Mel's Sunday Update

Yes Don't fall over in a faint - I know I haven't posted a Sunday update in quite a while .....

While I was in Perth last month, I started Wizard's Inkwell.  Thank you so much to Paula for the suggestion - this looks like a fun project and the colours so far seem to be working well.  I am waiting on some Kreinik braid to arrive before I move onto the next part of this one.

Also while I was in Perth, I started some of the masses of back stitching required for Jasper.  Two side of the frame have been fully back stitched.  the other two sides are barely started and the actual middle is barely started. I worked on this for about 15 hours ......

Finally this week I gritted my teeth, swore at my eyesight and did BoInk Part 7.  I loved this part - I love Celtic Swirls .....  This part's photo was taken outside so the colouring is quite different from previous photographs.  The dark blue stands out so much more but the green looks muted and washed out ....

Anyway - that's my progress.  Hope everyone else had a good week this week.

Citrus Soap

I think its time I gave up soaping. Nothing seems to be working right over the last few batches ....

Oh they turn out quite usable - just not what or how I envisaged they would when I planned them.

This morning's was a case in point.  I need to send out a batch for a "3 oil" swap I'm in.  The batch needs to be posted as soon as I'm home from Perth so I need to make it now so it can start to cure while I am away.

  I made a 1.5 size usual batch so I could have some for home/presents as well as for the swap.

Ingredients:
1/3 coconut oil
1/3 macadamia nut oil
1/3 rice bran oil.

212gm lye
260ml lemon juice

30ml petitgrain eo
10ml lime eo
10 orange eo
(and I cheated and added 5ml may chang eo to act as a fixative for the scent)

The whole thing seized instantly in the pot.  It turned from a thin pouring custard (optimal) to cold stiff plasticine consistency in about 2 or 3 seconds while I was stirring.

None of these oils or essential oils are known seizers.  Was the temperature not quite right? Too much temperature differential between the oils and the lye solution?  Don't know.

Wrapped plasticwrap around my hands and pushed/pummelled the solid blob into two different square moulds (so much for the fancy moulds I had out waiting for the thin custard to be poured into.

Wrapped them up and left them alone.  Will check tonight and if they have cooled I will unmould and cut into chunks.  Cross fingers that the seize didn't heat the batch up too much so that the scent flashed out.  Oh well here's hoping.

More Soaping stuff

When I ordered the orange essential oil to finally get around to making my citrus soap, I also indulged and bought tester-sized bottles of two new frangrances.

Cedar and Saffron - Fragrant cedar is infused with the sensual smoky scents of patchouli, sandalwood and vetiver, then topped with Eastern spices and a trace of white musk.



Spiced Mahogany - This deep, rich woody scent has notes of Italian Bergamot, Apple Wood and Tonka Bean to round out the darker, more sensuous Patchouli, Cedarwood, and Oakmoss. To keep this fragrance from smelling like a freshly cut wood floor, we've added spices of Cardamom, Vanilla Bourbon and allspice. Because of the Vanilla, this fragrance will discolor your soap but the resulting fragrance is one of sophistication and verve.

Do either of them take anyone's fancy?  Suggestions on which one I should use first ????

Cakes *and* Soap

Why do I only get the urge to be creative when I'm sick ????

Is it because the first thing I do when I feel unwell is make the kitchen spotless ???  A spotless kitchen to me is the same as having a pocket full of cash in a shopping mall.  It must be spent immediately - or in this case, used immediately.

Or is it the same reason that I persist in stitching on the train on Monday mornings.  I know I'm going to make mistakes, I know I will have to undo what I've done, but I still persist in doing it anyway ????

Or is that I need I need virus in my system to overwhelm my Superego and let my Id out to play ???

Either which way I was very creative and somewhat productive today ....

First up I made muffins.  To be more exact I made a gluten-free version of these ....

http://theblackoven.blogspot.com/2008/03/le-petit-gateau-du-les-legions-noire.html

Please go click on the site - you see immediately why these have been gnawing at my creative side for a while .....

