Blue skies smiling at me, nothing but blue skies......

Friday April 18, 2014

Yard sailing is a bad/good habit of "K's", lets face it we all have too much stuff, but sometimes, a deal is just a deal and can't be passed up!  Most of the drying racks we use are from yard sales, as are baskets in which we will display soap, assorted small glass bowls, crock pots....you get the idea.  Our only wish is that we could find coconut oil at a local yard sale, but I am getting off the subject of soap.

Since the yard sale pickings we so slim this morning (empty handed is not the option I was going for when I left at the crack of dawn).  Arriving home much earlier than usual,  the idea of house cleaning wasn't so appealing so, thinking like any self respecting soap maker... I decided to whip up a batch of soap.  I really liked the lavender spoon swirl we did last Wednesday so decided to try another spoon swirl using shades of blue, in this case 1982 blue mica we bought at Brambleberry.com.  

3 colors are needed so I did a full strength blue, then diluted it with TD (titanium dioxide) white to make a pale blue, the rest of the soap was lightened with TD to make it "white".

The perfect name for this soap is "Blue Skies", many of my friends know of my long time (camper, counselor and grown up counselor and advocate) association with Rockbrook Camp for Girls in Brevard, NC.  www.rockbrookcamp.com.  Singing has always been a part of camp life, so when I hear a particular song it carries me back to the NC mountains.   Blue Skies is one of those songs.....Blue skies smiling at me, nothing but blue skies at RBC....just so you know the background on this soap!  I think it will turn out looking like a blue sky with fluffy clouds, fingers are crossed.

Now back to soap making...   

I mixed up a batch of Old Faithful (coconut, palm, olive and castor oils) with the lye/water mix and brought the mixture to a light trace.  

Since I was operating solo there aren't many pictures, but you get the idea, I added the fragrances, a mixture of lavender/herb Fragrance Oil, lavender Essential Oil, lemongrass EO and spearmint EO, it is a light, citrusy, fresh scent.

Once the scents were added I poured the soap batter into thirds, coloring one with the blue, one with diluted pale blue and the last one with white.  Slowly I started spooning the colors into the log mold, there isn't a right way or wrong way to do this, so I just kept rotating until the mold was filled.

We have watched so many soap making videos on youtube I was thrilled that the swirling on the top looked so nice, almost professional, but I won't go that far, not at this point, it did turn out well, can't wait to cut the soap tomorrow.

 

Here is one more look at the "artistically" swirled top, ok, so I am proud of it, no harm in that, especially when I look back at how the first few soaps we made looked.  They weren't bad, just not as "polished" as what we make now.  Even though "A" wasn't with me to create "Blue Skies", we have both come a long way from the first soaps we made last fall, we are slowly, getting there.

As you can see (below)  after the soap has cured for 24 hours it is hard enough to remove from the mold and cut, this is right where it's supposed to be.

Here is the group shot of Blue Skies after it was cut.

It looks exactly like I wanted it to, clouds with different shades of blue sky peeking through.

The soap smells great, a touch of lavender, mixed with a hint of lemongrass and spearmint, very light and fresh, can't wait to use it.