More Purple Goodies, and a Bad Day

Edited – some photos replaced!

As I wrote on my Cancer Diary page, I have had a bad day today, possibly because I’ve done too much this week. I had a headache all day and felt queasy. I spent a couple of hours in the studio this a.m. and managed to make a bar of lavender soap for our neighbour, and find some bath melts I’d made before (also lavender) and made some labels for them.

I recently got these Tim Holtz Sizzix “Labels” set of dies:

and I cut two from some of the paper that I’d sprayed with Dylusions inks and backed onto card.

I inked both front and back with a combination of Seedless Preserves, Dusty Concord and Chipped Sapphire distress inks, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster for the former two, and my home made blending tool for the Chipped Sapphire as before. It was at this point that my camera started playing up, and the rest of the photos were seriously out of focus! It does this every now and then, and because I was feeling distinctly below par, I didn’t notice until it was too late. (Ed.: Photos from here to end now replaced.)

I hand-wrote the front of the labels using a dark blue Marvy le Plume pen, and stamped the reverse with one of my Stampin’ Up “Butterfly Potpourri” butterfly stamps, using Chipped Sapphire distress ink.

I’m afraid I forgot to photograph the lavender soap that I made, while it was still in the mould. I coloured it with a single drop each of red and blue colouring, hoping to make a pale purple, but because there was only sufficient clear soap for a single bar, it came out quite a bit darker than I’d hoped. I thought I had some purple colouring but I did not. I also sprinkled on some lavender flowers before the soap set.

I found some lavender bath melts that I’d made in the soap making class last year, and also wrapped those up. I used clear cellophane and some silvery-lilac coloured gift ribbon, and tied the labels on with some fancy purple yarn.

Here is the growing collection of gifts.

Not sure what else I am going to do, apart from the lavender sachet to go in the box, and some stalks of fresh lavender flowers to go in, and of course, the little basket to put everything in.

I am hoping to feel considerably better tomorrow. Apart from this brief time in the studio, I have slept most of today, and cannot seem to shift the headache, and I have eaten very little.

Misc Christmas Soaps Pt 2

Here are the remaining photos of the soaps I’ve made for Christmas presents.

Turned out of the moulds. You can see the brown cameo to the right of the lavender soap.

I was wondering how to highlight the cameo a bit, and then remembered I’d ordered some cosmetic-grade mica powders for my soap making, and used some of the white. I put the cameo onto the top of the soap and drew round it with a scriber, and then with a modelling tool I gouged out some of the soap. I filled the cavity with the melted soap base, scored the base of the cameo, spritzed both surfaces with rubbing alcohol and popped the cameo in place. There was a bit of leakage of the melted soap base but I was able to get most of this off. Unfortunately I lost the pristine shiny surface of the soap straight from the mould but once wrapped, this didn’t matter quite so much. I did a bit more touching up with the mica powder once the cameo was in place.

Here it is, wrapped.

I made a label for the base. All the labels were written with my sepia Faber Castell Pitt Artist pen and embellished with distress inks. In the case of the lavender soap I used Milled Lavender and a touch of Dusty Concord on the lavender flower paintings, and the leaves were painted with Mowed Lawn.

Here are the rest of the soaps, all wrapped in cellophane and labelled. For the gardener’s soaps, I put the main label on the top, and added a small label giving the ingredients on the bottom, as this was a more complicated soap, and I thought the recipients might be interested to know what went into it, making it so suitable for garden and workshop use. The lemon soaps just had the label on the bottom, with the information about how this soap removes onion smells from one’s hands. The gardener’s soap labels were coloured with Spiced Marmalade distress ink, and the lemon soaps with Wild Honey distress ink.

The gardener’s soaps. The orange Stickles glitter glue doesn’t show up on the photos at all, but it is a nice echo of the speckled orange rind on the surface of the soaps, as is the label border.

Single gardener’s soap.

Label on base of gardener’s soap.

A pair of gardener’s soaps, tied with an orange ribbon.

Lemon soaps.

Lemon soap label.

The three teddy soaps, tied with ribbon, with applied decorative bow. Each soap is individually wrapped. They are definitely too small for everyday use, and I shall be sourcing a larger teddy soap mould online.

