  Heh heh!  Yes  my favorite the apothecary coriander!  It riced and  seized in cold process soap so I've been using it in room sprays and solid perfumes!  Now I can use it in combo soaps!  Thank you so much! 

 

My plan was to do a white soap of one fragrance, boring I know, and combine it with two different colors of melt and pour glycerin soap of another scent!   To add a hanger swirl I put the hanger in the empty loaf and after the pour I tried the swirl.  Well some success but as I did the linear pour there were a few solid spots that I pulled out of the mold!  

I used my favorite persnickety fragrance in the glycerin part of the process and made two colors of glycerin.   My color contrast is pretty in the final soap but next time I will make the two colors a bit more contrasting.  The white batter was fragranced with another scent that was very complimentary.  OH is it yummy and fit for a luxury out door shower in Hawaii or Tahiti!  A few  photos for you of   Sea Foam,   Mermaid Elixir or Tide Pool hum!   The first photo shows bubbles, left middle, that happened when I poured the glycerin from high.  Cool effect!  The fragrance is magnifique and I wish this were a 5 pound batch!

 

Sea Foam

A Periwinkle Swirl in Sea Foam

Now I know what to do with the troubled fragrances!  Happy combo discoveries to everyone!  Aloha!

Has it been a month since the GreatCakesSoapWorks Challenges of 2012? For a link to the goings on check here !   Once again Amy thank you!  We are showing off our swap sisters soap we shared with one another.

How does time fly while making soap or cleaning cupboards!  I actually miss the challenges and look forward to the next round.  Seems my organization skills are sharper when challenged, shoved, and or pushed just like most people!


My summer markets are going full swing and well so am I like a monkey swinging from limb to limb.  This is my first summer at two markets. I am in awe of people who accomplish outdoor marketing and have a life!  A woman named Magic is my inspiration!


Summer here has been glorious and for that I am so grateful.  Nary a day over 100 degrees yet and pinch me this is July!  Must be the sun spots gave us a mild June and July.  I hope your summer is as pleasant and you are enjoying it to the fullest!  Well of course I spoke too soon today triple digits as well as the remainder of the week.  It was so nice while the mild temps lasted.


Getting organized is my personal goal this summer and well I've made a start. We had a breakfast nook we rarely used so now we have a soaping nook.  So much more efficient than working out of boxes! LOL  No comparison.  My darling Gene is so good to me and set this up in no time at all.  When he saw how much I enjoyed using the first rack he went out and purchased another.  I'm over the moon about this set up!  The summer of organizing!  Where is the fro bookcase?  LOL

During the Amy SOAP CHALLENGES of GreatCakesSoapWorks fame this spring, many of the participants did a mini soap swap trading one or two of their creations with a partner. 

I asked to be matched with one of two different soapers Bella Fresca and/or Santa Barbara Soap.  Me, well I thought Bella Fresca was in Europe, boy was I wrong just looked them up!  They are neighbors!

We are now sharing photos of the soap  we received.  Here is the soap I received  from Santa Barbara Soap.  This is called Blissed Out Soap a lemon grass citrus blend light and clean.  One which I enjoy.  It has already been un-wrapped and  used but it still photographs well.  Thank you Tracy!

In addition to the color choices I think she has a wonderful idea about the shape of her soaps.  They are rather curved/carved in the middle, more slender in the middle where you would hold a soap.  She makes lovely salt soaps from what I could see on her FB.  
 Here is the carved soap Tracy of Santa Barbara Soap shared with me. Apricot, blue, aqua and white! 

Here is a link to youtube channel 805soap I just received of another Santa Barbara soaper.  This video was done for the initial ITP swirl challenge.  Her market video is beautiful too and many of her soaps can be seen.  Another ITP Swirl 4 Colors for Amy's challenge and videoed!  Love these the colors of summer all in one bar!  So a third SOCal soaper and I personally know many others.   It's a sisterhood I'm sure!

Oh sorry a little AD&D there.    I think this is the one I sent to Tracy.  More summer colors!  Happy summer everyone and stay safe and clean!

Week 10 of the Great Cakes Soap Works Challenge involves making a landscape soap.  Thank you Amy for giving me credit for this idea I think!   I hope I'm not too embarrassed to have been the one to suggest this exercise/challenge.  I hope we are all still soap buddies after all this! KWIM.  GreatCakesSoapWorks located HERE  drop by and say a word!  Thank you Amy for your faithful hardworking efforts on behalf of us, presenting this Challenge and keeping the herd of cats wrangled.   You're the best!

