Soap for Artists

I’ve made SOAP for ARTISTS! And I’m nearly giddy with delight over all these colors!! So my product line already had most of them, I just made up a number of new kinds to fill out the line and gave them all oil paint names. For example, my Jasmine Clementine is now Cadmium Yellow Lemon. And my Lapis Blue is now Ultramarine. Yeah! I love color! And I love making soap! So this is right up my alley! I think this is a perfect product line for the art supply shop around the corner from my studio!

So here are the color names: Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Lemon, Japanese Yellow Orange, Cadmium Red, Crimson, Magenta, Permanent Violet, Ultramarine Blue, Cerulean Blue, Turquoise Blue, Armor Green, Chrome Green Medium, Chrome Green Light, Golden Ochre, Red Oxide, Mars Black, Vandyke Brown, Flesh, Titanium White

Introductions

I added three new soaps to the line today and here they are:

First, “Rose of Sharon” inspired by Song of Solomon 2 is a delicate blend of old world fragrances, rosebud with a touch of lily of the valley. It is a pink soap with yellow and pink inclusions.

“Café Angelica” is a hazelnut coffee fragrance that is yummy in layers of creamy taupe and browns.

I reworked Tangerine Splash is the simple addition of exfoliating orange rind.


“New Wine” is a light bubbly scent combining fig, white grape and the green scent of vineyard in Olive oil soap with added fresh raw local honey.

Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes today and was really happy with how they turned out. They smell wonderful! People really have interesting reactions when they discover that it is soap and not real cake! Chocolate/Caramel, Chocolate/Mocha, Chocolate/ Butter cream, White Cake/cherry, White/wild berry, White/butter cream. They look good enough to eat!

Yay, new soap coming out of the studio today!

I wanted to share some new work with you. I’ve made a collection of soaps inspired by natural stones. It seemed reasonable since I’m a jewelry designer to cross the lines between the disciplines and I’m really happy with the results! I happened to take some photographs today that I’m happy with.





Here are some of the new kinds emerging from the creative process today:


Sugar Cookie (the one with pink sugar in it)
Key Lime Pie (oh YUM!)
Vanilla Bean
Manderian Spice
And the pink one I have not named yet. We were at friends house for an impromptu meal and their French foreign exchange student mixed up a bowl of strawberries, mint, black pepper with just a little sugar. It was amazing. This pink soap is that fragrance. Incredible!


Yummy Vanilla, it won't stay that white but it looks like icecream with the tiny little vanilla bean flecks. Makes me hungry!



The Key Lime Pie, Sugar Cookie and Vanilla Bean finish out my set of five food inspired bars. The other two are Chocolate Cream Pie and Mint Truffle (like an Andes Mint. It's a good thing people don't eat out of their soap dish!



The Strawberry-whatzit plus the Mandarin Spice will be a lovely addition to this collection of Lime Basil, Turquoise Spice, and Jasmine Clementine. These make up the Summer collection.

What can I say, I love my job!

Inspiration for fragrance work

I’m in the studio today working on a few new fragrances for the soap line. I already have 20 soaps in the line but I’ve had the inspiration for these and so I continue to bring out new ones. I’ve put considerable research into “his” and “hers” fragrance blends based on the story of Solomon and the Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon of the Bible. The fragrances I mixed this afternoon are earthy, unexpected and I am overjoyed at how they turned out. I have “his” on my right wrist and “hers” on my left, and I’m not certain which I like better. They are both unique and marvelous to me!

I’m also working on a “Rose of Sharon” (From Song of Solomon 2:1) that I’m happy with as well. It has hints of the Orient, Amber and floral notes that are marvelous.

There is yet another that I have not named yet that is based in these verses from Song of Solomon 2:
10 “My lover spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. 11 See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. 12 Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. 13 The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."

I have put experiments with spikenard and hyssop off for a while. These oils are so expensive that it would put the price of a bar of soap in the stratosphere. At $324 a gallon, hyssop essential oil is tame compared to Spikenard essential oil which comes in at a cool $520.00 a gallon. Wow, glad I don't have to put THAT in the tank of my car!