Three teddy soaps, side view. I had to put the middle one face down because they are not uniformly thick.

All that remains now is to finish packaging the honey soaps I made before. I want to make tags for these, using honeycomb-embossed card and my large bee stamp. I am a bit annoyed that the medium bee stamp is still out of stock, and I have been waiting for some time for an email notifying me that they have arrived – the large stamp is a bit too big for this but I can make something of it, no doubt.

After Christmas being a total non-event this year, everybody will have to put up with their presents being late! This week, I also have to make a bee birthday card to go with some of the honey soaps, and hope I shall retain enough energy to get that done, or it will be another late arrival.

Second Soap Making Class–Natural Soaps

Last night I had the most fun ever, at our second soap class. After starting last week with basic mould-and-pour using fancy moulds, tonight the shapes were more basic, but the soaps themselves were just wonderful, coloured and fragranced with natural materials.

We used the basic mould-and-pour soap bases we used last week – white and clear. For colour, instead of using synthetic colours, the teacher brought natural powders such as turmeric and cosmetic-grade clays in various colours. The fragrances were all natural too – essential oils and the natural scent of the various additives. She also brought along bags of different botanicals to add for colour and texture, such as tiny flowers, petals, wheatgerm, cinnamon sticks, and dried sliced orange. Everything looked so wonderfully natural and subtly coloured, and as for the smells! My hands continued to smell lovely for several hours afterwards! If none of the subsequent classes are as fun and fulfilling as last night’s, I shan’t mind – I think most of my own soap making from now on is going to be along natural lines.

Having M.E. I can be a bit sensitive to chemical smells, and last night I spent some time going through the two boxes of liquid fragrances the teacher brings – firstly the essential oils, and secondly the fragrance oils, which are synthetic. The latter did not appeal to me at all! They all smelt very artificial and unpleasant to me. However, the essential oils had no detrimental effect at all and with a few exceptions I loved them all. This gave me an idea of what to get for my own supplies.

At the end of the class we spent some time wrapping our soaps from our teacher’s big bag of goodies. I completed this process when I got home.

One of the soaps we made was orange soap. This was made from the transparent base, coloured with natural orange colouring (turmeric) and fragranced with orange essential oil – this smells totally gorgeous… When we turned them out of the moulds, we took a little melted soap base and dipped half a dried slice of orange in it and stuck it to the top of the soap.

Another soap we made was cinnamon and wheatgerm. This was made from the white base, coloured with natural powder colour, with the wheatgerm adding colour as well, and fragranced with cinnamon essential oil. The powder colours cannot just be added to the soap or they go lumpy. You have to put them in a small container and pour in a small amount of melted soap and make a paste, a bit like a roux in cooking, which is then returned to the soap. After pouring the soap into the mould we added a cinnamon stick to the top. The mould we used for this soap was round, with straight sides, so there was no “up” or “down,” which meant we could add any embellishment to the top after pouring. Normally the top of the finished soap is at the bottom of the mould, and if you put something in the bottom of the mould it tends to float to the surface, so the embellishments have to be added afterwards with a shaped mould.

As you can see, I finished the wrapping of this soap with some raffia. I love the choice of natural packaging for natural soaps!

Finally, my favourite soap of the evening. This was a seasonal one, and quite stunning – gold, frankincense and myrrh soap!

This was made from the white base and some people coloured theirs with natural powder colour; however, I followed the teacher’s lead and didn’t add any extra colour, but depended on the botanicals to give a subtle colour. We added frankincense essential oil for fragrance, and ground up myrrh gum, which still had a somewhat grainy appearance. I was intrigued to hear that the gum is supplied in small lumps called “tears” – considering that myrrh is symbolic of death, embalming and the tomb, this seemed appropriate. Finally, the gold… After the soaps had come out of the moulds, our teacher produced some 24 carat pure gold leaf, and we added flakes of this to the top of the soap using a soft brush. This is soooo beautiful… The soap also smells out of this world, and as it is not a specifically feminine fragrance, but more spicy and exotic, it would be suitable for a man, too.

