The Soap that Took More Than a Year to Make- Rose Clay and Silk Goat's Milk Soap

When my husband told me that we were moving to North Carolina (again, we've lived here before and I LOVE it!), I was ecstatic.  One of my first questions was, "Can I get a goat?!"

He looked at me like I had grown another head.

HOWEVER, when he came out to look at houses and I stayed behind in Alabama with the kids, he asked the realtor if we could have goats on the property.  She said, "yes"… and so it began.

    As soon as we moved, the hunt was on.  I researched breeds and I looked at all kinds of breeders.  Eventually, I knew that I wanted a Nigerian Dwarf.  Great for milking, super sweet, not huge… perfect.  Goats are herd animals and can't be kept alone.  I brought home two adorable little doelings, sisters, and we named them Bebe and Midge.

     A month or so later, I brought home a buck, and the kids named him "Captain Jack Sparrow".  We were set.  They bottle fed, weaned, got huge, and eventually the girls and Captain Jack had some babies of their own…

Bebe (Mama) and Mimi (doeling)

Midge (Mama) and Jake (buckling)

    There are so many fantastic things about goats, I can't even begin to tell you.  I'm addicted now.  And one of the best things… I now had FRESH goat's milks for my soaps!  More than a year of raising, loving, cleaning, worrying (first time breeding goats ever and I was a wreck), and learning how to milk.

     I don't think I've ever been so nervous to make a soap in all my life!

    So I froze the milk, added a pinch of silk… and got down to it.

Adding the lye to the frozen goat's milk & Tussah silk

   I added the lye to the frozen goat's milk, a bit at a time.  Stirring well in between each small addition.  I did NOT want to burn this.  Trust me, once you've milked a goat by hand, you have a whole new-found respect for milk and taking the time to "do it right" is easy.  The thought of scorching the batch made my toes curl and hair stand up on end in a horrible way.  Lol!

     I soaped cool, with the oils at room temperature.  Milk soaps are notorious for overheating.

Adding the goat's milk lye solution to the room temp oils

     Stick blended to light trace, separated a small portion for the textured top, and then added in my rose clay and fragrance to the main batter.

     The fragrance I added is one of my own making.  It's a blend of a few different florals.  I wanted soft, floral, feminine… but not "granny".  However, I knew this floral blend would move fast, so I didn't add it until AFTER I had the rose clay completely mixed in and uniform.  After that, I added the fragrance, zapped it with a stick blender really quick and poured like a supersonic ninja.

If I don't spill SOME batter when I pour… something is wrong.  I always make a mess. ;)

     After pouring, I whapped it on the counter a few times to get rid of air bubbles, and then colored the separate portion (the portion I'd set aside for the top) with titanium dioxide for a nice, creamy white.

     Then it was time to get the roses ready.  I suppose I could have done this prior to doing ANYTHING, but I guess I just got excited about making soap.  So I popped the mold into the fridge while I prepped the roses.  

     The roses are organic sun-dried roses that my daughter and I picked together and laid out in the sun to dry for a few days.  I wanted the nicely formed, tight rosebuds, so I went digging through my rosebud basket and selected the ones I thought "fit".  After picking them, I took the backs off.  I didn't want ANY green, just bud petals.  So pinched the green back and the bud, wiggled and gently pulled them apart.

Freshly-cut buds, prior to drying.

Selecting

Separating bottoms from buds.

  Now the white batter for the top had thickened up enough to be properly "plopped".  (Scientific term for the textured top, I guess.  I call it the "Spoon Plop Top", but that's hard to say.)  ;)

     

Correct texture.  Holding a shape, but still fluid.  Not stiff peaked, but medium.

    To do the "Spoon Plop Top", all you need is a spoon, batter, and a sense of "it doesn't have to be perfect".  If you're going for perfect plop tops, you'll stress yourself out and actually make it look bad.  

    Plop the batter smack down the middle, and then go over the top, plopping in-between the bottom "plops".

Start spooning down the middle.

Line of "plops" down the middle.

Second layer of "plops" in between bottom "plops".

