Alright, so yesterday I called to a hardware store in Tennessee to see if I could find some lye so I can start making soap. The dude on the phone was very nonchalant when he replied "Yeah, we've got about half a dozen containers." I then replied "Alright, I'll be by later today to pick it up."
I ran my errands and then picked up a friend and headed to Hampton, Tennessee. An hour and a half later, I walk up to the guy at the hardware store counter and the sketchy situation ensued:
"Hi, I'm starting soapmaking and I'm looking for some lye, do you guys have any?"
"...We used to."
I imagine I had a very disheartened look on my face, "Oh, really? Because I called earlier and the guy I talked to said you had some..."
Dude behind the counter gives me a weird look and walks around the counter, "Who did you talk to?" very sternly.
"I'm not sure, he didn't give me his name."
Dude sort of snickers and walks over to a box, "Well...now that you said you called---I remember. We have to kind of be careful about selling this stuff. They use it for meth, you know."
"...."
He asked me how many containers I wanted and I said "Two or three" and he said "Well. I don't think I can sell you three," in a very important sounding tone.
So I said, "Two then." and he told me to go pay in the other room...but in like...a warning tone.
I paid and got outta there as fast as possible.
Talk about weird. Can't figure out if they were selling it illegally or not but it seems odd that he'd tell me straight out over the phone that they carried it if they were selling it illegally.
At any rate. I got my lye. Everybody keeps saying "Oh god, I hope you don't get in trouble for having that stuff" A) are the cops coming to search my house for lye? B)....I'll give them a bar of soap, I guess. Hah, I mean, what else can I do?
Moral of this story: Next time I'll be ordering all my lye online. I just didn't want to wait for it to be shipped so I could go head and get started soon. Now all I have to do is get all the cooking utensils needed and I'm good to go (as soon as Sunday rolls around and I've got a day off work).
So I've been thinking a lot about my interest in learning how to make things traditionally. It all ties in to my theory that life would be a lot better if we lived a little closer to the land and hadn't pushed aside a more natural/simple way of doing things for so long. I think it's a serious problem that no one knows how to do or make anything anymore--they just buy it because that's easier (but almost never healthier or better). I read an article today that summed up this feeling: "I have been trying to figure out why no one knows how to do anything anymore. We can’t understand, let alone repair, most of the gadgets we use everyday...We don’t know how to grow tomatoes, can peaches, hem pants, or build fences. As the last generations of depression-era children or back-to-the-landers take their leave of this world, these skills go with them."
So true--and so sad. I don't know why or how it got under my skin to research and learn these types of skills but..it's definitely a desire of mine. I guess it shows up in my art too--my themes are typically about the past and incorporating it into the present--that it's never really forgotten, or shouldn't be. I could ramble on, but i'll spare you.
After spending the weekend with my sister shopping for essential oils that are energy provoking (lemongrass, orange, clove bud) and serenity provoking (ylang ylang, lavender, cedarwood). And if you're thinking "This kind of stuff is crap" well, i used to think that too. But after using them for aromatherapy to help me get a decent night's sleep during art school exam times (they actually worked) I started to see there was something to it all.
So all this brings me to my next venture: I'm gonna make my own lye soap. I was reading up on it more after my sister and I made soap out of some stuff we found at Michael's and it seems infinitely more practical and efficient to make it the old school way and get a lye solution going. I plan on heading to the library Monday to seek out some books on soap making and then possibly heading across the border to Tennessee to purchase some lye...because it's illegal to sell it in the good ole state of North Carolina. Lucky I'm near the the border.
Definitely more on this endeavor later. I'm super excited to see how this turns out!
The hardest part by far was weighing out the lye. This was only difficult because a) I read the directions wrong and started measuring out more than I was supposed to and then it took me forever to get it back in the container without spilling it everywhere. Plus I was kind of freaked out about the lye--if it gets on your skin it'll burn you like no other--no, Tyler Durden wasn't kidding. But eventually I got it straightened out. Mixing it with the water was interesting...I knew it was supposed to heat up but when I touched the container there was no doubt it was about 200 degrees. Crazy chemical reaction.