Vec

I went to my first craft fair two days ago with about 70 candles. I think there were about 20-30 vendors there and 2 other candle people. I suppose I did alright for my first show...made 3-4x the booth fee and had lots of candles left over. The thing was there was a parade about 9 mile away during the whole thing...so lots of the time there were only about 4 customers in the place once. But...there is another craft fair on the 16 and ive got a little experience with the whole ordeal now and know what to expect next time...so im going to add to my containers I took to this one with some 9oz jars and going to do some pillars to take. Try try again and hopefully there wont me any other customer attacting events in the area this time :smiley2:

Thanks, Carrie...I'll give that a try.

Does anyone know any tricks to keep my lye tame when I open it? Seems every time I open my lye it wants to explode out of the container like popcorn all over my workspace. And, can I just clean it up with plain water...or should I use vinegar?

I don't see why it wouldn't work...but I haven't tried it yet. I was thinking of doing the same myself. I was thinking maybe of doing just after cutting it while it's still soft before putting it on racks to cure. But I just haven't gotten to it yet...so no stamps for my first two batches...maybe not the third....I have stamps..just haven't had a chance to get over to my mom's to find them yet *bummer*.

I'm still trying to get a hold of a digital camera to take pics of my first two batches of soap. In the meantime I've made another batch of soap. I doubled my recipe for the wild cherry batch and tried a swirl. I took out a large portion of the uncolored soap and colored the rest with cocoa powder then poured the two back together and gave it a couple of gentle stirs before scooping it into my pvc molds. I do hope it comes out nice. And now it has a nice light cocoa scent....yummy! I'm going to try and sell some of my first batch on the third of December (we have a booth at a local craft fair). What would be a fair price for 4oz bars? And yes...I've tested it...it's nice and creamy and leaves the skin feeling soft and moisturized.

does anyone use 21 ply flat brain wick?

WHEEEEEE!!!! JUST POURED A SECOND BATCH OF WILD CHERRY!!!! here's my recipie for my second batch: Water 18.24 oz Lye 192.3 g Canola 7.2oz Coconut 12oz Lard 14.4oz Olive 14.4oz 1/2 oz Wild Cherry FO from Peak (I'm thinking maybe this will be a harder more lathery bar? yes/no?) Now I need to make a run to Wal Mart to get more drying racks. Our friend found our digital camera so all I have to do now is go and fetch it to make pics of my first batch of soap. What's the best type of dye/pigment to use in soaps...so far I've been using crayons but they don't melt good enough or get dark enough for me. Any suggestions?

thank yall for the replies...gonna have to look into the wick stickums(ive only heard em mentioned a few times)...or just keep on the lookout for a better gluegun and higher temp sticks

I was just wondering how you guys attached a wicktab to the bottom of your containers...or you just let it dangle from the wick holder? i use my hot glue gun..and a bamboo skewer broke in half with chrome tape holding it together like a clothes pin for a wick holder...but when i heat my containers..my hot glue get hot enough to slip around in there(maybe its just my glue sticks...i have a 1 dollar glue gun and multi temp sticks)...wondering if yall did it a bit different thanks

hmmmm...neat idea. but mine are rounds...guess i could do something similar and just print out a round label for the back to keep the ends closed...but then you wouldn't be able to see the soap...delimas delimas. gonna put my design skills to the test and see if i can come up with something different. but i definitely like the handmade paper idea...and i know how to make paper...tee hee hee. let's see what i can do. thanx for the idea. :rockon:ROCK ON!

YAY I MADE SOAP! everything came out great...so far. *crosses fingers* It looks wonderful! I'm so proud of me! when i first started i said i wasn't going to put any color or fragrance in it....but i changed my mind. I put a little bit of dandilion yellow to give it a golden tint and added honey fragrance to it. now it looks and smells like a piece of 'bit o honey' candy. yum yum. As soon as I get a picture of it I'll post it. But now, I'm trying to decide what flavor to make next....

Well...just poured my first batch of soap into it's mold....everyone cross thier fingers for me....I'll need all the luck I can get. (since it's hard to get things to go right lately) I'm worried it's not going to turn into soap...but I guess everyone worries about that the first time ey? I did manage to have a minor disaster though! While pouring my soap into one of the pvc molds I had lined the bottom popped off and soap went everywhere. I managed to save half or more of what came out (thank goodness) by scooping it with my hand into a plastic container I had handy (YAY!). Still yet, a good ammount of it landed on the floor before I could act (BOO!). i guess I'll let it sit there overnight and see if I can pop it off of the floor tomorrow. At least I had the sense to tape the bottom of the other mold tightly before proceeding again (YAY!) And so, my first batch sits safely in a closet till tomorrow. What am I going to do if it doesn't turn out?

wow...i found my 21 ply..sry for the post

I like the idea of the cellophane and pouf. Should sell quite well. I was thinking of making my own boxes but I'm not sure of what kind of paper I should use. I'm going to give a few things a try: cardstock and illustration board will probably work best. Does anyone know where I could get inexpensive plastic coated papers?