Now it's time to add the roses!  I wanted two per bar, paired up in the middle.  I tried my best to match the size of the buds to each other, but I also didn't want to get too picky about it.  Sometimes, you just have to let the imperfections be beautiful on their own.  

   And THAT'S probably the longest it's ever taken me to make a soap.  From the beginnings of the first ingredients to the final placement of the last dried rosebud…. more than a year.  

     And I can't believe I have to wait to cut it.  *groans*  No worries, I'll post updated pics and I also made a video for this one.  ;)

Soap Challenge Club- Taiwan Swirl

I love soap challenges! Anything that gives me an excuse to break out with my soaping oils and spatulas is a GOOD thing. That's why, I was super excited to hear that the new Great Cakes Soapworks Soap Challenge Club's challenge was the…

 *DRUM ROLL*

 TAIWAN SWIRL!!!!

      Never heard of the Taiwan Swirl? You will LOVE it. It's easy to do, yet makes a remarkable bar of soap that looks like it took ages to create.

      For my SCC (That's "Soap Club Challenge") soap, I went with a CK-One dupe fragrance oil. It had great reviews, reminded me of being a preteen, and was a slow-moving fragrance. All of these great attributes made it the PERFECT fragrance oil for what I was trying to do. I figured that a clean, refreshing palette of crisp white, bright blue, and black would do this unisex fragrance justice. I love the results.

Want to see how I did it? No worries! I made a video! ;)

Vanilla Goat's Milk Soap

I've been playing with additives in my soap. With this one, I went a little overboard, but totally in a good way. First, I knew that I wanted to use egg yolks. Egg yolks are supposed to up the lather, and I've also heard that the fat in the yolk is super conditioning to the skin. I wanted a super gentle, super conditioning soap, so I decided…. 1.) Goat's Milk- Conditioning, great for sensitive skin. 2.) Egg yolks- Also conditioning, said to reduce redness and give SUPER LATHER! 3.) Avocado puree- Wait, what? Yup, avocado puree. I was playing with my food processor and made a great avocado puree. I made so much, though, that I froze the extra in individual cubes to save and toss in soaps that I thought would benefit from it. Since I knew this soap was going to be dark (from the vanillin in the Vanilla fragrance oil), I figured, "Why not?" So on to the avocado puree on the list… 3.) Avocado puree- ALSO gives great lather, and avocado is rich in vitamins A, D, and E… as well as containing a whopping amount of potassium, which helps the goodies penetrate deep into the skin. Score! 4.) Organic honey- antimicrobial, it's a humectant (attracts moisture and helps retain it), contains antioxidants AND, I thought it would go well with the whole goat's milk/vanilla theme. Who DOESN'T like vanilla and honey? If you raised your hand, I'm watching you… there's something weird about you. ;) 5.) Three kinds of butters. WHOOP! Okay, so it's cold outside and that means that it's prime dry-skin weather. I wanted to load on the butters. So I added cocoa, shea, and mango. If you've never used mango, it's phenomenal… try it. So enough of my rambling, you're probably wondering what it looks like.

The photo on the left is how it looked when I put it in the mold. The photo on the right is the end product. All prettied up and ready to start curing. It takes about 3 days after cutting for it to discolor to this point. I had planned on it discoloring, so I left it completely plain and embraced the chocolate-y beauty of it. THIS is why you always have to take vanillin into consideration when designing your soaps. My vanilla fragrance is from Bramble Berry. It smells wonderful! Excited to see how this one turns out.

New Week- New Giveaway!

     Summertime is my favorite time.  Bright colors, warm weather, LOVE!

   

Front

     So to celebrate summer, Spicy Pinecone is giving away a free Rainbow Rattle Mini Lovey!

Back

     This Mini Lovey has been hand dyed by me in a Rainbow Spiral, washed with professional, baby-safe detergent and finished with a baby-safe professional grade fabric softener for super plush, super snuggly softness.  A CPSIA compliant rattle has been sewn on the inside of one corner for your loved one's entertainment.  Our Mini Lovey measures 15" x 22" and is the perfect size for your loved one to chew and snuggle.

