Making Sun and Sand

This is the soap I made yesterday.  I was inspired after watching Tiggy cut her "Blood on the Moon."  It looked like she had dipped her soap balls in cocoa powder so that is what I did.  (The imbeds were made the day before.)

The brown part of the soap is cocoa powder, vanilla bean powder and capachinno mica.  I got the idea for the vanilla bean powder from Kyme from Alamo Candelaria. 

The soap recipe is one that I got from Catherine on Soaping 101.  It is the tallow recipe and I tweeked it just a little with some palm kernel to make it get hard a bit quicker. 

So you see....watching all those soaping videos is paying off. This batch of soap came together with the help of three soapers who are willing to share their knowledge.

Oh, there is one more person who has been so kind to take an interest in my soaping and that is Sharon "The Soap Magician".  I order soaps occasionally to see what the experts are doing.  Sharon was the 2nd person that I ordered from and have since ordered two more times.  That should tell you about the quality of her soaps.  If you ever want to use some of the best try Sharon's soaps.

Beginnings

I never thought that something would interest me enough to write about it but that was before I discovered soap making on Utube.  Ever since August I think I've watched every soaping video available.  I've learned a lot and enjoyed myself even more.  There are so many generous people out there willing to help others learn this craft.

 I grew up in the 50's and I know that my aunt made her own lye soap but I never actually saw her make it.  I'm know that my grandmother made hers also but I don't know if she was still making it by the time I came along.

About 15 years ago I wanted to learn to make soap and my daughter bought me a book on soaping for my birthday, which I still have.  However, after I read it I was too scared to tackle it because of all the scary things it mentioned about the lye.  I had no one to ask for help and even though I had a computer then I didn't know about Utube.

In August of 2012 I adopted a greyhound.  Her name is Willow.  This was within a week or two of finding the soaping videos.  I learned that the Greyhound Adoption of Las Vegas has fund raisers during the year and I thought "What better way to do my part than to donate soap."  And with those two events Sweet Willow Soap was born.  There is no company.  Just a love for a wonderful dog and handmade soap.

Willow is on the far right.  She is at Petco with her buds to interest people in adopting these sweet, sweet animals.