Drying walnut shells

I've always been around black walnuts, since the black walnut trees grow freely and abundantly in east Tennessee. As a kid, they were a toy, something to kick and throw. But now, looking at these nuts through the eyes of a soap maker, I can really see the potential! So, back in October, I went to my husband's family farm, grabbed up a few bags of freshly fallen walnuts, and headed home to make a great soap additive!

Picture from EatTheWeeds.com

To clean, dry, and shell your walnuts:

1. Start off with a freshly fallen walnut, still in the green "fruit". While wearing gloves (the fruit will stain your skin!), peel away the softened fruit, revealing the walnut underneath.

2. Once all of your walnuts have been removed from the green fruit, soak the walnuts in a cool water bath. Make sure to use a stainless steel tub, since the walnuts will stain. Stir the walnuts to help remove any excess fruit.

3. Next, hang your walnuts in a mesh bag for two weeks, which will allow the walnuts to cure.

4. After your two week wait, use a hammer to break the tough walnut shell, revealing the nut. You can save and eat the nuts, but we are going for the shells. Break your walnut shells with the hammer until they are small pieces (dime size or smaller).

5. Finally, put the walnut shells in a heady duty food processor and grind them until they are a fine powder. The finer the better!

Store your walnut powder in an air tight container until ready to use. Suggested usage rate in soap is 1 tbsp per pound of oil.

Tutorial: Making Silicone Molds

I love to decorate the tops of my soap with swirls, curls, and textures. Some of my favorite bars of soap are topped with soap embeds, like my Lemonade soap and my Green Grass soap. I've had loads of great ideas for embeds, and I've finally perfected my silicone mold-making technique, and I have started making new designs for my soaps!

To make your mold, you will need:

• One package of polymer clay (to make your own designs) OR any hard object you want to make a mold out of
• One bottle of silicone caulking (try to find the outdoor kind)
• One caulking gun
• Corn Starch

1. Start off by making your objects in clay. 

2. Once you are satisfied with your clay objects, bake them in an oven or toaster oven using the directions on the packaging. The clay I used called for 275 degrees in the oven for 20 minutes. Bake your clay and let it cool fully.

3. Pour about 2 cups of corn starch into a separate bowl.

4. Open your silicone caulk and load the caulk into the caulking gun carefully. Squeeze out some silicone caulk into your corn starch, then fold the silicone into the corn starch until it is no longer sticky and has the consistency of clay. You may want to wear gloves!
5. Now, gently press your object (in my example: my clay owl!) into the silicone and set it aside to allow the silicone to dry out.

6. Once the silicone has dried (I gave mine a few hours to be sure), remove your object! 

Keep a couple of things in mind:

-- These molds are not suitable for edibles, like chocolate or candy. 

-- You can also buy silicone putty in craft stores under the Sculpey brand if you are not interested in using the caulk. Make sure to follow their instructions!

-- Store your new mold in a cool, dry place. After each use, wash your mold with soap and warm water, then dry thoroughly. 

Swirling Soap Series: Simple Swirl

This swirl is another simple swirl, but the end effect is gorgeous! We have talked about the nonpareil swirl, and this swirl is similar, with one slight difference: instead of using a comb to create our effect, we are going to use one chopstick.

Tea tree/Peppermint Soap

Before you begin...

Basics:

You will want to start off with a slow moving recipe (recipes with 70% olive oil or above work well for me) and a fragrance that does not accelerate trace. Mix your lye and oils together until you reach emulsification, which is where the oils and lye are mixed together, but not thickening. You will want your mix slightly runny. Once you reach emulsification, add your fragrance, then set aside a few ounces of soap into separate containers to color. When choosing the colors for your soap, remember that bright, contrasting colors work great! The addition of black, white, and brown can make a very dramatic effect. 

Tools:

For this swirl, all you will need is a chopstick and a paper towel to clean the chopstick off. You can retire your comb for now!

Diagonal Lines

Normal Soap Lines

So, we are going to start off with drawing our colored lines in the soap. Make sure to alternate your colors! You can go left to right, or you can draw diagonals, like I did in my example above. 

