More soap talk.

I cut my first batch of soap up last night. By the first cut I found out that I need to get a longer and better knife. I have nice cheap ones and while the soap is not hard it's like a firm cheese. A thin cheap knife does not make nice straight lines when you're making long cuts. I used my crinkle knife to cut the ends. I like that look. The top picture? You can see that the soap has a lighter looking side to it. That's an ash that develops on top of the soap while it's curing. I will cut it off before selling it. Another thing I found out is that even though you pour the soap in the box it wont level itself out. I need to make the top more smooth next time.

The 2nd picture is just to show what size my soap is compared to an Ivory bar of soap. The way I cut mine I got 33 bars of soap to the batch. I can cut smaller and get more bars to the batch but I'm not sure I want to do that. I feel that a handmade bar needs to have some "heft" to it. I have not decided on what I will sell it for. I just know what I like and I don't like wimpy bars.

The 3rd picture is to show just how drab and plain my soap making area looks like. It's very gray there. I think that tomorrow I'm going to get a colorful table cloth, a lamp with some bulbs that are like a zillion watts so I can have plenty of light. Also a padded rug for me to stand on. Oh and a radio/CD player. I think that will help while I'm in the dark basement. I can listen to some C.S.N.Y while I make the patchouli scent and some reggae while I make the citrus scents.

Oh, that desk was HEAVY! That's why there are scratch marks on the floor. Tim had a hard time moving it. We had to tip it on it's side to get it out of a room in the basement. He got it back up right but he had dig deep to do it.