Having done a landscape soap in the past ah well I was not anxious to begin anew.  The one I made previously was tough and as I was concentrating on the design process to such an extent,  I forgot the Shea Butter!  Well I kept one slice that sits in my studio window. Here is the photo.

Do you know the feeling when you complete a batch of soap to find out you left out the Shea Butter?  Yep I did.  That poor soap was re-batched not once but twice!

Amy did such a nice job of setting up this challenge and sharing different youtube videos and photos of landscape soaps.  I fell in love with the Starry Night done by Newt and Figg to the music of a love song about Vincent Van Gough, fantastic execution, music and the soap beautiful.  T

If you have a desire for a good summer read check out "Dear Theo" the story of Vincent Van Gough's life is so insightful, fulfilling and heart breaking all at once, the life of a true artist.  Here is my tribute to another true artist, Claude Monet.

 

Monet is my favorite  French painter/gardening architect was Claude Monet who designed  painted and lived in his Giverny gardens outside of Paris for more than 30 years.  The last 30 years of his life he is said to have had a love affair with the Nypheas. Water Lilies.  He produced over 250 painting of his lilies and pond and loved painting the sky's reflections as it fell upon the water, reflecting over and around his lilies.  So this was my attempt to do a water/sea lily pond soap inspired by Claude Monet. 

 
This soap was fragranced with a new to me fragrance of citrus and lilies that accelerated even though I took all precautions and colored and added fragrance with a wire whip!  It's scent is of a lovely garden, not too sweet but with green accords in the wings.  This soap smells wonderful!  Yes I like this soap very much!  It smells delightful, has my favorite colors, and a lovely fragrance.  My tribute to Claude Monet's world famous Lilies, to the  artist extraordinaire whose inspiration lives on in much of the art work done today from textiles to high art,  to soap, paintings to color palettes used by retailers today!  His genre is well named  an Impressionistic Art Form as it still inspires over 100 years later!

Here is a textured topped soap I made a few weeks ago.  I didn't think I would have enough time to get another one out.  But I did  and the photos are below.

This week has been a week of catching up after my soaping holiday.  Emails, egads what did we do without email?  I'm choking here in a good way!   So please if I owe you a response I'm getting there I promise!

I did work in a new to me peaked top soap, well fluffy anyway.  It's curing and  already named, a beer soap called "Dragon's Brew"!  A pale Cerveza Especial Modela was used for this soap.  After testing a few beer soaps from the HSMG Conference 2012 in  Portland, I wanted more!   The texture is so interesting to me and the bubbles,  like a cowboy who sleeps on silk sheets!  I was surprised at the color.  The white was to be beer foam, but the body isn't as dark  I was thinking it would be!  It should darken as I used a Dragon Blood fragrance, and time will tell!

Surprise  a beautiful soap waiting for me when l arrived home!    A pretty soap sent by another soapmaker who is involved in the GreatCakesSoapWorksChallenge.    This beautiful soap from the ITP Challenge intrigued me for it's lovely soft colors and the choice of colors inparticular.   I studied the colors as it was such a nice combination my swap buddy sent it to me!  Many thanks go out to Santa Barbara Soap  whose shop is located here!!   I promise to use it after I'd admire it a little bit more! LOL  The fragrance is lovely and I cut a tad off the bottom to use.  A lovely soap thank you Tracy!

Amy of Great Cakes Soap Works in an inspiration and again I thank you Amy for leading us along the soaping path!  Her blog is here and you will find many pretty soaps of the other participants as well!

It was so exciting to meet Eileen at the Portland HSMG Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild 2012 Conference this week.  She is another participant in the GreatCakesSoapworks weekly Challenges!  What a wonderful time meeting soapers from around the world and Eileen who hails from Canada our sister country and peaceful neighbor!

As I was traveling this week, I did this salt bar last weekend so I could share it today! Think I should name this one the   Blue Lagoon Sea Salt Bar?  Or perhaps Situation Soap as it did get me into a situation!

Once again many thanks go out to Amy Warden.  She is a wonder in soap and in organizational skills! Amy  has organized this International Soaping Challenge and currently there are 93 soaping artist participating in one part of this world or another.   Wonderful artists and you can check them out at  Amy's GreatCakesoap works blog and it  can be found  here! 

Here is the situation when it comes to Salt Bars, you must cut them soon after they are removed from the oven or well they turn into brick!  So don't have previous plans that have slipped your mind.