Once your lines are drawn, start at the top of your mold and insert your chopstick. Drag it down the mold until you reach the bottom. Clean off your chopstick, then insert it in the bottom of the mold about a half inch from your first line, then drag your stick to the top. Clean off your chopstick and start over, alternating lines from top -> bottom, then bottom -> top, until you have reached the other side of the mold.

You are finished! This swirl gives your soap a gorgeous feathery look, and can be done with as little as two colors. This is one of my favorite swirls, and it is my go-to swirl for many soaps.

Soap Tutorial: How to make Rebatched Milk Soap

About a week ago, I was reading on a parenting community that a member wanted to make some milk soap, but she was not comfortable with handling lye. On the surface, this would limit soap making to melt and pour varieties. However, there is another option: rebatched soap, or french milled soap!

To make french milled soap, you will need:

• a double boiler (I use a candle pouring pot that sits in a pot of water on my stove)
• 1 pound (4-5 bars) of cold process or hot process soap
• Up to one ounce of milk (any kind of milk will work. I have great success with goat's milk and butter milk)
• Any scents, fragrances, or essential oils that you want to use
• A mold
• A spatula
• A knife or cheese grater

1. Start off with cutting your soap up into small chunks or grating your soap with a cheese grater. 

2. Put your soap chunks into your double boiler and warm the water on medium heat.

3. As your chunks are warming, slowly stir in your milk one tablespoonful at a time. You may not need the full ounce of milk. Look for a chunky-mashed potatoes-type of consistency in your soap. If the soap is not 100% smooth, it is okay. 

4. Now is the time to add any color, fragrance, or essential oil that you like. I made my rebatched milk soap with ginger essential oil and orange essential oil.

5. Using your spatula, carefully pour your soap into your mold. Let it cool overnight before unmolding and cutting. Put your soap in a cool, dry place to "cure", or harden. The harder your soap, the longer it will last!

Swirling Soap Series: Nonpareil Swirl

After finishing my first attempt at a peacock swirl, I became obsessed with different swirling techniques. I worked on my swirling while watching videos on youtube and talking to my friend Michelle, who makes amazing marbled and swirled paper (shout out for Michelle and her shop DynamiteFibers!) After realizing how few tutorials there were online, I decided to start documenting my swirling on my blog. So here we go with our first swirl in the series: the nonpareil swirl.

Gorgeous, Simple, Beautiful!

Basics:

You will want to start off with a slow moving recipe (recipes with 70% olive oil or above work well for me) and a fragrance that does not accelerate trace. Mix your lye and oils together until you reach emulsification, which is where the oils and lye are mixed together, but not thickening. You will want your mix slightly runny. Once you reach emulsification, add your fragrance, then set aside a few ounces of soap into separate containers to color. When choosing the colors for your soap, remember that bright, contrasting colors work great! The addition of black, white, and brown can make a very dramatic effect. 

Tools:

You will need a combing tool, which can easily be made at home. I made my combing tool using cardboard and chopsticks. I attached my chopsticks to my combing tool using a hot glue gun. It works great!  

Start off by pouring the base of your soap, which should be the majority of your batter. 

Next, color your soap batter that you set aside and drizzle that soap on the surface of your base. You will want to drizzle side to side, rather than up and down.

Soapy lines from left to right

Once you have drizzled your lines back and forth, now is the time to use your combing tool. Insert your combing tool at the top of your mold, then pull down in one, solid stroke. Your comb will create the nonpareil swirl as it pulls down.

That's it! You are done! Super simple, yet really gorgeous! 

My lovespell soap!

Come back next Wednesday when I break down the peacock swirl!

First Attempt at a Peacock Swirl

I've seen the peacock swirl around in the soaping world, and while it is gorgeous and produces amazing looking bars of soap, I've always been a bit hesitant to start such a complicated-looking technique. I love beautiful, bold swirls on the tops of soap (so much that I bought a mold just so I could do them!), so yesterday, I decided to bite the bullet and try a peacock swirl.

First, I watched this video by LovinSoap about 10 times in a row.