Before I show you the photo of this soap, I will show you the process of making a decorative band which would do justice to this precious soap. At the class, I merely wrapped it in cellophane (necessary to protect the soap from the air and from fingerprints).

I looked in my “card strips” box to see if there were any offcuts that were suitable. I found a strip of Core’dinations “gemstones” in a soft gold colour, and put this through the Cuttlebug, using the Tim Holtz Alterations Texture Fades “Damask” embossing folder. First of all I tried highlighting the embossed parts with gold gilding wax but this didn’t show up as much as I’d hoped, so I painted it with burnt umber acrylic paint.

Adding a layer of iridescent medium just made it look too silvery, so I mixed some with some more burnt umber and painted this on, working it well into all the recesses in the embossing.

When it was dry, I squeezed a little metallic gold acrylic paint onto my craft sheet and picked it up on my brayer.

Rolling it carefully onto the embossed strip, I was able to apply gold to the highlights.

I decided it was a bit too wide, so I trimmed down the sides (keeping the narrow strips in my card strips box – never throw anything away lol!) and then matted and layered it onto a scrap of gold mirror card, which really finished it off.

After making a bow with my bow maker, I wrapped the band around the soap, added some of the same ribbon as the bow, and attached it with glue dots. This is the result.

I really think this packaging does justice to this beautiful soap. In the picture you can see the gold leaf reflecting the light. This has to be my absolute favourite soap ever! It is really special.

Here are the three soaps I made, wrapped and embellished ready to give away. I still need to make labels to stick on the back of the soaps.

I am definitely going to make more natural soaps. All of these are gorgeous, and there are so many more combinations to discover and experiment with. I have seen natural soap made in a large mould and then sliced once it was set – this gives a beautiful hand-made effect, and it looks gorgeous with lots of botanicals on the top! I have also seen this with different layers, which show across the slices. Clear soaps can have botanicals suspended inside so you can see them. The possibilities are endless!

Before we leave the subject of gold, frankincense and myrrh, when I told my hubby about the soap, he found something to show me – a little box which a friend had given him several years ago. I had never seen this before, and I was entranced.

The box itself is beautiful – made of thin wood, very plain.

It hides a secret within!

Some detail shots.

I think the design on the inside of the lid could be adapted to create a beautiful label for the soap. Pulling the little tabs inside the box removes the semi-circular covers, revealing this.

Between the purple tissue are sheets of gold leaf, and in the compartments, real frankincense and myrrh. Isn’t that just perfect?

Finally, yesterday I strained and bottled the lavender oil I have made. A couple of months or so ago, our neighbour from opposite was cutting back her lavender and gave us a huuuuge bunch, asking if I could do anything with it! I said that yes, I certainly could, and decided to make some infused oil with it. Making essential oils is a difficult process involving distillation and I didn’t feel up to that, but you can make wonderful fragrance oils by distilling things in oil and leaving them to steep for several weeks. I filled a jar with the flowers that I pulled off the stems, and then poured enough grapeseed oil into the jar so that it came up to the top. Grapeseed oil is very good for this because it has no smell of its own. It is a pleasant, pale green colour, and easily obtainable from the supermarket. Over the first week or so I stirred the mixture daily, and kept it for the whole time in the airing cupboard, covered with kitchen paper to let it breathe but to keep the dust out, and stirring occasionally, when I remembered. I strained it into bottles. The small bottles are blue glass (not particularly visible because the finished lavender oil is quite a dark green colour). I bought three with dropper tops to give away, and one with a pipette dropper for my own use. The bulk of the oil has gone into a larger brown bottle which had had some medicine in it. I made some labels, using a permanent black pen and colouring with distress inks (Milled Lavender – appropriately! – and Mowed Lawn).

This oil smells out of this world! I shall be using it to fragrance my soaps, and also the lotions and creams that I intend making.

First Soap Making Class–Learning the Ropes

Tonight I began my second 5-week course of evening classes this autumn. Since my hubby was doing a 10-week water-colour painting course, and the felt class was only 5 weeks, I decided to enrol for the soap making class. This is being taught by the same excellent teacher who did the felt-making course I finished three weeks ago. This time we have moved from the woodworking room at the school, upstairs to the kitchen, which is a gorgeous big, light and airy space with great facilities. It really is a beautiful school – very modern and very well equipped.