     As with all hand-dyed items, please wash by itself for the first few washes.  As always, machine wash cold and tumble dry low.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Great Cakes Soapworks Peacock Swirl Challenge

   Amy Warden of Great Cakes Soapworks started a Soap Challenge Club and the first technique was the Peacock Swirl.  I had never tried this before, so I decided to give it a whirl.

   

     Rainbow Sherbert Peacock was born!  This soap is scented with Rainbow Sherbert fragrance oil from Nature's Garden, and it smells good enough to eat!  

      Okay, now the process....

First, I had to get all of my supplies together:

     I used micas and titanium dioxide from The Conservatorie to color my soap.  The marbling rake was made using curler picks and a piece of cardboard.  I liked the look of a tightly swirled peacock swirl, so I spaced mine closer together.  :)

     I mixed up a slow-moving soap recipe to give myself time to work with the swirl, lined a pizza box (I wanted a lot of room to work), and then got all of my colors into my squeeze bottles.  Poured the majority of my soap batter (colored with TD) into the box, and then took a deep breath...

  It was time to start squeezing and marbling.  I went crazy with the colors, but also squirted some white to help define the swirls.

Above is a picture before using the rake and doing the "S" swirls...

And now (above) here is the photo AFTER swirling.  I am now SUCH a fan of this technique and really can't wait to try it again!  

     After a day of drying, it was ready to cut and shoot.

     Hungry?  ;)

Thermofax Screen Printing

     I've always wanted to learn how to screen print and recently found a very easy and economical way to do it.

    Thermofax screen printing!

     Super easy, and even easier on the wallet.  Also, babies look cute in hermit crab onesies.  ;)

Here's how:



TONS of possibilites.

The Music Made Me Do It... and More Experimentation

     Okay, so it took me a while to recover from Christmas.  With four kids, I think it's amazing that I made it through the holiday without any help (husband deployed, but returning soon) and with my sanity relatively intact.  Go, me!  *fist pump*  Everyone still has all their arms, legs, toes, and fingers... so I'll call it a victory.

     Cheerleading aside, I've been busy since my last post.

     When Kai was a baby, his all-time favorite song was Owl City's "Fireflies".  If you haven't heard it, you can hear it here.  I've had it on my playlist forever, and he still requests it every now and then.  The last time he did, I had an idea to put fireflies in his room.

     How to do it?  VINYL!  More specifically, glow-in-the-dark vinyl.

     And if Kai was going to have fireflies, it was only fair for Cam to have them too.  So I got to work painting up some (4) canvases.

 And then designed a file in Silhouette Studio Designer Edition for my fireflies.

Afterwards, I cut the fireflies out of glow-in-the-dark vinyl and enlisted the help of my kids to put them on the canvases.  They had a blast!

And then we lined them up to admire our work.

Next, we tested their glow-in-the-dark abilities.  Believe it or not, they glow BRIGHT!  I just couldn't get my iPhone to cooperate with a good pic.

Finally, we hung them up.  The boys love looking at the fireflies when they go to bed at night.

     After the firefly canvases, my latest project has been dyeing fabric.  I tried a few different experiments, and I think that the shibori dyeing technique is by far my favorite.  (All the way to the left.)

     These were done on cotton gauze with Dylon fabric dye.  I'm still experimenting with different techniques and would love to carry some hand-dyed baby blankets in the shop once I've tested a few different things out and see what I like best.

     Hope everyone is enjoying their new year!

Embellished Burlap Table Runner How-to

     I wanted to have something fantastic on the table for Christmas dinner this year.  I've seen a lot of burlap being used for various projects and thought to myself, why not a table runner?  From there, the idea just kind of took off on it's own and evolved several times.  At the end, though, I'm super happy with what came to be...

         
    There were a few firsts for me, (using burlap, fabric ink, and a new material for stenciling) so it was a bit of a shot in the dark experiment.  Sometimes shots in the dark work out!