Then, I attempted the swirl using my 9 bar mold from Brambleberry.com and Blackberry Sage Fragrance Oil  from AromaHaven.com. I chose this mold because it gives me lots of room to swirl on the top of my soap, and I chose this scent because it does not accelerate, giving me plenty of time to work.

And here are my results:

I like the swirl and it is very pretty, but it is not in the classic peacock, or bouquet.

I think I have identified two problems with my first attempt:

1. My lines of soap in the beginning were more thick than I have seen others do. I think I need to thin out my lines, which will give me more room to have more lines and more swirl.

2. I drew my S-curve very wide. Next time, I am going to tighten up that curve, hopefully giving myself more swirl per inch.

All in all, I am pretty happy with the soap, I love the colors and the scent, and the swirl isnt terrible for a first timer. The soap gelled overnight, so the green and purple really pop next to the white and black. I have some new fall and winter scents coming in next week, so I'm looking forward to practicing this advanced swirl a few more times! Plus, I am going to get some help from a friend of mine who is an expert at swirling and marbling paper! Go check out her Etsy shop here: DynamiteFibers

Making Sea Salt Soap

Yuzu Sea Salt Soap

Salt soap is a true luxury! A salt soap bar combines the gentle cleansing of cold process soap with the exfoliate and skin softening power of salt. The salt is embedded in the soap to create a hard, long lasting bar that is speckled with the salt crystals, which gives the soap a really unique look.

Making salt bars is quick and easy if you are already familiar with how to make cold process soap. If you are not familiar with cold process soap, or if you are just beginning, you may want to get a few batches of CP soap under your belt before you attempt salt soap.

Love Spell Salt Soap

Some quick tips:

• When using salt in cold process soap, you need to be aware that salt is a lather killer. In order to combat this problem, it is best to use a large percentage (80%+) of coconut oil. I prefer to use 90% coconut and 10% castor, which makes a stable, creamy lather with medium sized bubbles. You can use any percentage of oils that you like, but most soapers will advise you to use at least 80% coconut oil.
• Another tip is on superfatting. Most soap calculators default to 5% superfattening of your oils, but for salt soaps it is better to use between 15% to 20% superfat. This keeps the soap from being too drying on the skin and adds to the moisturizing properties. 
• One tip that I will strongly encourage is to use individual molds when making salt soap. Salt soap likes to set up quickly. I've heard of some soapers who are able to cut their salt soap within 2 hours of pouring the soap. However, if you cut your salt soap loaves too late, the soap will be dry and crumble easily. Individual molds keep you from worrying about this, since you do not have to cut them.
• The longer you let your soap cure, the better! Soaps tend to get better with age (like cheese and wine), and salt soaps are best used after a 6 week cure or longer.

Pipe Smoke Salt Soap with Nettle

Come back tomorrow and see my YouTube video on how to make sea salt soap! And make sure to comment below if you have any questions about anything! 

Christmas Eve Craft Tutorial: Salt Dough Ornaments

Cutting out stars

With the holidays upon us, and my two year old up to his neck in the Christmas spirit, I thought it would be a fun idea to get him into the Christmas crafting spirit as well! After much careful thought, we decided to make up some salt dough and personalize some ornaments made by Benjamin to add to our Christmas presents! He had a blast making and decorating them (and getting a little messy in the process!) and I know that the grandparents are going to adore them!

Making holes

Here's what you will need:
-2 cups of flour
-1 cup of salt
-1 cup of water (approximately... I needed a little more)
-Mixing bowl
-Wax paper
-Cookie cutters
-A pencil, pen, crochet needle... Something to poke holes with!
-Baking sheet
-Paint (we used the acrylics that we had lying around the house!)
-Ribbon or twine

1: Combine your flour, salt, and water in a mixing bowl and mix together until you get a dough consistency. I needed a little more water than 1 cup.
2: Put your dough on your wax paper with a dusting of flour and work it out until it no longer sticks to your hands!

Painting, toddler style!