I got so carried away in the class tonight, that again, I completely forgot to take any photos during the class!

What we did tonight was to learn the basics of the melt and pour method of soap making, and we each made two basic soaps. This is an extremely simple technique. We were provided with two bags of lumps of the soap base, one white and the other clear, and all we had to do was weigh out a certain amount, and melt it in an ordinary microwave for 30 seconds or less, add some colour (only a few drops necessary) and some fragrance if desired – this came in two forms, either fragrance oil, which our teacher explained was synthetic, and the more costly essential oils, distilled from natural ingredients.

I decided not to add any perfume to mine, as I can be a bit susceptible to strong smells, particularly artificial chemical-type smells, with my M.E., and also I wanted to try the soap first of all in its purest form. Also, my hubby suffers from allergies and his skin is very sensitive to such things, and always has to use Simple soap to avoid coming out in a rash. I wanted to see if I could make soap which would be suitable for him.

The final step was to pour the liquid into a silicone mould and leave it to set. Any bubbles were dispersed with a quick spray of rubbing alcohol. Because our time was limited at the class, the teacher put the moulds in the freezer to speed up the process, but she said it was better left overnight, especially with the clear variety, which tends to go a bit cloudy if it is set too quickly.

There was a choice of moulds for us to use, including one of a gingerbread man. My hubby is very keen on teddy bears, but there was no mould for one, so I chose the gingerbread man as the closest thing! For his soap, I added some brown, and a few drops of orange colouring.

My second soap was made from the clear base, to which I added some glitter. This is cosmetic glitter, not normal craft glitter. When the soap came out of the mould, all the glitter had sunk to the bottom (a common occurrence, it seems) so it was all at the top of the piece of soap once it had been turned out. I have found some special soap base on Ebay which apparently enables any additives to remain in suspension throughout the soap and I may get some of this. Perhaps if I left it to cool a bit more before adding the glitter, it would hold its position in suspension a bit better, too.

We got on quite speedily at the beginning of the class, to enable the soaps to set enough to come out of the moulds so we could take them home. The second part of the class was devoted to the packaging of the soaps, and the teacher had brought along a big bag of sheets of cellophane, ribbons, labels, etc. etc. for us to play with, including some card, and a basic box template to make packaging for our soaps. My box didn’t turn out well; it wasn’t actually quite wide enough for the gingerbread man, whose arms stuck out too much! Also, there were no rulers, and I only had my nail scissors to cut it out. I can make much more satisfactory boxes here at home with all my equipment and supplies.

The teacher had come up with an ingenious way of matching the soaps to their owners – once they are all in the mould it’s hard to tell them apart. She issued us with small circular coloured stickers which we put on the two bags of soap base. Each one of us had their own colour. When we poured the soap into the mould, we had to add a sticker of our chosen colour to the mould beside the soap that was ours. That way each one was reconciled with its owner once they were removed from the moulds.

Here are the two pieces of soap I made. I’m afraid something went wrong with the camera for the first photos – I’ve been having some problems with this on and off, with it not focusing properly, so I’m afraid they are a bit out of focus. The first photo shows the soaps in their cellophane wrappers.

Unwrapped, so you can see them better:

Finally, one of the clear snowflake soap. This one is in focus! I love the ice-blue of this one. It’s really pretty.

This soap is gorgeous to use. It gives a good lather, and is incredibly soft to the skin – my hands still feel really soft several hours after trying it.

In the next two classes we will be continuing with soap making, and in the final two, will be making bath bombs and bath melts.

This first class was really very basic, and apart from choosing colour, fragrance and shape, there wasn’t anything desperately creative about it, as all we were doing was taking some shapeless lumps of soap base and melting them and making them into a different shape!! However, in subsequent classes we will be taking the technique further and learning how to layer differently-coloured bases to create some interesting effects.

One soap the teacher showed us was in the shape of a snow globe. The base of the globe was opaque white, and the top was in the shape of a dome, made from the clear base, and standing up in the middle of this was a tiny soap gingerbread man. There was glitter suspended in the clear soap.