Soap Chemistry

Today I have been experimenting with some natural plant products that I’m planning to use to dye my soap. I’ve been toying with sandalwood, rosehips, henna, kelp, indigo, alkanet, chamomile, madder and pau d’arco. I spent a number of hours trying to track down something called Ratenjot that doesn’t seem to be available for sale in this country and is really expensive to have shipped here. I also have a few other plant items including ultramarine blue coming for more experimentation later - that stuff is expensive!! I feel like the mad chemist - this is so fun! I’ve also done quite a bit of research on some natural plants to use as skin care additives. I’m learning so much! This is all work toward a product line of completely natural soaps with natural essential oils (with healing qualities,) natural colorants and other skin pampering and healing additions in natural soap. By the time this product line is complete, it will be a full line of natural soaps in a whole rainbow of earthy colors - each with a specific skin healing quality. I love my job!

Website Design Plus Plus

The show last weekend went nicely. I made some art glass that was very well received. It inspired me to get back into that media again and so I’ll take art glass to a gallery jury meeting scheduled for June 23rd. I’ve had art glass there in the past and it was very profitable for the gallery and for me. I’d be very surprised if my work was not juried in again.

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend from High School who currently lives in Florida but is visiting VA. It was a nice time of catching up on *gulp* twenty one years *gulp* of post H.S. life. Then we visited the Verona farmer’s market where I’ll be selling soap next week. It was a lovely venue with a large roof providing plenty of shade and open air. It was a beautiful day with lots of poofy clouds and the tables were piled high with lettuce, onions, potatoes as well as baked goods. There was only one other seller there with soap and mine is very different from his so I think I’ll be a nice compliment to that group. Plus I’ll get to pick up something lovely for supper each Wednesday. I am looking forward to that.

Yesterday and today I am working on building a website for a friend. It’s an interesting process. He gave me the link to a website that he really likes the look of and wanted something similar. It has been very interesting to see it begin with just the basics and then plug in the material and continue to develop it. I think it would be very interesting to watch another programmer work and see how the project takes shape for them. I’m sure there would be some similarities and also major differences. Since I am self-taught I imagine there are plenty of differences in the way I work from the way others work. The idea of watching the development reminds me of time lapse photography where you get the see the movement of the clouds or stars in the night sky. It would be interesting to watch the development of a website in the same way.

If you’d like to take a look, here is the link: http://pastorstevepaulus.com/index.htm And I especially like this page: http://pastorstevepaulus.com/links.htm where the colors seemed to connect and blend in a way that makes me happy. I haven’t heard from Steve since yesterday afternoon very early in the development so I don’t know what he thinks of the progress. I hope to see what he thinks of things soon. I’ll include a link to another website I designed as well: http://www.stauntongrace.org/

I want to start production today and tomorrow on a line of soaps that are completely natural from the oils to the colorants used. I’m looking forward to getting into that and would like to have some ready for the weekend Farmer’s Market in Staunton. That could take some doin though, so we’ll see. I have plenty of inventory without that, it would be fun though.

Just a few items from the flurry

I have been very busy since my last post. And there is almost too much water under the bridge to fit in one post. I’ve posted my line of Garnished Poems on Etsy and also on my website. Going back through these was an interesting exercise since I haven’t looked at them since early this year. And some of them still feel very fresh to me. As always there are some I like better than others. Here is one favorite.

I’ve also posted my black and white alphabet photography series on Etsy and also on my website. I really love how graphic and quirky these alphabet photographs are when made into words. It is so fun to choose the letters that fit best from a visual perspective. It took quite some time to get all those photographs resized down to little tiny internet files but I’m happy with how things look. I had to add copyright protection information which I found rather annoying but it’s wise to protect the investment from those who would just save and print out my work as if it were their own. Anyone coming from my website can get to the Etsy page to make the purchase. I hope it’s an easy interface for most folks. I love the whole idea of these photographs. Actually, this has really led me to fall in love with the alphabet all over again. Seems strange, I know, but I love the simple graphic elements of the alphabet. It has me transfixed and I have projects waiting in the wings for a little time to complete them. More alphabet photography! Yes! I’ll be having more of that!