3: Use your cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use your pen or pencil to make a hole. I used a crochet needle to make my holes and it worked great. Bake in the oven at 300 degrees for 15 minutes, then flip your ornaments and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Let them cool before decorating.
4: Time to decorate!! We were super simple and just used acrylics and finger tips, but you can get really creative with glitter, markers, more paints, or ribbons and buttons to glue on!
5: Add a ribbon for hanging and you have the perfect ornament, stocking stuffer, gift tag, or homemade gift for a grandparent!

Merry Christmas, everyone, and I hope you have a safe and happy holiday!

Hot Process Goat's Milk Soap (In Pictures)

Here's a quick picture tutorial for my hot process goat's milk soap! Super easy... Just remember to stick by it and keep an extra eye on the soap as it cooks!

Oils melting! I used olive, castor, and tallow.

First, you will start off like normal, melting your oils in your crock pot or double boiler. When you make your lye solution, you will keep out part of your water to substitute with milk. (For example, if you are supposed to use 12 ounces of water, just 8 ounces instead, and keep 4 ounces of milk to the side) Please take loads of CAUTION with your lye solution, because it will be stronger than a normal batch! Put your milk in the fridge to chill it.

You can use a stick blender or a whisk. It will trace fast!

Once the oils are melted, add your lye solution (BE VERY CAREFUL! It will be extra strong!) and mix until traced. Your soap will trace faster than usual, because of the water discount.

Add your goat's milk!

Now, slowly add your chilled milk and mix together. Your soap may take on a neon yellow or neon orange color. This is normal, dont panic! As the soap cooks in your double boiler or crock pot, keep a very close eye on it and stir it often. Your soap will take on a natural tan color as it cooks. Remember, oil separation is normal in the beginning stages of hot process soap, so no worries!

Almost ready! It needs to cook a little longer...

Once the soap takes on a mashed potatoes-like consistency, you can add any fragrances or additives and toss the soap in your favorite mold. I added some ground oatmeal to this batch for some scrub!  Once cooled, your soap can be cut! Some folks like to use hot process soap right away, but I still let mine cure for 4-6 weeks.

Goat's Milk Soap with Oatmeal

Enjoy!! It may take a few times to get it right, but hot process goat's milk soap is fun, fantastic, and addictive!

Easy tent weights!

This week, I made my first tent weights! I thought I would share them with you...

You will need: 4 buckets, a small (read: 50 pound bag!) bag of Quikrete, Eye hooks, washers, and nuts.

What you will need!

Start by attaching the washer and nut tightly to the eye hook. This gives the eye hook something to hold on to, and your tent will not pull the hook right out of the concrete!

Next, fill your buckets about 3/4 of the way full of Quikrete. Make sure to wear eye protection and a face mask! Once the dust fades, bury your eye hooks in the Quikrete and just add water! No need to stir! (So easy, a toddler can do it!)

The Quikrete will dry in about an hour! Just add some strong nylon rope and voila! You have home made, fairly inexpensive tent weights for your craft shows!

I have about $16 in these weights, which is WAY cheaper than buying them for $40 at a big box store! I bought my buckets at the Dollar Tree for $1 each, the Quikrete was $5 at Lowes, and I bought 6 eye hooks for $6 at Lowes. I already had the nuts and washers on hand.
All in all, it was a fun, easy, fairly quick project! And best part: I will not have to borrow Jeri's tent weights any more! Ha!

Tutorial: Homemade Deodorant

Homemade deodorant? Man, Milly must have really gone off the deep end...

Nope! I promise! You are going to LOVE this homemade deodorant! There are no aluminum or any other nasty additives. And it actually works really good! It took me about 10 minutes total to make my deodorant, and I even had some left over... Plus, it is super cheap!

Your Supplies

You will need:
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup corn starch
3 tsp coconut oil (you can use shea butter if you prefer. I havent tried it, though)
1-3 drops of essential oil or body safe fragrance oil
Mixing bowl
Container (I used an empty deodorant container and it's working great)

1. Combine the dry ingredients together.

2. Add your coconut oil and fragrance. I combined them together using my hands, but a spatula would work well, too. The coconut oil may melt a little if you use your hands.
3. When it is fully combined, spoon the mix into your container. Put the container in the fridge for an hour or so to harden your mix.

When using your new deodorant, make sure to apply it lightly. A little goes a long way!