I used a gluten-free flour and a gluten substitute.  As these are not normal cakes, and I am horrendously ill with a virus, I'm not quite sure these came out as intended.  After all the instructions did say not to overmix the batter.  Well mine didn't even become a batter, they were more like a cross between playdough and an Aero bar .... or perhaps a cross between a moon rock and a mud cake.

Either way they are very very delicious and I ate a couple straight out of the oven.  I didn't have any obscure French metal so I played German (Rammstein) and Canadian (Strapping Young Lad) while partaking of my cakes and tea.

Speaking of which did anyone in Australia watch the series return of Bones last night?  Stephen Fry playing a psychologist to David Boreanaz.  Two of my favourite lust objects for very different reasons, interacting :) :)

{and before anybody comments - I know Stephen Fry is gay - its not his body that I primarily lust over .....)

Ah where were we - oh yeah, after the cakes I cleaned the kitchen to a spotless state again and remembered that I have wanted to make another batch of soap - a slow curing one for my birthday this year.  So I pulled out and tweaked my favourite recipe.

250gm Lard
250gm Coconut oil
250gm Rice Bran oil
120gm Grapeseed oil
100gm Cocoa Butter
30gm Castor oil
2 toothpicks of orange soap colouring ...

137gm lye
250gm water

The addition of castor oil, even in such small doses will make this one a very long curing soap - it will not be able to be used in under 8 weeks - but the bubbles should be big and fat when its ready ....

I had the oils melted and the lye solution prepared when I realised I am completely out of five fold Orange essential oil.  In fact I am out of all orange essential oil.  And I really really really wanted to make my favourite citrus blend .... oh well.

What else can I add in instead?  Didn't want to play with the citrus because I had a definite combination in mind, OK back to the fragrances.  Green Irish Tweed?  Bonsai?  Chai Tea? Vanilla Sandalwood?

I had already put in orange colouring - none of these were orange fragrances to me ..... aha.  Dragonfire !!!!!

DragonFire: "Sophisticated, complex and heady are the keys to this magnificent fragrance. It's so multi-faceted you will find layers of musks, ambers, a touch of patchouli, Nag Champa, cedars to warm and enhance this exotic fragrance, and much more."

Yep that sounds orange enough to me. Can't smell a bloody thing, but oh well - someone will tell me if its any good after they use it.  Someone? Anyone?

Mix through, poured into a box mould and wrapped in a few towels to conserve heat.  Trubs is doing her bit by sleeping on top of it.

Cleaned up the kitchen to spotless again, ate another muffin.  Decided to try the Sandalwood Vanilla fragrance.  Only got a small tester bottle so it will be a small batch.  So I pulled out my guest soap moulds.

150gm Coconut oil
150gm lard
100gm Rice Bran oil
100gm Cocoa Butter

70gm lye
125gm water

This soap wont have huge bubbles - bit it will be ooh so conditioning and make your skin soooo soft.  Each my shorts Dove - you commercially producers of overhyped crap! 

Sandalwood Vanilla: "A perfectly balanced unisex blend. It mellows gorgeously in soap -- think Sam Elliott in a faded denim shirt. (Younger customers, replace Sam Elliott with Owen Wilson; international customers, please substitute Jude Law, Russell Crowe, and Deepak Chopra.)"

What can I say - I thought Sam Elliott was the perfect actor for the role of Lee Scoresby in the Golden Compass .... as for the other actors mentioned - meh!

Basically I adore sandalwood and I'm playing with vanilla fragrances - so why not.  It was in the cupboard after all ....

Again, you need to be able to breathe through your nose to be able to smell - so again I hope that in a few weeks time at least someone, anyone will be able to let me know if it smells nice.

Made the batch up, it behaved perfectly.  Made 14 or 15 little guest soap sized bars.  Again all wrapped up and next to the other wrapped parcel on the table ....

Hmm - Trubs is now asleep on that one - make that - 14 or 15 "squished" bars - the individual moulds have nowhere near the durability and stiffness of the box mould.

I'm tired now.  Going for a nap and then might do some stitching tonight.

I'm not cleaning the kitchen back up to spotless just in case ...

I'm tired - someone want to make me a cup of tea so I don't have to walk into that kitchen again.

