Problems with soaping

The one and only problem with soapmaking (other than finding time and room) is that it, well, just isn't portable.

And I had alllllll that wool for wet felting soaps on hand, as well as some felting needles (which were purchased as an attempt to tack the edges of different colors of wool before felting.)

First needle felted wool sculpture was a lady bug, using the instructions here. (When working on the body, Carl squished it and commented on how soft it was... he was expecting a bar of soap in the middle! Mom squished it too and then, when she realized it wasn't a felted soap, rubbed it on her arm while asking if it was a bath scrubbie. Considering that I've been doing soap stuff for a year now, I guess it was a logical assumption. *grin*)

Then I started thinking "How hard could something like a teddy bear or a face be, anyway?"

Forgive the bad pictures; the camera on my cellphone can only do so much.

"Lookkit Mah Bahr!" Not bad for my second project...




"Gru" The cranberry and black weren't my first choice for the first time doing a face, but they were all I had with me at the office that day and I was bored during lunch. Yes, he's missing eyes...no, he isn't getting any. Something tells me that trying to go beyond this point will ruin him and I really like him the way he is right now.


Both sculptures are 100% wool. No wire frame on the bear, no fillers in either. All sculpted with felting needles, one poke at a time.

I signed up for a introduction to needle felting course as well as a intermediate needlefelting course (yay baby dragons!) through Joggles.Com. We'll see how they go.

As for soap? Got a batch of beer shampoo bars (with yucca root and comfrey leaf) that didn't turn out so great as shampoo... or at least not for me. They leave my hair feeling really weighed down. On the other hand, they work fantastic for Carl. So, he uses it for his hair, I use it for body and we both win. Not going to label them as shampoo bars, though.

I'm planning on making either a new batch of Lavender or Dragon's Blood soap this weekend...hopefully, I'll actually get one of each done since I'm running low on inventory on both. I'm also building up quite an inventory of Bramble Berry fragrances and really really need to start diving into the new ones. Got my Matcha Tea and my Lychee Red Tea FO's last night. Mom and I both like the Lychee and the Matcha actually got a "WOW" from Carl. (His usual comment when I wave a new bottle of FO in front of his nose is "yeah, it's smelly alright." *grin*)

What really blew all of us away was the sample of the Nag Champa that I had requested. I had purchased some Nag Champa fragrance oil from The Chemistry Store (since I was placing an order with them anyway because they had some molds I wanted on sale for 99 cents each) and, while it smells good, it in no way smells like Nag Champa (I'm going to have to figure out another name for it. :-( ) The sample from Bramble Berry? INCREDIBLE! It's as dead on true to scent as their Dragon's Blood and just as sensual. If I didn't already have at least a dozen oils that I haven't used in soap yet, I'd be ordering a pound of it today.

I'm going to be hunting for the charger cord for my camera tonight (last seen when we came back from Tallahassee in January) and, if needed, just pop in some regular batteries so I can get caught up with soaping pictures.