Next week we will be making natural soaps, with different additives such as wheatgerm and loofah. The teacher showed us an excellent book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soaps-Cozy-Elaine-Stavert/dp/1861086458

which has lots of recipes in it, as well as the history of soap making, and some great information about different additives for different purposes. For instance, she explained to us that certain essential oils and other additives are good for different skin conditions, or for different purposes. A soap for the kitchen, for instance, with orange and/or lemon essential oil, will not only smell gorgeous, but will help eliminate the smell of onions from one’s hands.

Our teacher told us how she’d made some dog soap for sale once (called “Dirty Dog” lol!) which contained essential oils for the prevention of fleas, and for a good glossy coat. She also described some gardener’s soap she’d made, which would be lovely to give as gifts in the summer. I recently saw some interesting stuff online about felting around a piece of soap, and a lovely idea of suspending one of these felted soaps over the outside tap so that the gardener of the family (in our case my hubby) can wash their hands before coming in – my hubby always makes an awful mess, with mud all over the taps, and worse, all over my hand towel lol! Men…

Next week we will be making Christmas soaps. One of the examples she showed us was the “Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh” soap, with real natural ingredients, including little flakes of pure gold leaf! It was a small bar, cellophane wrapped, with a beautiful band made from gold embossed paper, with a really oriental and exotic feel. What a great Christmas gift that would make! I couldn’t smell it much because of the wrapper, but I am sure it smelt gorgeous.

Soap making is something that has interested me for quite some time. I have been drawn increasingly to the idea of making our own skin products and cosmetics, and household products, not just because they are a lot cheaper, but because you know exactly what’s in them. I am sure that a lot of the health problems people suffer these days are due in part to the bombardment of our systems by harsh synthetic chemicals. Also, anything to help my hubby’s allergies, not to mention the absolute pleasure it will give me to make things for him with my own hands, that he will use and enjoy, is a tremendous incentive! He called downstairs just after he went up to bed, saying that he’d tried the soap and loved it! Let’s hope he has no reaction to it, but I am sure he will not.

I don’t suppose I shall go all out on soap making because I haven’t got the time, with the other creative activities I am involved with, but I shall make enough for our own use, and for presents. Very satisfying!

Iridescent Butterfly–Part 3

Since my last post, I have had a search online, and have sourced some lovely fine copper wire covered with cotton - it is .45 mm diameter, so compared with my DIY wrapped wire which measures approximately .9 mm, it should be a lot better. What's more, it's a natural, off white colour and I can colour it how I want.

I got it from www.wires.co.uk in case anyone is interested. Hopefully my future projects will have a slightly less chunky look! (Not sure if this present butterfly would actually manage to get airborne...)

After completing the smaller pair of wings, I was now ready to assemble the butterfly.

I deliberately used nice long pieces of wire for the main outline of the wing in each case, to give me more to play with during the assembly stage – any excess could easily be cut off.

To make the body of the butterfly, I took a piece of uncovered wire and threaded a small bead onto it. I then doubled the wire over so that the bead was at the folded end, and twisted the ends together a couple of times.

The two ends were then threaded through a series of beads to form the body, and the wires emerging from the head end were bend outwards to form the antennae.

I stripped off the florist’s tape from the long pieces of wire from each wing, and twisted each one a couple of times around the body to anchor it in place. You could shape the ends to form two pairs of legs, and add another length of wire, doubled over in the middle, to form the third set of legs; you would add a tiny loop at each end to form a foot, to complete the butterfly. This would make a nice finish, but in this case I’ve decided to leave out the legs and simply stick the butterfly to my project, as there will not be much room in the frame, and the legs wouldn’t be seen anyway, so I trimmed off the long ends.

After wrapping the wires around the body, the whole thing was far too mobile, and the wings were twisting all over the place, so after trimming the wires short, I ran a little Pinflair glue along the underside of the body, squashing it between the beads to anchor everything, and when it was dry, it was fine. I also superglued the second pair of wings along their edges, underneath the larger wings, to hold them in place.