So ... anyone want to try either of these soaps when they are ready? let me know and I'll list names down - and send care parcels out later in the year .....

Seeing as I don't have enough energy to get up and take a picture of Trubs sleeping on the soaps - here's a picture I took this morning.

I mean honestly where else do you expect a librarian's cat to sleep?

Being Creative

Reading the blog of one of my favourite artists yesterday, she said "Damnit, if I can't cuddle, I might as well paint!"

Well I'm not an artist and I can't paint - but I think she has a point.  So today in amongst lots of phone calls and PMs and IMs and txts and all manner of wonderful communications with sooo many people (THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!)

I soaped.  And then I stitched.

Vanilla Soap
Inspired by my sweetie - but who knows if he'd even like it :) :) so I made a whole batch of 12 bars in case anyone else thinks they may like it ....

250gm Coconut Oil
250gm Grapeseed Oil
250gm Lard
250gm Rice Bran Oil

250ml water
137 gm lye
30ml Vanilla fragrance.

Simple plain recipe.  Nothing fancy, no hassles.  Used full water amount to give me more time to play but this soap will take at least 4 and preferably up to 8 weeks for minimum cure for use.

The creative part is in the vanilla fragrance.  This fragrance is known to discolour soap.  It will turn the whole batch a tan or coffee brown over time as the soap cures.

So what I did was pour two thirds (roughly) of the raw soap into the square mould, then mixed the fragrance with the remaining one third and then poured it in as a swirl type pattern.  I then used a spatula to mix it around a little.  This is known as a blind swirl because I wont know until the soap cures what the swirl will actually look like.

I think I may have over-mixed so it will look more marbled than swirled - but the fun part is I have to wait to see what the results of my creation are .....

White Witch Soap
This is a fragrance I bought at Christmas to suit a fragrance a friend wears.  I think she's liked the bubble bath powder I sent her with this in it.  Anyway I thought it was time I had a play with some new mould and a patchouli-based fragrance appealed :) :)

250gm Coconut Oil
250gm Macadamia Nut Oil
250gm Lard
250gm Rice Bran Oil

250ml water
138 gm lye
30ml White Witch fragrance.

I used grapeseed oil in the first recipe as I wanted to keep the base bar as white as possible so the blind swirl would show through .... I much prefer the feeling of macadamia nut oil so I used it in this recipe and it will be a softer more yellowish hue to the bar.  Also played with some 3D two part moulds instead of the usual cavity pour.  When the soap got too thick I poured the rest into a standard cavity mould.

Again I used full water so I would have more time to play with pouring before the recipe got too thick.  Also as it was in individual moulds, there was no gel phase so curing will take longer with this soap.  Definitely up around the 8 weeks for a good hard long-lasting bar ....

Stitching
Finally tonight I stitched - got some more done on BoInk.  Hope to get a progress pic put up tomorrow when I get a little bit more done.  I've got the first Barfy done and just need to outline him.  I've started on the green but need to add in the gold to outline the second installment before I take a picture - hopefully tomorrow - or should I say later today.

Have no idea what I'm talking about - see here.

Tales of a Lapsed Soap Maker Part 3

Well I can't talk about my stitching this week yet again - another present.

So I may as well blog about something else I've been doing this week.  And it helps me write down the recipe while I'm going too.

This week I made lip balm.

Now there are two schools of though with your basic lip balm.  There's:

1/3 wax (beeswax, candilla wax, macadamia wax etc)
1/3 soft oils (liquid at room temp)
1/3 hard oils (solid at room temp)

The other school of thought is slightly more complicated:

• 40% oils liquid at room temperature (sweet almond, apricot kernel, avocado, grapeseed, hemp seed, macadamia, olive, sunflower, etc.)
• 25% oils solid at room temperature (coconut, lanolin, palm, mango butter, shea butter)
• 20% Wax (beeswax)
• 15% oils brittle at room temperature (cocoa butter, palm kernel, etc.)

This is paraphrased from:  http://www.lemelange.com/lip_balm_recipes.htm

Although I have made lip balms in the long dark distant past, I never made one that was "perfect".  So I thought I would once again have a further play.

