My Soap Cutter

It has been sometime since I've updated my blog and this is a picture heavy post!

I love my Dad, he is awesome and made me a soap cutter.  I emailed him a link I found online here. He had most if not all of the materials on hand so it was fairly inexpensive, but I think if you went to a big box store it would cost around $50.

Here is a picture of my cutter

It has a guitar wire strung from the bottom (underneath) to the top to cut the soap.  It is a bit tricky to get the wire just snug enough to make a straight cut and sometimes it breaks.  I've been playing around trying to figure out how to string it properly and I resorted to pulling out my Father-in-law's old guitar and stared at the wires for a bit to figure something out.  If you have a guitar or can get your hands on one, look at the way the wires are knotted at the end so you can still turn the screw and not break it.  Seems to be working well.

Here are a few pictures of him in the process of making it....this is him putting the table legs on the cutter.

The table with the legs and the side cutter guide but without the top

Attaching the top, which will hold the block with the wires (See the Stained Glass on his workbench in the background...isn't it beautiful!)

Me all smiley while he is working hard!

Another picture of the top...he used Popsicle sticks to separate the two top piece to make room for the wire to run between.
 

Running the wire from bottom (below) to top

Wrapping the wire tight

First cut!

 And my first cut!

 Another shot if it in use

What the rebatch!!

Seriously...had to rebatch the banana soap.  Huh, what's that...no clue, but had to do it and had to figure it out or toss it.  Poor Banana Soap, I had such high hopes for you...I had dreams of using you in the shower and you making my skin all silky clean and fresh...oh, wait....I can still do that...yep!!! REBATCH!!!

Yeah, love that you can take a total loser disaster and turn it into something wonderful and bananay.  (yes, bananay...I'm still on the banana kick from my last post...these freaking things are awesome gifts perfectly wrapped a la Mother Nature style)

I'm not sure what really went wrong...who really knows.  I checked my recipe and don't remember forgetting anything and know I used my scale correctly.  It is pretty much idiot proof.  I think it is the mold I used.  I thought I would give something else a try and use a Pringle container so I could have circular (not unless you think round is funny..hahaha) shaped soap.  Well, that and the fact that I left the hot, gelling raw soap mixture in a garage in 95 degree temps could possibly be the reason for my soap disaster.  Once I unmolded the mess I pretty much knew...oh, yuck!  The Pringle container looks like it melted......

...ick!  Double ick!!  I didn't take a picture of the soap mess...(who really wants to take a picture of their disaster?)  It wasn't pretty....sorts looked like soap, but kind of a stringy like texture with pockets of oil.  I chopped it roughly with a knife and plopped it into a bowl and heated it on the stove and stirred and stirred and stirred until all of the lumps were out and it was smooth.  It looked like fudge and made me hungry.

Then I put it into a different mold and placed it in the basement (as I normally do with all of my other soaps...why didn't I do that originally??)  I'm now dreaming of using the Banana Soap in the shower again and it making my skin all silky smooth.  I think I was able to save a soap disaster and turn it into a banana goodness.  Again, we shall see in 24-36 hours, but I have high hopes for this one...I always do!

Banana Soap, who knew!!

I had two bananas sitting on the counter about to go bad, when I thought I should do something with them.  My first thought was to bake bread, but with it being over 95 degree outside and not having air conditioning in our older house I really didn't want to turn on the oven...then I thought soap...BANANA SOAP!  I searched online and see that people make soap out of bananas, but really didn't find any good recipes.  Most had ingredients that I didn't have on hand.  So after about 10 minutes of some not too serious thinking and running some numbers through the lye calculator, I asked my husband to watch the kids and I ran out into the garage for some sweaty fun soap making...it was 97 degrees here today..It was hot, but I didn't mind.   I got into the groove and made a great (fingers crossed, we will see tomorrow when I unmold it) batch of banana soap.

Here is what I found out about bananas online...who knew they are so good for you?  I will treat bananas with a bit more respect!!  Banana  is rich in potassium and vitamin A which is great for dry and sensitive skin.  It has also been known to help in the treatment of eczema, psoriasis and acne. And that is just for your skin...here is a link for what else a banana can do for you if you actually eat it.  Banana Link

After I unmold my soap tomorrow and determine if it is a good batch or not, I'll share my recipe and some pictures...until then here is a sneak peek.....

Infused Oils

I recently returned from an impromptu trip to NC to visit my parents.  I was able to cut some herbs from their garden as well as some eucalyptus from a nearby tree.  I decided to make some infused oils for some future soap.  I'd like to keep my soap as natural as possible and plan on not using pigments, dyes or scents for it.  Infused oils will help with color (oh well...most may be green!) and some scent.  Washed and dried and stripped the leaves off of mint, oregano and rosemary.  I left the leaves on the stalks of sage and parsely, but chopped them finely.  I chopped the mint and oregano too, but left the rosemary as is.  I was able to put my Alaskan Ulu knife to some good use.  I put the herbs in clean Mason jars and topped with oil.  I decided to use Soybean since it hardly has a scent.  I've used Olive in the past and it works fine as well.

My FIRST post!

How exciting, my first post. What an adventure I am going to have in the months ahead. I have many ideas and plans for my new business...Dusty Tree Soap and I cannot wait to share it with everyone. Stay tuned.......