I'm cruising along in my soaping kitchen in the zone as they say and totally lost all track of time.   Do you ever get into that creative zone so deep that you loose track of time?  Yeah!   A 6 PM engagement, not a problem.  So I'm pulling this soap out of the oven at 5:50 PM and I'm due somewhere at 6!


Holy rollerskating derby.  What to do, what to do?  I thought about insulating it in a bubble wrap lined cardboard box hoping it would keep warm enough to cut at 9:30 PM, panic, email a friend, she says  ah freeze it for 20 minutes?, oh ah ok,  and once again ~~THANK you Holly~~, a table fan!  Why didn't I think of that!

So I elevated the soap on top of my down draft fan for the oven on a pie cooling rack turned on the down draft, the overhead microwave fan and also a small table fan onto the sides of the mold.  Forgot to take a photo in the panic.   YES it worked and I was able to cut these babies in 30 minutes!

Being afraid the center would ooze I cut the ends off and they looked pretty good so I split the log right down the middle and did cubes.  These smell real good and I think they will clean up nicely.  Rosemary mint lemon goodness!  A touch of glitter on the top and there you have it.  Do we need stock in the glitter company darling husband?  So this is an 80% coconut oil soap with 90% sea salt in the recipe to make these spa quality salt bars and it should lather in salt water so I hear! A tip here  do not use iodizes table salt!

Interesting with these bars, the outside edges of the soap where the cooling happens first are so well defined and beautiful.  The cut edges like in the middle are a little ragged.  They should clean up when the cure is finished.  They will be like tumbled rock smooth after the first use or two.  Oh joy salt soaps, yeah!  Name?  The Rosemary Situation ?  Sounds like a spy novel.


Sometime during this challenge workshop many of the soapers will be doing a swap of one of their creations!   A bus-mans holiday in soaps and it will be exciting also!  So I haven't contacted my swap person yet, when I return from the frozen north I will do that!   SantaBarbaraSoaps in Goleta perhaps I think  they do beautiful salt bars if I have the correct shop!

Oh here is a link to the recipe I used and I do like it.  My adjustment to this recipe was to CPOP and cut right away!   Drop in and check this out!  Salt Soap  ~~  Salt Soap Recipe here .

Can't wait to get home and try these babies out.

Week 7 The GreatCakesSoap Works Challenge.   During week 3 of this great soaping challenge  I created the soap I'm sharing today.  I've posted pics of the tops for the piping exercises, but now I'll reveal the centers!

This  7 challenge was to do gradient colored soaps.  I happened upon this style while researching the piping skills in the 3RD  weeks challenge.  Here are gradient blues with greens and white in waves topped with pippedfroth  and of course glitter!

So I thought I'd bring this Week 3 baby back to the future.  I call it Waves of  Vetyver a soap for Week 7!  Did I mention that I love BrambleBerries Vetyver fragrance oil?    It is  described  here .   It is not a single note like the essential oil of the same name, but rather has top notes of Lemon & Rosemary. The middle notes contain florals, Sandalwood and Patchouli and finally, the luscious blend finishes off with musk and vetyver.

Find Amy's blog for this international competition of soapers challenging  their ideas to stretch boundaries and comfort zones with colors, fragrance, textures and ingredients HERE
Thank you Amy!

Hope to see you in a week or two!  Gene and I will be headed off to Portland. 

As you get closer to these large bars you can see that my UMB didn't get mixed as well as it should.  So we have kelp pieces in the wave soaps!  That's it kelp or plankton for sure!

Oh joy and the other delights of experimentation.  Keeps your mind flexible whatever the subject, product, activity!  As a fellow soaper says " A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again"!

This weeks Internationale Soaping Challenge # 6 has been a challenge.  My first try was so successful in many ways that I just had to push my luck and go for a second!  Called the faux funnel swirl technique using colors and circles of soap to design with.  Cutting techniques can also come into play with this challenge.

The hostess of these fun soaping design and ingredient challenges  is  Amy @  Great Cakes Soap Works  whose soap can be found here  .     Amy has been a tireless hostess for the soap challenges and currently 93 soapers from around the world are involved on one level or another.  She has even arranged a soap swap for those of the group who are interested in that activity.  Go Amy and thank you so much for all the inspiration!  This challenge will live on in infamy I think!  


As I'm always one holiday, celebration day behind what is current for some reason, here is my Earth Day soap one week delayed and not yet cured!  Heh heh.    OK start with a color a soap recipe and a fragrance, hopefully one that doesn't travel too fast.  Well my favorite colors are blues and greens!  So that was the easy part the planning the beginning.  Ah but to add 5colors well that  was a challenge.  I had two blues, one clear and one grayed and three greens (but only added two), and for a contrast the yellow. 

