Why Handcrafted Soap?
I make my homemade soap using the hot process method. My soaps are created using olive oil, coconut oil, soybean oil, liquid (usually filtered water) and lye. Once the soap has "cooked" in my crock pot, there is no live lye remaining. The scientific process of combining oils and lye together is called saponification. One of the by-products of saponification is glycerin, which is a humectant. Glycerin helps skin retain moisture instead of stripping it away.
Although most people refer to the beauty/sports bars found in most stores as "soap," they are not actually soap. By law, soap must be created by combining lye and oils together. Most bars found in stores are created using chemicals, which strip away the skin's natural moisture. Many beauty bars must add other skin-softening chemicals. Check the labels. If you cannot pronounce the chemical ingredients, they are not real soap. (The chemical name for lye is sodium hydroxide for solid soap or potassium hydroxide for liquid soap.)
My soaps are completely handmade in small batches using my own recipe. I do not use any form of palm oil or animal products in any of my soaps. I usually add fragrance oils made especially for soap making or essential oils for fragrance. I may also add other natural ingredients. Real soap feels wonderful to skin and washes away cleanly. Your skin deserves to be pampered!
Why Handsculpted Art Dolls?
I believe everyone should find passion in life. Other than my passion for making wonderful, skin-loving soaps, I have found a passion for creating art dolls. I have always loved dolls and making things with my hands. Once, when I was in my teenage years, I tried to make a doll using a kit. This kit had too many directions, and I was totally lost. Read that as frustrated. It wasn't until many years later, as I sculpted animals and people for my son's school assignments, that I realized I had a knack for sculpting. Only my sculpts would continually break on the arms and legs. What was I doing wrong? I decided to look online for the answer, and that's the day I learned about art dolls. I couldn't believe my eyes. I could buy clay from my local hobby store and sculpt beautiful one of a kind dolls, called OOAKs. I found the reason for my failures with arms and legs, they were missing internal armatures. Once I had learned that, there was no stopping me.
I spent my high school years taking art, and I graduated from the University of Memphis with a degree in Residential Interior Design. I allowed my fear of failure to keep me from taking art in college. Instead, I attended graduate school and became an early childhood teacher, but art has always been my passion. I just recently found that I have been sabotaging my own worth, because I have always compared myself with artists who I believed were naturally better than me. Now I know that I am worthy of being considered an artist. I am constantly learning new techniques from other doll artists who have shared their talents through online courses and doll making tutorials. I have come a very long way since the beginning of my doll making journey. I will continue to improve my sculpting abilities.
Now is the time for you to join me. For now, my dolls are priced according to my latest ability in doll sculpting and doll molding. If you have ever wanted to own a handcrafted doll, especially a ball jointed doll, then take advantage of my learning curve. For now, my dolls are only sold through my website and are all hand cast by me. Eventually, I will have my dolls cast by a casting company, and the prices will be mush higher. Don't delay, own a Suzanne Bagley original doll today! Let my passion bring the joy of owning a ball jointed art doll into your life.