Deodorant! :o)

1-2-3 Sugar Scrubs!

I've recently been looking into expanding my product lines for Second Spring Soaps, and I finally decided to branch out into the world of sugar scrubs! I've been researching different recipes, from scrubs that you scoop into your hand, to cut cubes, to molded cubes... I finally decided on making my sugar scrub into cubes molded in my small silicone cube pan!

However, I felt a little uneasy about using a melt and pour base. I've been working on the side with melt and pour soap base, because the soaps that M&P artisans make can be absolutely amazing! However, when I tried to make sugar scrub cubes with it, I was less than happy with the results. I guess my cold process soap has spoiled me! Well, a little more research lead me to an invaluable post on the Soap Making Forum, and I am in love with the results! (You can read the original post here!)

Here's the breakdown of the recipe... You will need:

-A shredded soap base

-Oil or Butter (I used olive oil)

-Sugar (white or brown or a mix of both)

-A measuring cup or spoon

-Mixing bowl

-Microwave

-Mold (if you want shapes)

-fragrances and dyes (if desired)

The recipe is simple: 1 part oil or butter, 2 parts shredded soap, 3 parts sugar! The best part about this recipe is that you can make small batches or huge batches by just changing the size of the measuring cup or spoon!

1. Add your 1 part oil to your 2 parts shredded soap. Mix in a few drops of dye if desired.

Dough-like consistency

2. Heat your mix in short bursts until mostly melted. I found that 15-20 second bursts were perfect for my microwave.
3. Add your 3 parts sugar and add fragrance. Stir until the mixture acts like dough.
4. Mold your mix and set it in the freezer for a while. The original recipe called for 5-10 minutes, but my cubes did great after freezing overnight.
5. Remove from mold and let them air dry for a day. Store them in an air tight container.

And voila! You have ready to use sugar scrub cubes!

I also made a YouTube video walking through the sets, just in case you area a visual learner!

Tutorial: Handmade Massage Oil

Valentine's Day is less than two weeks away! Time to go pick up that same box of chocolates... Or, that pink teddy bear with the heart that says "Wuv Yoo!"... Wait, did you even remember Valentine's day? Dang, time to make a mad dash for a card... Or, you could pick up a copy of Barry White's greatest hits to go along with a big bottle of handmade massage oil, just for that someone special! 

Here's what you will need:

-A carrier oil (grape seed oil is a great one. It's cheap and can be found in most grocery stores. Jojoba, Avocado and Sweet Almond are fantastic, too, and can be found in health food stores or vitamin shops.)

-An essential oil (Classic scents include: lavender, eucalyptus, tea tree.)

-An amber-colored or blue-colored glass bottle with cap (Can be found in some craft stores, but ore commonly found in health food stores in the Heath and Beauty section)

- 1 tsp measuring spoon

-Dropper

My Lavender Massage oil with

1. Measure 4 tbsp of your carrier oil, and pour into your amber or cobalt blue bottle.

2. Using your dropper, drop 5 drops of essential oil into your bottle.

3. Repeat until your bottle is full!

4. Screw on your cap and gently shake your bottle to mix it all together!

You can dress up the bottle with a few ribbons, or a special label printed on sticker paper!

How to use:

-Put Barry White on your stereo ;o)

-Pour a small amount of massage oil onto your hands and run together to warm them.

-Massage away! (avoid sensitive areas, such as the face and, er, private areas!)

Tip:

For a fun twist, use flavor oils, like these found at Aroma Haven for edible massage oil! You can also use edible essential oils, like lemon, grapefruit, or mint, which are commonly found in health food stores, or in the health food section of some grocery stores. 

(Do not use flavors meant for cooking! These are often water-based or alcohol-based, and will not mix in with your carrier oil! It may smell nice, but it will be a hot mess!!)

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Tutorial: Homemade lollipops

Today is my birthday!! I just turned 28 (oh man!), and I figured that a great birthday present to you all would be a new tutorial! So... lets make some lollipops!!