When I have made wire butterflies in the past, I have looped the ends of the antennae around a tiny bead with my jewellery pliers, but in this case, I decided to repeat the Gallery Glass technique on their tips – just a tiny piece of cellophane, decorated as for the wings. There is no florist’s tape on this wire, and I was hoping that the Gallery Glass will stick OK; the butterfly will be enclosed within the frame so it won’t be subject to any wear and tear, so hopefully it will be OK.

The above picture shows the antennae bent into shape, and sellotaped down temporarily onto a piece of paper to anchor them in place, nice and flat against the cellophane. The butterfly needed a bit more support to keep the antennae flat, and in the next picture, you can see it propped up with scraps of mounting board, and I’ve also put some pieces under the cellophane to press it up against the wires. You can see the wet Gallery Glass on the antenna tips, still milky in appearance.

During the drying process, the Gallery Glass did seem to be slipping off the wires a bit, so I scooped it back with a stylus several times, until the Gallery Glass started to set, and after that it seemed to hold OK. I think this goes to prove that using covered wire is definitely better.

After the Gallery Glass had dried and become completely transparent, I removed the sellotape and mounting board props, and trimmed away the excess cellophane from around the wires, and painted and glittered them as I did with the wings. Here is the completed butterfly.

Here is a detail of the beaded body, showing the wing attachments. You can see the tiny bead at the tip, with the twisted wire.

The next picture is a detail of the finished antennae.

Finally, here is a picture of the butterfly on a piece of silver mirror board, showing the undersides of the wings reflected; this is how the butterfly will be on the shadow box project, but it will be on a piece of acetate away from the reflective surface so that more of the underside should be visible.

Please see my upcoming blog posts on our nephew’s wedding present to see how I use this butterfly.

I think this technique produces simply gorgeous results, and I’m so grateful to GardenOfImagination for her excellent 8-part Youtube tutorial on the subject – whether you’re into fairies or not, most people love butterflies! You could also use it to make flower petals, leaves, fish, mobiles, abstract shapes… wherever your imagination leads you!

Iridescent Butterfly–Part 2

Back again – I wasn’t able to do any yesterday, because I was busy setting up my new printer. Today, the Gallery Glass on my wings has now fully dried, and I can move on to the next stage.

I have trimmed off the cellophane from around the wings. You can see how iridescent they are already, and they can be left like this if you want. Dragonfly wings would be gorgeous like this, but you would need thinner wire.

After trimming, the edges have to be heat set, so going carefully with the heat gun, with the wing edge on, I went round each wing until the edge of the cellophane melted.

On this close-up shot, you can see that the edge is slightly rounded.

Heating the wings does soften the Gallery Glass and superglue a bit, so it’s important not to handle them too much until they are thoroughly cooled, or they will get damaged.

The next stage is to paint them. I am using Daler Rowney Pearlescent liquid acrylic in the colour Galactic Blue, which is a gorgeous vibrant colour. The wings will need two coats, drying thoroughly between each coat.

Here are the wings after the first coat. You will notice that I’ve painted over the wires too. This makes them look slightly less obvious – they are a bit thick!

When you’ve painted the second coat, before it is dry, you can sprinkle a little ultra-fine poly-glitter onto the wings. It’s best not to use too much. Using the silvery-white glitter, it doesn’t look much when you first put it on…

…but once the wings have been set aside to dry thoroughly, the glitter is heat set using the heat gun, and this has the effect of bringing out all the gorgeous colours in the glitter. (Using any other colour of glitter, heating it would not have any effect.) I'm afraid the photo doesn't do it justice - I can never understand why sparkly or shimmery effects come out so badly on photographs!

I have not painted the backs of the wings. The blue acrylic on the front deepens the iridescence of the cellophane on the back, and I love this effect. It will not be lost in the project I am using this butterfly in, either, because the back will be reflected in a layer of silver mirror card.

You can paint the backs with black acrylic paint if you like, and this will make the blue on the front darker and richer. It’s all a matter of personal taste. I prefer to keep the surface colour as it is, because it will match my project better.

I am quite pleased with the result of this first pair of wings, despite the wire being a bit thicker than I wanted, so I’m going to go ahead and make the smaller pair. I am going to look around for some thin, already covered wire, which should make life easier.

To be continued…