Here's what you'll need:

Main fabric- I used burlap.  You can find it at your local fabric store.  You'll want enough to have one continuous strip across your table plus about 12" or so on either side to hang over.  (So length of table + 24")
Backing fabric- I used muslin that I had in my fabric stash.  There should be the same amount of backing as there is main fabric.
Rotary cutter and Scissors
Ruler or measuring tape.
Sewing Machine
Thread
Pins
Paint Mask- This was a first for me.  I guess this stuff is used for painting cars, but it can be found at vinyl suppliers (I used H&HSignSupply.com).  You'll need enough for your graphics plus a 1-2" border around the design.
Transfer tape or contact paper
Squeegee
Sponge Paint Brush
Fabric ink- I used the stuff that came in my Silhouette kit, however, it's the same as you can find at the hobby store for silkscreening.
Vinyl Cutting Machine or a steady hand, utility knife, and a lot of patience- I used my Silhouette Cameo, as I am seriously lacking in that kind of patience and it was a huge design.  If it's just a small one, I could see doing it by hand, though.
Weeding Hook or needle and tweezers
Iron and/or Heat Press- I used both, though just an iron would be okay.  You'll see in the tutorial how I used them.
Freezer paper or scrap paper- To keep the ink from bleeding through onto the surface of whatever you are painting on.

Step 1- Cut your main fabric and backing to the size of your table plus 24" (that gives you 11" of overhang on either side after factoring in a 1" seam allowance) for the length and then the width you want plus 2".  (Mine was 20" wide.)  For burlap, I found that an easy way to make a straight cut was to pull on one of the end threads.  It would gather the burlap and eventually snap, but left a nice, clean straight line to follow for when you cut it.

Step 2- After your main fabric and backing are cut, iron freezer paper on to the back of your main fabric.  (Main fabric being the top fabric that you are going to paint.  See which side of the burlap you want to use... some sides are prettier than others, and iron the freezer paper onto the ugly or "wrong" side.

And keep ironing...

... until the back parts of the runner that will have the graphics on them is completely covered.

Step 3- Using your cutting machine, cut out your design on your paint mask.  You may have to cut the paint mask down to fit onto your mat.

     Also, if your design is large.... you may have to cut it in several sections.

Step 4-  Weed your design.  Using your weeding hook, remove the parts of the stencil that you will want to paint.  This part may leave you a little covered in paint mask vinyl.

Step 5-  Lay out your design the way you want it.

     Once you're happy with how it looks (keep seam allowances in mind!  Don't place it too near the edge or some may disappear into a seam), use your transfer tape or contact paper to remove the design from the backing and onto your main fabric.  (Use the squeegee over the transfer tape once it's on top of the vinyl and then peel off the backing... then place it on your main fabric and squeegee again.)  Before I put the contact paper on top of the vinyl to remove it from the backing, I like to stick the contact paper on the carpet and pull up a few times to get the stickiness down a bit.  Makes it easier to remove later.

Step 6- This is BY FAR the hardest part of making this.  Peel back the transfer tape.  Go slow, take your time.  Cut the excess transfer tape away as you're doing it. I don't have a photo of this step because I was charging my phone, but use one hand to hold down the vinyl and the other to remove the transfer tape.  This takes awhile.  Be patient.

   I do, however, have a pic of some of the words with the transfer tape peeled off while the rest wait for  transfer tape and placement.

     As you get the decals on there, go back over them gently with your squeegee, and/or press firmly with your hand to resticky it to the main fabric if it came up at all.

Step 7-  Now comes the fun part.  Using your sponge brush, apply the fabric ink to the decals, being careful to stay within the frame of the decal and not go out of the lines.  I did a thin coat and waited for it to dry.  Then did a second coat a bit thicker... blotting up and down with my brush.

     What you DON'T want to do, is paint so forcefully that you pull up your stencil... or blob so much paint that it bleeds all over the place regardless of the stencil.  The freezer paper will also help keep the ink in check.

Step 8-  Once the paint is COMPLETELY dry, peel back the stencil.  This was my favorite part by far.  So fun to see the end result peeking through.  Then, heat seal it.  You can either use an iron and iron through a protective layer of fabric (such as an old pillowcase) or a heat press if you want to blaze through it.  Make sure you use a teflon sheet if you use your heat press.

