Slacking...but not really

OKAY,  I have not posted lately....but that does not mean I haven't been creative.  In fact, I've been so creative that I haven't had time to post anything :)


Lately, I've been dabbling in mid century modern:

Before that...MANDALAS!

The bottom piece is painted on clear plexiglass, backed by a sheet of stained wood.

I wonder what will be next...

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 23 - 25

Exciting news!  Although it's not completely finished, I've been working on the website over the last few days and now have Valentines Day bath and body kits for sale.  I'm offering four kits per scent...I don't want to get too overwhelmed at the start. Visit the shop page here.

 I've also been having a lot of fun with the photos.

In the very near future, I'll be posting about upcoming workshops: SOAPMAKING 101 and Make Your Own Spa Kit workshop coming up at the end of February...which will make a great gift for your crafty sweetheart.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 21 and 22

It's been pretty busy around here for the last few days.  I was able to whip up a batch of Sublime Lime exfoliating sea salt soap with lime, rosemary and benzoin essential oils.  I want to eat it.  I also worked out a few bugs in my bath truffle recipe.  Next is whipped body butter and whipped sugar scrub with finely ground sugar...I can't wait to try that one out :)

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 20

Here is the Winter Mint soap I made yesterday evening.  

I've been experimenting with creating infusions from spices.  The pink is from a madder root infusion I made a couple of days ago, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I will play around with the colors a bit more in the next batch but I consider this batch a soap success.

I must admit that I am smitten with bath bombs.  I've never tried one before testing one out that I made last week.  Now I get it.  They're awesome.  I'm not a fan of the giant round bombs.  It, frankly, seems a bit much.  Last night, I broke one of my giant bomb cakes in half and I still would have been satisfied with a bit less...so I decided to make little 1 oz fizzy bath truffles dredged in epsom salt.

I have settled on these for my bath bomb offerings.  Whenever I open a storefront, I'm gonna have giant jars filled with these little shimmery lovelies.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 19

 I give you Hot August Nights, named after the sexiest album cover EVER.  Neil Diamond.  I KNOW, RIGHT?    

So anyway, I feel like I am getting a real hang of soap making. Have I mentioned that I'm hooked?

To be honest, I'm patting myself on the back for this one.  It came out as I intended. Don't get me wrong,  I LOVE the surprises, the happy accidents.  I like even more that what I thought up in my head actually came out right.

 The soap I made today is much more subtle and, honestly, I didn't have a clear vision for the look...so we'll have another surprise tomorrow.

Here's a nice closeup...for the full effect.  Very yonic.

Oh myyyyyyy.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 18

One thing that was easier about making soap in the kitchen was that Orion could hang out in his highchair (over 10 feet away from me...and the lye).  I packed every toy he has in the pack-and-play in the workshop and can make soap while listening to his annoying talking dog robot.  A friend came over the other night and noticed that Orion's zone in the workshop has grown substantially.

THIS SOAP SMELLS GOOD.  It will definitely be a standard bar that I will always have for sale.  I'm gonna cut into it first thing in the morning!

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 17

 Here are the bath bombs.

One thing you may not know about me is, once I started doing design work for my husband's sign company, I have become smitten with promotional material.  I love seeing other small craft businesses nail it.  It is intimidating and inspiring at the same time.  I decided to up my game with the soaps (like the photo above).  So, this is what I created today:

The giant white vinyl sticker (scraps from hubby's shop) I adhered to the work bench is PERFECT. It scatters the fluorescent shop light beautifully.  I could have let you think I have full spectrum diffused lighting on stands or that there was a south facing window nearby, but that's not nearly as exciting as getting a great look from vinyl and fluorescent lights :)

I'm gonna whip out a batch of Hot August Nights soap tomorrow.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 16

I cut into the soap I made yesterday.  I'm hooked.

I went up to the city last weekend with my boy, to the Plaza district.  It was packed with vintage stores and boutiques...and a smattering of yummy body products.  I saw a bath bomb...that was not shaped like a bath bomb.  It was cut into a cube.  It looked rustic and modern all at once.  It never occurred to me that I didn't have to do it like everyone else.  So I whipped out a rectangular bath bomb mold out of corrugated plastic from hubby's shop.  I decided on one that could hold 2 different sized batches.

                                     

I'll post a better pic tomorrow.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 15

I've decided to jump in and offer Valentines Day bath and body kits.  This will be just the self imposed kick in the butt I need to swing Sublime Soapworks into motion.  I'll be making 15 lbs of soap, whipped body butter and sugar scrub, bath bombs and fizzy bath salts for each batch, as well as labels and packaging.