So the recipe I designed was:

2oz Cocoa Butter
2oz beeswax
2oz jojoba oil
2oz meadowfoam oil
a touch of honey to sweeten

This is:
1/4 solid room temp (cocoa butter)
1/4 wax (beeswax)
1/2 liquid oil at room temp (jojoba and meadowfoam)

Left it completely unflavoured.  This produced a softer lip balm, better for tins rather than a tube.  Should be very moisturising and perfect for a northern hemisphere winter.  Might be a little too soft for summer.  Made around 15 x 10ml tins.  Its a tweaking of this original recipe: http://www.fromnaturewithlove.com/recipe/recipe.asp?recipe_id=86

So today I'm going to try the other school of thought nd make a flavoured lip balm.  My thoughts are:

2 oz. Cocoa Butter
2 oz. Shea Butter
1 oz. Sweet Almond Oil
1 oz. Evening Primrose
1 oz. Jojoba
1 oz. Meadowfoam Oil
1 oz. Beeswax
1 oz Candelilla wax
1/2 tsp. Liquid Vitamin E
20 to 25 drops Flavoring Oil

This is:
40% liquid room temp
20% solid room temp
20% wax
20% brittle

Original recipe from here: http://www.tlcsoaps.com/lipbalm.htm

Should make a slightly firmer recipe.  Also the addition of the candelilla wax should give it a shinier finish.

UPDATE: Ok I used apricot oil instead of almond oil and yes it did indeed give a firmer and shinier texture.  Fells more like a lipstick where the first batch felt more like a balm or lotion.

I am happy with how both these turned out.  Now to label and send off.  Later!  Gotta finish the cards first :)

Tales of a Lapsed Soap Maker Part 2

Its just like riding a bike - it all comes back so easily. 

Woke up all congested this morning - felt like I was trying to breathe underwater with tight bands around my chest.  All eased shortly after getting up and inhaling some eucalyptus.  Still feel like my head is stuffed with cotton wool.

Its weird I feel like I have an abundance of energy and I feel really restless, but then I fall over in exhaustion a short while later.

poor Paul - I've exhausted him and he's still sleeping.

Anyway woke up four hours ago, checked some emails and did the nose and chest clearing thing and then I made a second batch of soap.

One for the vegetarians.

Christmas Forest Soap
250gm Palm Oil
250gm Rice Bran Oil
250gm Coconut Oil
130gm Olive Oil
100gm Cocoa Butter
20gm Castor Oil
139gm lye
205ml water
30 ml Brambleberry Christmas Forest fragrance oil
1 tablespoon French Green Clay
1/8 teaspoon Chromium green oxide

As per usual, chop and mix oils and butters and set over a warm heat to melt.  after melted pop into a water bath to cool down the mix.  Soaping is best done when both oils and the lye mix are about 40-45 degrees Celsius in temperature.

Mixed the lye and water in a water bath in front of an open window - you do not want to ever inhale lye fumes.  Bad things!

Mixed the green clay in with the oils.  This clay is more gray then green - so I chucked in a touch of chromium green oxide (mineral colourant).  Its still going to be a grey green - but hopefully turn out a more like a mossy green.

Added the lye solution to the oils and clay.  Hit it with the stick blender until it came to trace (gained the consistency of a pouring custard).  Added in the fragrance. Stirred with a spatula and then began pouring.

Worked like a dream.  Just poured perfectly and consistently throughout the whole process.  I have 20 little bars of perfect uniformity and all perfectly poured.

And then I buggered up the tops when I wrapped the glad wrap over the top.  Oh well.

Anyone got a good method for putting glad wrap over liquids without it creating that crumpled look?

Anyway - I cleaned all that away, pulled out my baking stuff, made a loaf of gluten-free bread from a never-before-tried recipe.  That is proofing now.

Cleaned all that stuff away set off the dishwasher, came and sat by the computer again.

Whoops there goes the bell for the bread.  Off to pop that in the oven for 40 mins.  Time for a nap I think - I'm exhausted again.  The smell of the newly-baked bread will hopefully be yummy enough to wake up Paul nicely ....