Step 9-  Now it's time to sew it together.  Pin your fabric right sides together.  Starting on one long side, sew down and around 3 sides with a 1" seam allowance.  Leave one short side open so you can turn it right-side out.  Iron.

Step 10- Tuck the unsewn short side inside 1" and press flat.  Sew as close to the edge as you can.  To finish the runner off, top stitch around the entire  runner.  I topstitched slightly under 1" to catch and hold all of the layers.  Then, you're done!

     Send pics if you guys make some!  I'd love to see them.  Enjoy!

Etched Hurricane Candleholder Tutorial

     I LOVE the dollar store.  Specifically, Dollar Tree.  You can find some super neat glass items there to experiment on, and not worry if you completely mess it up because... if you do, it was only $1 *shoulder shrug*... and if you don't, it was only $1!!! *excited happy dance*

   So this was my first time etching glass.  I was a bit nervous, but I found that I absolutely LOVED it and I thought you guys might too.

    See what you can make?  Doesn't take much and it's not only inexpensive, but LOOKS fantastic.

Here's what you'll need-

Hurricane candleholder or other glass item to etch
Etching cream (I used EtchAll, but there are other etching creams out there)
Vinyl for a stencil (some people use contact paper, but I haven't tried it)
Weeding hook
Transfer tape
Squeegee
Cutting tool such as a Silhouette or a utility knife and your time and patience.
Old paintbrush

Step 1- 
     Design and cut your stencil, leaving at least a 1" edge around your design that you want to etch.  I knew that I wanted to do snowflakes on  mine so I measured the candleholder and eyeballed about how big I wanted it.  Pulled up the image in Silhouette Studio, sized it, and cut it out on my vinyl.

Step 2-
     Once your design is cut, use your weeding hook to pull out the part that you want to etch.  Make sure that you get everything you want to see etched on your glass is weeded off of your stencil.

Starting to weed out the design.

Weeding complete

Step 3- 
     Lay your transfer tape over the top of your design and squeegee across your stencil to get the vinyl to stick to your tape.  Then transfer the design over to the glass.  Go SLOWLY.  Make sure you line up your stencil before placing it on your glass.  Then, squeegee it down REALLY WELL.  You don't want any bubbles or lumps on the design part of your stencil.  (Around the edge doesn't matter, but you want to make sure that the design part is squashed on there nice and tight so the etching cream doesn't leak out through a non-secure part and blur or smear your design.)  I squeegee'd and then went back over with my fingers.

Step 4-
     Gently peel back your transfer tape and then re-eyeball your design.  I ran my fingers over it again (and held it up to the light to check for bubbles around the design edge) to make sure that it was stuck on there really well where the design was.  Make sure the placement and everything is where you want it because once you put the cream on, you're stuck with it.  :)

Check your stencils

Step 5-
     Using your old paintbrush (**DON'T TOUCH THE CREAM WITH YOUR BARE SKIN**), blob the etching cream on there.  Be GENEROUS, don't skimp on this part, but be careful where you put it, if you go outside of your stencil, your glass will have a mark.

Step 6- 
     Wait.  :)  I waited 30 minutes wiped a part off (use a paper towel, don't wipe with your hand) and held it up.  It wasn't as deep as I wanted it to be, so I reapplied to that spot and waited 30 more minutes... then went on to Step 7.

Step 7-
     By this point, my kids were wigging out and jumping around like crazy.  I completely forgot to scrape the excess cream back into the jar and, instead, I was rushing and didn't realize until I had already started to rinse and the pic was taken.  Right now is when you should scrape the excess cream off and put it back into the jar.  THEN rinse it off.  (I was kicking myself afterwards.)

     If, after you rinse, you are still not happy with how deep the etching is, you can dry it off completely, and then redo Steps 5-7.  If you're happy with how it looks, then you can move on to Step 8.

Step 8-
     Remove the stencil and take a bow.

     Or take two....

   Once you're finished congratulating yourself, do it again after you decorate.  ;)

    Enjoy.