 The fragrance I chose was Energy, like solar?  The name of this soap was definitely an after thought, like after I cut the soap and saw it looked like distant photos of the earth from space!  LOL a fertile imagination is a necessity here!   So now you know why I call this Earth Day soap which includes the solar  "Energy Fragrance Oil"  which is such a lovely bright citrus.

NAME this soap and sure there will be a prize  for the winner whose name is chosen and the runner up!  The drawing will be May 16th after a trip to Portland!  Hope to see you there too!

Here is my second FAUX FUNNEL SWIRL soap for  week # 6 Great Cakes Soap Works challenge.  I like this type of design.  It was such fun albeit it messy with so many color bowls!

I wanted summer colors this time and an opportunity to use my new pink!  I chose a yellow, electric bubble gum pink ( oh boy!  and it glows in the dark-neon) a  teal type color with a lavender thrown in.  Ok over the top but if you are doing it might as make it memorable!

Well this soap wasn't as successful as I had hoped but hope springs eternal and it all worked out well in the end!  The soap technique and the fragrance ( a tropical floral of course)  well didn't agree with each other so here is the improvisation of the original design!    Not to despair as the colors and the fragrance are just so wonderful together for summer!

Slab cut into 3 logs

Do these colors look like a Grecian beach to you?

This Bramble Berry Birch Mold is a favorite especially for the new techniques I'm working on!

Now it just needs some time and a name!

It seems as I worked up the colors separately I need to add the fragrance separately also.  So that was a new process.   OOPS first bottom 3 layers set up quite quickly.  OK I poured the bottom layer alla Anita's LaLaLand soaping technique for beautiful flowers and friendship soaps!   Thank you Anita!  In went a stiff layer of the base soap but the beautiful teal and lavender pour wouldn't penetrate the base color, oh NO!  Hurry, think quick, the teal poured out in a smooth layer but by the time I got to the lavender/purple I had to spoon it in and clump a  lump it!

Now for the pink and yellow well no fragrance there, I'm learning!  Did a touch of pooling and swizzle sticking but that was the whole of it.   The bottom layers were too set up for me to do inserts for these bars.  That turned out to be just fine as I cut the entire slab by hand and didn't get too crooked this time.  Practice makes the job not so intimidating with each new attempt!   Into the oven for a bit and well here you have a soap that reminds me of a beach in Capri!   Sometimes the good the bad and the lumpy work out just fine, and that is a good thing. 

So ends this weeks tales of "The adventures of a frantic soap maker"!  Adieu!

Good Sunday morning!  The sun is shining the birds are chirping and the bees are a hummin all around.  Even the hummers are out early today.  My garden inspires my new adventures in blending fragrances!

I had guests yesterday and it was their first visit to our home.  They are city people and were so intrigued with the scent of the air as they walked up the path to the house.  We did a tour of the yard.  The Cecil Breunner Roses just beginning their bloom, it is a baby pink rose climber.  To our guests amazement we still have some of the grapefruit, oranges and lemons left from the harvest and the gorgeous new orange blossoms just emerging!

Oh lovely the "garden smells of gardenias"!   Gardenias are on THE list for next fall!  The combination of of roses, rosemary, aloe and orange blossoms. Smells almost like gardenias.

It smells of heaven to me, I'm positive,  right here in the orange groves with the bees joining in the choir of the yard humming their life saving tunes.  It is ironic that oranges are actually self pollinating but don't tell the sweet bees this.  They are loving every breath of the orange blossoms loaded and burdened with golden pollen as they head back to their queen their home.

My favorite time of year for morning garden wandering is right now!  Not to hot  not to cold, just right for a bathrobe tour!  Grab a cup a, and head to the garden with a a camera too!  This inspired my Gardener's Sunrise Soap for the 5th Week Challenge.  Many thank yous to Amy at the GreatCakesSoapWorks!  Check her blog for all the beautiful creations that Amy's blog and challenges have produced here .

A few photos of this new to me fragrance and essential oil blended soap.  Originally I was going to call it Maui Sunrise, but changed it this morning following my garden tour to Gardeners Sunrise.  It has grated lemon and orange peels for exfoliation, some is added to the entire batch and some is layed in a pencil line with a touch og green and orange mica's also.  The fragrance is a combination of  Orange Grove, appropriate sweet and Litsea bright and lemon, with a touch of plumaria to go!  My next batch will be rose to replace the plumaria!   The blend Orange Grove  2.5 parts, Plumaria .5  and Litsea .25.  YUM.   It smells so nice we will have to see when it cures how it holds.  I love it and here are a few photos to share.