I'm LOVING my new work space.  I just whipped out a batch of Satin and Smoke, with patchouli, cinnamon, cedarwood, benzoin and vanilla.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 13 and 14

Out of all of the projects I've done so far, this is the most boring AND exciting one.  Cleaning the random crap that's accumulated since moving in and scrubbing the 40 years of gunk off the shelf wasn't the most fun I ever had...BUT, all of my soaping supplies are neatly tucked away in a space that will make creating soaps much more efficient AND creative.  I know what I'll be doing tomorrow :)

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 11 and 12

I did a painting marathon yesterday and today, rotating four paintings I needed to get done ASAP.  Sorry, can't show the finished pieces :)

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 10

First off, we had gallery walk tonight.  The soaps sold really well...especially for January, when everyone is worn out on spending money.  Lover's Lullaby will become regularly stocked.  NOW, I need to figure out the recipe!  I usually take thorough notes when creating a soap scent, but this one was not smelling good AT ALL...so I just started tweaking it in an attempt to not waste $15 worth of essential oils.

While I waited for traffic to pick up, I worked on some DAILY CREATIVITY.

well, my first attempt at transferring a photocopy didn't turn out so well.  Luckily there are two of each image...so I'll try again.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 9

It started as a joke.  I asked on Facebook: "if I were to make a bar of soap named "The Dude", what would it smell like?"  I've been working on a scent that smells like White Russian and dirty hippie for over a month.  Yes, it's harder than it sounds.  My husband is a Dudeist priest and he has not given the seal of approval on any of my attempts so far.  So here's this instead.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 8

 I decided to do a self portrait today...I wanted to see how many layers I could pile on.  I also cut the soap I made yesterday and HOT DAMN it's beautiful!

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 7

For feeling crummy, it was a fairly creative day.  I got sucked into the Pintrest hole over the weekend and found an awesome tutorial on how to transfer photocopies onto painting surfaces. I thought I'd play around in my art program before committing paint to canvas.  Here's my friend Danny.

I'm planning on making a series of small shrines of various outcasts in society...gypsies, circus freaks.  Maybe a few specific people.  Outcasts stir the pot.  Whether we like them or not, they get us thinking.  Show us alternatives to the norm.  Jesus was an outcast.

I also cut into the Russian Tea soap I made yesterday and WOWZA!  My husband said it smells just like spiced tea in the house.  WIN!

After cutting that last loaf up, I realized that I am addicted to soapmaking....so I made another batch: Lover's Lullaby, named after a song from of one of my favorite musicians, Janis Ian.  Here's the top:

It has lavender, vanilla, cinnamon, benzoin and a hint of bergamot.  Sounds weird.  We'll see.

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 6

I bought a bag of clay a few days back. I left it in the van and when I brought it in this morning, it was frozen solid. 

So I made soap instead. Russian Tea soap with orange, lemon, cinnamon, a touch of clove and benzoin. YUM. 

It's so pretty. 

Then I jacked with it...

Oh well. Hopefully the swirls turned out nice. I put it in a warm oven for a few hours to help it cure. Not sure how that's gonna change things. We'll see when I cut it tomorrow. 

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 5

I know it's not the prettiest picture but...what is it?

I've been wrapping my soap molds in those small grocery store bags, which was fine for the hot process soap that's the consistency of mashed potatoes but the cold process soap is more like pancake batter and fills all the creases.  SO, I grabbed some vinyl sticker remnants from hubby's sign shop and made an inner mold.  It's not the most exciting thing I could create, but it's definitely going to come in handy.

I think tomorrow I'll break open the bag of clay I bought and make a soap dish :)

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 4

 I attempted to make corn starch finger paints for Orion the other day.  It ended up somewhere in between playdo and gook...which got me thinking.  Can I make gook?  Why, yes I can!  So we did.  It's usually colored green but I only had red food coloring.  No one  seemed to mind.  Here's the recipe.

During my gook recipe search, I found a blogpost about cold porcelain, which is an air dry clay made from glue and cornstarch, with a bit of oil and vinegar thrown in.  I remember making it with one of my art students and it had a nice feel to it.  I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it yet.  Here's the recipe.

I also de-molded the soap I made yesterday.  It turned out SO PRETTY!

DAILY CREATIVITY ~ day 3

I just made a cold process loaf of Lush Lemon (formerly named: Lemon Vanilla Rosemary), coloring it with the annatto concoction I made yesterday. So far, it smells exactly as it should.  There is something magic that happens when blending these three scents.  All three of these oils are very strong fragrances but, when mixed together, they magically mellow into quite an intoxicating scent.  It's been the most popular combo I've come up with so far.  

The top sure looks pretty...it's got gold mica swirled in.  I CAN'T WAIT TO CUT INTO IT :)

DAILY CREATIVITY - day 2

I've been wanting to learn more about how to naturally color soap.  I bought some annatto seeds to make a yellow coloring for my Lush Lemon soap I will be making tomorrow.  Annatto is how cheddar cheese gets its yellow color.  Curious?  Learn more about color infused oil here