Soap--The Finished Product

So here's the oatmeal/cinnamon leaf soap that was my first batch ever (not the best picture, apologies. I've gotta work on setting up a decent space to shoot my work).

The soap turned out great though! I had to wait 3 weeks for it to cure, so I just got around to testing it out a week or so ago. The oatmeal is gently exfoliating and it has a really nice subtle smell--really clean. Everybody who's taken a look at it/taken some/used it says they like it and the smell, etc. So I think it was a success (other than getting it stuck in the mold and having to pry it out painstakingly...which can be easily remedied next time). But yeah. I'm getting an order together for supplies and should be making some new batches soonish! Cucumber soap is definitely next and after that--not sure. Lavendar maybe? Guess we'll see.

In other news, I think i've found a place to sell my books in town so I'm gonna try to make about 10 (in a fairly short amount of time) and take them up there to see if the store owner is interested. I also got a commission to make a day planner for someone--it's going well but laying that thing out takes me back to my grahpic design class days ::shudder::. Half of it's done though and I plan on getting the rest of the layout done today.

Behold--COLORS!

When we moved into the house it kind of felt like a wood paneled cave (the whole house was paneled like this)...
So we asked the realty company if we could paint and were surprised when they agreed that we could. Paneling? Not the easiest thing to paint over. But the roommates and I got through 7 rooms (kitchen, living room, studio, 2 bedrooms bathroom and hallway) in 5 days. We figured it'd take at least a month...but we're kind of awesome, so it didn't take long at all, hah.
So here's a glimpse of what the house looks like now:

so most of the house is a light gray/blue. Brandon, the man of the house, opted not to paint his room as pretty colors make no difference to him, really; so my room is a mint green (which looks gray due to my sucky camera) and Michael's is a light olive-y green. The studio was an awesome purple color (which even Brandon liked) but the landlord freaked about it and made us paint it a more boring color. So grey it is! We discovered all the exterior doors and windows used to be a bright green and the cabinents were all a 70's orange, hah. This house definitely has a lot of history, so it would seem. It's starting to feel more like home though and the paint's definitely helping that feeling.

Fire!

With fall drawing nigh...and a stack of firewood left by the previous tenants--I just kept thinking how AWESOME it would be to have a fire pit in the backyard. I continued to think about this as I was riding my bike the other day after work, enjoying the mountain air. My thought pattern went a little something like this, as I recall: Fall is definitely close at hand. I had noticed a construction sight near the place where I parked my car...and that construction sight had a lot of good rocks. We need to have a bunch friends over to hang out soon, you know, it's so nice to sit around a warm fire and enjoy the company of said friends. And man, those rocks would be the PERFECT size for building up the wall of a fire pit. And the backyard wouldn't look so horribly empty if there was something in the middle of it...like a fire pit....

This lead to me getting a bunch of rocks and beginning to dig the fire pit as soon as I got home.

However, I definitely didn't get enough rocks. So the next day after work I went back....with a box. And filled it. And having Wednesday off work, I dug out the rest of the pit and built up a nice little rock wall around it, called up some friends later that night and we spent a good few hours hanging out, laughing, roasting marshmallows and what not....

At any rate--I don't know if building a fire pit counts as an art or a craft (Brandon assured me it counted as an earth work..."well, sort of...") but I must say, at the end of the day I was proud of my work and I think it's definitely a great addition to the yard and can't wait for cooler weather and more good times hanging out with friends around the fire.

"What are we doing tonight?" "Tonight? We make soap."

Yeah, yeah, I stole that quote from Fight Club/Tyler Durden. Brewing up soap with caustic chemicals in the kitchen just brings that movie to mind, I guess.

Speaking of stealing things--Do you know how hard it is to find a plastic box of any sort that doesn't have curved corners or some sort of decorative bubble-thing on the bottom? Really difficult. So difficult that I had to gank a warehouse crate from work in order to get a box that would make a proper soap mold.

So last night I decided to make some oatmeal soap seeing as I couldn't find anything conclusive online or in a book about preservatives (I was planning on making cucumber soap but then I couldn't find any benzoin which the recipe called for--a preservative--and then I read online that benzoin doesn't even really preserve things well. I'll find out the answer eventually). After getting a few last ingredients and safety equipment I got started:


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.
Anyway, I ran into some issues with the oils--didn't have enough so I had to go back to town and get more. No big deal though. Gotta say--after the measuring and getting things to the right temperature--it was really, really simple. Now I just have to wait for it to "cure". 48 hours, give or take with this process. Next time--pictures/details of the results.

Sketchy Soap Experience

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).

Kickin' it old school

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!