I have been wondering if anyone here sells their soap at flea markets or craft fairs. There are a couple of them coming up in August and September and I am trying to decide if I want to participate. I know there is investment up front (tent, etc), and some people think it's a real chore while some seem to enjoy it. Any thoughts from people that have done/do these type things?
I have wanted to do some variation on the funnel pour and work on my feather swirl techniques. I got a little confused when cutting both of them (they were larger batches than I am used to) so there is quite the variation in the bars. On the pink and green one I had it on a lazy susan and spun it around quickly then stopped it. I really liked how that came out. The pink and green scent is Eucalyptus and Spearmint the other is Energy from Brambleberry
The recipe for pink and green here
The recipe for the other is here
I had 2 gallon zip lock bags with shavings and planing bits so I chopped them up and put them in the soap. Wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. The recipe I used is here
I was pretty happy with how well it dispersed in the soap. I wasn't sure how it was going to look. I did a gradient so you could see all the different colors of the added soap bits.
I made this one recently and used some older soap shavings as a topper. I had extra batter so I filled up my star mold. Some bars had some pretty big air bubbles but for the most part, I am pretty happy with these. I used Orange EO for the fragrance.
This is my first attempt at a One Pot Wonder type pour, and me having to make things way too complicated used more colors than I should have and trace got ahead of me at the end, but I still love the final result. It makes me think of a desert landscape with the white mountains (or clouds) in the background. It was fun, but maybe next time I'll stick to 2 or 3 colors...lol
I was reading some comments about temperature of lye solution you should use when soaping, pretty much the normal fare of comments when someone mentioned using the "heat transfer method" sometimes. This is when you add your fresh lye solution (very hot) to your hard oils to melt them before adding the other oils. Is this a thing? It doesn't sound right to me to heat your hard oils that drastically especially since hot lye solution can easily be above 200F. If anyone has heard of this and why you would want to use it, I'd like to know. It seems like it could degrade your hard oils somewhat.
2 Weeks ago I bought an LG washer from Home Depot since my previous LG front loader was about to kick the bucket (the spider had broken). The washer WM3400CW was delivered and they ran a quick cycle on it no problem. The next day I did a load of laundry, again, no problem. Then the next day the washer would not turn on. I checked the power outlet and that was good. I did the hard reset, nothing. I went on the LG website to schedule a tech since opening up the washer to investigate could negate my warranty. That was a horrendous experience and when I got to the end it said the system was down and could not forward the request. I then took the only way forward which was the chatbot. Having to repeat the same info at least 3 times and 45 mins later I finally got it to submit a ticket...for 4 days later. The tech showed up asked for an extension cord and plugged the machine into another plug even though I had a voltage tester plugged into the original socket. He then told me he didn't have parts. Let that sink in. He came to a service call with no parts. Oh, forgot to mention the day after the ticket was submitted someone from LG called me to ask about the problem. Evidently that info was not forwarded. After talking to him he said he would make sure the tech had the right parts, which he didn't.
Next I went to Home Depot and complained about them selling me a washer that did not work. He said he would get with their LG person and find out about swapping this washer out for a new one. That was yesterday. Today I get a text that they are sending the same moron tech that came out the first time tomorrow. No one asked me if I would be available or if it was convenient for me.
Here is where I am at. I can find nowhere how to get in touch with whoever decides which tech to send because I do not want this guy to come out again. I am seriously considering doing a chargeback on my credit card because I believe I have tried in good faith to allow them to fix the issue which at this point needs to be a new washer. What should I do? I have gone almost 2 weeks with no washer at this point.
Here are some of the new soaps I've made in the last week or two. I have been working on my Kiss Pour technique. I feel like I am getting better with it.
This was made with real cocoa power for the dark color and I used a mint fragrance with the green and a vanilla based one with the tan color on top. I'm thinking that will end up turning a little more brownish as time goes on
I've been wanting to try this for a while. I was way short of filling my mold (I transposed 2 numbers when I was calculating). The batter behaved relatively well, but near the end I was running out of time so really had to rush. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Next time I'll have the right amount of soap for the mold. One thing I did notice for anyone wanting to try this is once you your soap is in the pouring pitchers you can't really scrape it out or you ruin the design so you have to work fast so the soap doesn't get past a medium trace.
Has anyone here made their own soap cutters? I have the standard cutter I bought a long time ago that does really well with a loaf mold, but I want to make one that can handle larger width. I have lots of scrap wood, so I am going to give it a go myself after pricing out molds similar to what I want. They are way too expensive for my budget. I bought some guitar stringers (I don't know the exact term for them) from Amazon (8 for $16), and I have a flat surface that is around 15x18 inches. I am trying to figure out how to get the thin piece of wood that the actual soap will sit on to slide through the cutter. I am thinking about inlaying 2 pieces of track that I have left over from another project, but I want to be able to cut vertically and horizontally. That's where my problem pops up. It is fairly easy to do one or the other, but not both. I'd like to be able to make it modular. I have looked for written plans online but have not seen many. Does anyone know of any instructions posted online (even for sale) that are out there. I am making some progress, but am stuck at this point.
First, it is my opinion that if there is a surplus, it should only be after all of the needs in the state are met. If anyone thinks that is the case, I'd love to hear it. First, there is Medicaid that Georgia refuses to expand. Second, anyone on SNAP can tell you how difficult it is to get through to anyone which leads to loss of benefits. Third, can you imagine what we could do for rail in the COA for even half that amount???
Some people think this is good government. I'd say it is horrible government when you cant even spend the money you have on the people that need it.
If you are a member of the MARTA Board, don't you think it might be somewhat important to USE the service, or perhaps have any semblance of transit experience? Well, they dont. That should be required of all board members, and to ride the service at least 3 days a week. Obviously, the powers that be say no. It is no wonder MARTA is where it is when it is run by people who have no idea what they are doing, have no idea how to provide oversight, and can't stand up to political pressure...oh, I forgot...that's the way they want them.
It is getting way past time for Atlanta (and adjacent) residents to demand better. I wish this was a bigger issue for voters. We have excellent heavy rail bones of a system, but we have fallen so far behind the other cities awarded money for heavy rail at the same time we were. From the mayor flushing 9 million down the toilet on Eastside Rail, to gross mismanagement (I would love to know the name of the moron who thought the streetcar shouldn't have signal priority). They should never be allowed anywhere near a transit plan ever again. Yet, we all still pay the More MARTA tax that is locked in until 2032 and have been for 10 years, and what do we have to show for it??? A half finished BRT line. They could have leveraged that future tax money to get billions to build out MARTA. The biggest problem is lack of leadership, a state that could give a fuck about anything Atlanta, and corrupt politicians that care more about what Portman wants than the actual people they should be serving
I think the first one looks like Blue Cheese lol
The second one is my Ombre attept