All the work on Etsy and my website has led to a complete overhaul of the site. An completely new look and I’ve tried some things I’ve left alone in the past. Surf on over and let me know what you think. CarmenRoseStudio.com

I’ve also been busy in the studio making soap. And I have a major event this weekend or else I’d spend some time making photos of the latest soaps and post them. I want to get that product line posted on Etsy and my website as soon as I can but it won’t be this week. I’ve gotten some reactions to the soaps now and am delighted to see that they go over beautifully. I’ll be selling soap and mineral makeup at the local Farmer’s Market. I wouldn’t have considered that a year ago but now it seems like it may be a good way to meet people in the town I call home these days.

Yeah, I make the mineral makeup that I wear but am still in the beginning stages of making a product line. I gotta tell ya, I love the products that I’ve made so far! I’ve made a skin care (not a cosmetic) combination of minerals, green tea and vitamin E that I wear under my makeup and at night. I’m completely amazed by what the simple combination has been able to do for my skin. Plus… since all mineral makeup is NOT created equal and there are a lot of products out there touting “Mineral Makeup” that actually have ingredients that are HARMFUL and known irritants… well, let’s just say I’m delighted to be making a product that I know is good for my skin and just happens to look great on me. Plus, I managed an exact match to my skin tone. You can’t say that everyday… my makeup matches me! Yay! Anyway, how did I get on that tangent?

I have a big event this weekend that has completely hijacked my schedule and I don’t mind a bit. It will be a great opportunity to share my work with a diverse group of people and support a great cause.

A thunder storm is blowing up and I must get home and let the border collies inside so they don't freak out completely.
ta ta

I'm going Etsy again

Yay! I’ve spent some time today working on my Etsy store. I haven’t used it in a long time and it’s nice to get it back up and going again. The items listed are all poetry/watercolor combinations I created earlier this year. I’ll be adding SOAP shortly. And who knows what else!

Etsy is an excellent venue to purchase anything hand made from individuals and collectives all over the country and around the world. Support the dream, buy hand made.

Experimentation

Well, today I have done some soap experimentation. I have been playing with some natural soap dyes. Plant based elements that should/could color soap without the use of synthetic dyes. So today I made a bunch of bars of soap, each with a different natural additive. Some of the things I’m trying: Alkanet, Indigo, Sandalwood, Madder Root, Henna, Kelp and Rose Hips. All of these are plant based. I wanted to try Carmine but that's insect based and I just found that toooo sad that the lil bugs had to die to dye. Beautiful color, beautiful name though. I’ll watch these samples over time and see how they morph. Should be interesting.

I also started some fragrance blending today for new series of soap fragrances. And that process takes a while as things blend and mellow together and adjustments are made. I made four blends which means my nose is shot for the day. I think it was pretty much shot before I started but that’s nothing new. Even with the allergy medication I take, there is only a fraction of the time when I can actually smell anything because of my allergies combined with my deviated septum. So blending fragrances is really a trick since it could be quite a while before I can tell exactly what I’ve just done. Who knows, it could be very cool. Or it could be the worst horror ever found in a little amber jar. I don’t know. It takes a while for the fragrances to modulate, so I’m looking forward to my little sensory surprises when I go back to them later on.

I have figured out why I put rosemary and mint together. It’s a divine combination and I finally realized the other day that when I lived in our cute little home in Indiana, I always picked garden mint tea and then I’d take a little sprig off the rosemary and steep that in with the tea. It was delicious in cold iced tea. I guess that is further proof that scent can be an entirely unconscious experiment triggering all kinds of memories and experiences. It just smells sooo good! It is one of my favorites.