Welcome to my new store for my handcrafted, handmade and hand sculpted art. Some of it is made for your skin, and others are made for your spirit.
I began making soap around the Fall of 2010. My mother-in-law had given me a great book titled Natural Soap Making. This book gives the crafter great ideas for making "rebatched" soap. This type of soap begins with soaps already made, such as Ivory, and then it is grated into small pieces and melted on a double boiler. Once melted, the crafter can add botanicals and oils, including essential or fragrance oils. This was GREAT! I loved making this soap, but something happened. After awhile I became obsessessed with creating my own soap. So next came melt and pour soap and a lot of mold buying. This was satisfying in many ways. I was able to make beautiful gifts for my friends and family. I even enjoyed buying pound slabs of melt and pour soap from a popular soap dealer on the internet. And those soaps were awesome! And expensive. But what about lye? Hmmmmm. Lye seemed so daunting at first. I read everything I could about making soap with lye. I read all of the precautions. I saw soap that didn't turn out the way the soaper wanted it. I especially worried about where I would buy the lye. I had read that lye was either changed by the manufacturers because it was being used in nefarious ways, or it simply wasn't available on the shelves of my local hardware store. This meant orderng online and waiting. Well, I'm not good at waiting. So I actually found it at a Mom n Pop hardware store. That was great! Now onto the first batch! I began, as most soapers do, teaching myself how to make soap using the "cold process” method. It's probably the most popular way. Many soapers use this with great results. But I know me, and I just don't have the patience to wait 4-8 weeks for my soap to be usable. I made some beautiful soap, and they were so creamy, but a friend of mine told me about the "hot process" method. I taught myself what I needed to learn, and I haven't used a candy thermometer since!!!!! One day, I may tell you the story of the day my neighbor's guest thought I had fallen and couldn't get up, because I was making cold process soap on my driveway in a bathrobe! That was funny! But you see, that happened because I thought I had to make the soap outside. Now, I just turn on the exhaust fan and keep my face away from the lye fumes. Well, once again, welcome to my site. I make hot process soap. which is finished as soon as the cooking time is over in my crock pot. This soap is ready to use immediately, but I do put it into different molds, depending on my needs or wants. Of course, I do let it sit out in the air to harden, which makes the soap last longer. It may not make the beautiful swirls and such that many great soapers create, but I love the rustic feel and look that hot process achieves. I hope you will too! Join me again. I have Youtube videos to share here of how I make my hot process soap. Until then you can find those videos on Youtube under She's A Doll of Clay Suzanne Bagley or Facebook Suzanne's Hands Fair Meadow Soaps. I'll try to give the link to both soon. Thanks Please leave comments! I will gladly answer any question!
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Suzanne Bagley
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