Hugs all!

Tales of a Lapsed Soap Maker Part 1

Soap making 101 - never make soap without following two rules:

Do not make soap when you are under the weather
Do not use unusual ingredients without referring back to your journal for the last time you made soap with them

I thought I was feeling a little better today - so I thought  had better make that batch of soap I've been meaning too for Christmas presents ....

Rosewood & Amber Soap
250gm lard
250gm Tallow
250gm Coconut Oil
235 gm Olive Oil
210gm water
140gm lye
15 gm Caster oil
20g gm Rosewood essential oil
10 gm amber fragrance oil
1 tablespoon of French Pink Clay

Melted the fats and oils together, mixed in the clay.  All looking good so far.  Left that to cool and mixed the lye and water.  Started to mix the scents.  Now I haven't touched these essential oils and fragrance oils for over a year as I haven't really been concentrating on this hobby.  And I have a head cold - I can't determine if these are OK or if they have lost their potency - or worse if the amber fragrance oil has "turned" and now smells crappy.

Oh well mix up the blend anyway - oh crap I forgot the amber fragrance oil is a dark dark syrupy brown.  Oh I hope it doesn't discolour the pink into some unappealing brown like the fragrance did to the green I chose last year!

OK mixed the lye solution into the fats and started stirring!  Brilliant!  Working perfectly !!!!  Came to trace nicely.  Has the consistency of a thin pouring custard - just perfect for the intricate moulds I had prepared!  Then I added the scent blend.

Technical tern "Ricing"
Ricing is when some combination during the soap making process acts as a catalyst and creates a hot of chemical energy in a short period of time which greatly speeds up the setting or saponification process.  Put simply the mixture goes from thin puring custard into lumpy mashed potatoes.

I managed to pour into three guest0-sized soap moulds before the whole pot seized.  Lumpy mashed potatoes?  I could replicate the mashed potato scene out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind !!!

Oh well mooshed the stuff into the rest of the moulds as best I could.  Covered with glad wrap , wrapped the lot in a towel and hoped for the best.

4 hours later:  Paul walks in and says - what is that sublime smell!  Oh that is gorgeous!  Do you have some already made I could use right now !!!!!

OK I know there was nothing wrong with the fragrance oils and the ricing didn't adversely affect the scent either!  Phew!

18 hours later:  Soaps have cooled and hardened, so time to put them them into the freezer to help pop them out of their moulds.  Still look mostly pink.  In fact the main concern from the ricing is that there are air bubbles everywhere - oh well.

Lessons for the lapsed soaper:
* Do not soap with a head cold
* Do not use fragrances without checking your notes from last time
* Always have a large box mould on hand and ready so next time it rices you can just moosh it into one large mould and cut it up and smooth it off later!

Soaping

Evening all, Seeing as my sinus' are still playing up, I can't stitch, can't concentrate enough to read, forget about picking up knitting needles or trying something new, so .....

I made soap.

My usual basic skin-softening recipe, tweaked with the addition of some caster oil for bigger bubbles.  The caster means it will take a lot longer to cure 3-4 months instead of 3-4 weeks - but it is a fabulous bar when cured.

Recipe:
250 gm lard
250 gm tallow
250 gm coconut oil
30 ml caster oil
220 ml rice bran oil
138 gm lye
210 ml water
25 ml Fragrance
touch of gold and chocolate micas

I trialled a new fragrance - Brambleberry's Mayan Gold.  The blurb on the website says:
This luxurious fragrance is a mix of rare woods, spices and amber. It is considered an oriental fragrance with a very unique note: chocolate Our blend contains a large amount of Essential Oils Sandalwood, Patchouli, Clary Sage, Vetiver, Mandarin, Lemon, Grapefruit, Neroli) along with synthetic notes of Vanilla, Chocolate and Musk.

As I can't smell a thing with my sinusitis, I was conservative with the fragrance - so it will be a subtle scent.

I'll take piccies when the soaps come out of the moulds.  Basic moulds today - not fancy ones.  Just wanted a basic simple recipe and procedure to get me back into the swing of things.