You will need:
2 cups Sugar
2/3 cups corn syrup
3/4 cups water
flavoring (LorAnn's flavoring is fantastic!!)
Lollipop sticks
Lollipop mold (or, you can use a greased baking sheet)
Candy thermometer

1. Mix together the sugar, water, and corn syrup in a pot on medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Bring your pot to a boil. Dont stir!! (This was hard for me... I am a chronic stirrer!)
3. If you want to add coloring, add it when the mix is about 260 degrees. Just toss it in. The boiling will stir it in.
4. Turn the head off when the pot reached 300 degrees (This is called the hard crack stage on a candy thermometer). When the boiling stops, add your flavoring and stir it in. (Yay! we get to stir!)
5. Pour the candy into your mold, add your lollipop stick, and twist the stick to cover it with candy. (If you are using a baking sheet, you can either draw circles with the candy and add sticks, or pour it out, then score it with a knife).



Once the candy cools, enjoy!!
Hint: You can use kool-aid packages to flavor your lollipops, but take care not to burn the sugar! Burnt kool-aid lollipops taste horrible!!

Dress up your lollipops with a cellophane bag, a sticky label, and a bow, and you've got a great looking gift!

Happy candy making! And happy 28th birthday to me!

Homemade Toothpaste

My son is now 15 months old! He is walking, talking (his favorite words are Mama, Dada, duck, and uh oh!), and he just recently popped his first molar. Now that he is popping teeth in earnest (he is up to #11 with three more coming in), my husband and I are getting concerned about his oral hygiene. Before now, we would hand him his toddler toothbrush and watch as he chewed away on it, mimicking us as we brushed. We always made sure to give him water after juice or other sweets to rinse his mouth... But now, we want to start really brushing.

However, my husband has some concerns about fluoride found in toothpaste and in our city's water supply. For the most part, our son drinks spring water or breast milk, but we are wanting to eliminate fluoride as much as we can.

So, I've done a bit of research, and today, I made our first batch of homemade toothpaste!

Here's what you need to make your own:
-1 cup baking soda
-1/8 cup fine salt (You can leave out the salt if you want. I have seen other recipes call for 1/4 cup of salt, but I found that to be a bit too salty.)
-water (enough to give the mix a paste-like consistency)
-flavoring (a baking flavor, like peppermint, cinnamon, strawberry, lemon, etc.)

Combine your ingredients and store them in a clean container with a seal. Rubbermaid food containers work well, and are cheap! I found a nice, glass container with a seal lid for under $2.

In the end, you will have a liquid paste (about the consistency of glue) to brush your teeth with! It will not be foamy like commercial toothpaste, but it cleans sooo well and leaves your mouth feeling really fresh! The baking soda naturally eliminates odors in your mouth! Just make sure to use a soft-bristle brush...

Now I am not worried about my son swallowing toothpaste anymore! :oD Plus, we are lowering our impact on the environment by using a product without any unnatural chemicals and we are not producing any waste from the traditional toothpaste container and box. Bonus!!

Happy Creating!

Craft Tutorial: Feather Quill Pen

For years, I have always loved the idea of writing letters and cards and poems with a real feather quill, dipping the ink in an ink pot and scribbling away... And I finally made it happen! I made my own feather quill!

Do you want to make one, too?
Then good! You are in the right place!

Supplies:
A feather (I used a big fake one from my hobby store.)
A quill nib (found in the calligraphy section, near the paint supplies)
Electrical tape
Ribbon
Scissors
Pliers
Hot glue gun with glue sticks

1. I first started by measuring out my feather's ends to "feel" like a pen in my hand, which turned out to be about half of the wire at the end. I folded it over using the pliers and used the electrical tape to tape the ends together.

2. After wrapping the tape down most of the wire, I attached the quill nib with hot glue and wrapped over the top with more tape.

3. I wrapped the tape over the wire about 3 more times to get the approximate thickness of a regular pen.

4. Using hot glue, I wrapped my ribbon over the tape.

And that's it! Super easy, and the pen works great! You can find loads of ink in a variety of colors in your local hobby store, or you can buy ink on Etsy! Here is a store that sells scented ink... Guess who might be getting some of it in her stocking at Christmas?!? :o)

Happy Crafting!