Glorious Bees

Baby Roses, Aloe in Bloom the left bottom orange blossoms and the end of the rosemary bloom on the right!

Gardener's Sunrise

Thank you and a shout out ( I never thought I would use that descriptiveshout out! LOL),   to Mz. Holly of Missouri River Soap for introducing me to glitter! She is an inspiration!  Glitter it is so much fun and just the right touch!  Need a better glitter photo for next time.

Well I got into the wine for this one!  Actually I use Merlot to make tomato sauce and had only 1 cup to use.  So I used what I had on hand.  It is amazing to me 1 cup of Merlot can be reduced in a sauce pan to 1/4 cup of wine syrup.  As I was only making a small batch for decoration it was the perfect amount.  Added a touch of water and soaped away.

Once again thanks so much to Amy of GreatCakesSoap Works for her nudge and helping hands.  She has brought together a group and stirred the pot of imagination for many experience and learning soapmakers! You can find her blog posts  here.

So this is how Merlot Cheese Cake worked for me.  You can tell I'm still working on Week 3 piping challenge my wedding cake shaped soap wasn't ready for the week 3 piping challenge.  So I thought I'd incorporate the two challenges together..Week 3 with Week 4 added on top.  Much fun.

Adding Merlot Wind syrup and lye solution into the oils.  I did add a touch of white after this was incorporated and a touch of clay too.

 Well a bit of green was needed for this project and the soap color turned out better than expected!  The majority of the soap has a small amount of TD and the color the Merlot left in the soap.

a

 And here we go a Merlot Wine Guest Soaps!

 Merlot Frosted Cheese Cake this was such a fun cake to do.  Yes my first cake attempt.  Find the right container and I went for it.  In this case this is a Healthy Choice dinner bowl from a former bachelors favorite frozen food isle!  Rice and veggies medley!  Something my Gene picked up at Costco when he was out shopping on his own!  I'm happy it wasn't a case of sardines.

 Last but not least is Merlot Frosted Cup Cakes.  I'm really enjoying the piping and have learned more the second time around!  Amy thank you so much!

Aloha!

Well this is the third week of Amy Warden's GreatCakesSoapWorks Challenge and what a challenge it was!  I actually started out with my first attempt being the most successful.  Finding the right texture for the soap to be frosted is a determining factor on all the piping!  LOL  I used vetiver with lavender.
Check out everyone's beautiful soaps and drop a note of thanks to Amy also here    GreatCakesSoapWorks Challenge  

My second try is very pretty and smells beautifully and well the colors faded and the texture of the piping wasn't the best.  Did I mention that it smells wonderfully!  Lemon Sugar!

My third attempt is current and not complete.  Well you see I actually took the time to design a soap make embeds and such. measuring how much soap for each layer of a cake!  Well oops, the top of the cake is the first poured and well it is at the bottom of the mold, ala wedding cake style!  So it needed to set up and cure before it could come out of the mold and well be frosted!  The best laid plans.  New discovery,  I am more of an organic type soaper, not great at fussy!  

My youtube with only two videos.  I promise to make one soon.  I need a filmer!
http://www.youtube.com/user/bytheSEAsoaps?ob=0&feature=results_main

OH GreatCakes Soap Works  aka Amy Warden has challenged interested soapers in expanding their horizons and add a touch of adventure in their soaping endeavors!  Thank you Amy!  I got involved around mid week 1 and couldn't participate.

Week 2 I'm in!  Here is my first full coconut milk soap with cocoa butter galore and a lovely Perisian Lime fragrance with a touch of Litsea!  Yellow Mica color added and a touch of TD  to the last bit to top it off!  Hurray.  I worked cool 98 degrees and did use a ice bath for the milk and lye combination.

Can't wait to see what others are doing.  I think I'll try Almond Milk a new family favorite, next in the milk department.

Here is Amy's link to the Great 2012 Soap Challenge! 
http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog/index.php/soap-challenge-week-2/

So Coconut  Key Lime, you know it's plain but so yummy!  With gobs of tempting cocoa butter!

The bars were non gel, see the power circle?  LOL  the square and flower were left at room temperature.  Interestingly the color isn't that much different and the color comes from the fragrance!