Wait a minute....Red Devil stopped making lye? When? How do I find these things out? BOOOOOO!!!! *thumbs down* I guess I'm going to have to do a bit of looking around myself now...grrrr. again.... BOOOOOOO!!!!! *thumbs down*

I got two 18 oz containers of red devil lye for $4 each at a local grocery store (Market Basket). I found it next to Drano on the cleaning isle. Some hardware stores and some feed stores may sell it as well. Why not look at your local corner grocery (at least for pricing) before you order online. Who knows, you may just save yourself some shipping and handling costs.

Yeah, I heard Robin say once that it was better to measure the lye in grams so I figured it would be best. You don't think my soap is going to be too soft do you? What could I add to it to make it more of a cleansing soap? Also, I have been looking through the archives for information on using pvc molds but have had no luck so far. I would much appreciate it if anyone could give me a link or something. See, my boyfriend, Jake (Vec), makes candles and he lets me use his account to talk here in the soap discussion board. I have my bachelor's degree in graphics communications...so I do have experience in art related crafts. I just want to do it right and learn from the more experienced (or best...however you want to look at it). I have some really good ideas for packaging and such...now all I need is a product....and soap is something I've always wanted to give a try at. So please be patient with me. I'll try my best not to ask too many stupid questions. heheheh ROCK ON

as long as wax doesnt catch on fire..its still good wax(and additives)..right? it was only parafin and vybar..because im catching a burnt smell...plastic..paint..something coming from my pouring pot...wondering if its the wax or just my makeshift double boiler pot edit: and to all the newer people like myself, if it hasnt been stressed to you enough..-dont- leave wax unattended..all the water boiled out of my pot and my thermometer was just a -shade- under the ParafinGoPoof temp..and the thermometer wasnt even in the wax...it was about an inch above.. be careful

HA HA HA!!! I'm having the same delima right now...I want to just jump up and do it...but I'm also still kinda chicken. Also, I want to make sure I have everything i need before I get into it. I'm wondering how long I need to leave my soap in the 3" pvc mold before i need to take it out, cut it and cure it. And, do I have to use distilled water or can I just use well water? Yes, I got two 18 oz containers of red devil lye for $4 each. Here's the recipe I'm gonna try out: 18.24 oz. water to 18.24g. lye 14.4 oz. lard 14.4 oz. olive oil 4.8 oz. coconut oil 4.8 oz. canola oil 4.8 oz. safflower oil 4.8 oz. sunflower oil I'm also going to add some oatmeal and almond Do you think this will be simple enough for a first batch? I'm not going to add any dye or fragrance...or should I?

why not make a portion of the batch with the pumpkin pie spices and the rest with tumeric and swirl it to make it look spicy???? hehe..just a thought.

Congradulations on your first batch of soap! I'm getting prepared to make my first batch as well. I hope I can do as well as you did. I think I'm going to start with a very basic recipe...no fragrances and no dyes. I got some 3" pvc for my mold...i wonder how long I need to leave it in the mold before i can take it out and cut it?

My grandmother used to make lye soap before she passed away. I have watched her render fat a few times...she used a huge cast iron pot outside on a fire. She boiled hers down in the pot (but she was doing huge ammounts....they had hogs) then strained it into buckets where after it cooled she scraped the goodies off the top.

I was amazed at the ammount of ingredients I could get at the grocery store! The only things they didn't have was butters and certain oils. I managed to get olive oil rather cheap (68 oz. for $12), sunflower oil ($7), safflower oil ($4) and coconut oil (32.5 oz $9) and of course lard (25 lbs $18...parade brand). That's gonna save me a dollar or few on online purchases...may even be able to splurge on an extravagant ingredient or three...tee hee hee.

Thanks alot, Robin. I just wanted to make sure it was ok before i bought it. Now I'll go and get that 5 gallon bucket for $20!

I am new to making soap and I have a possibly stupid question. I have been thinking about buying store-bought lard, but the only brand I can find is Armor. It has preservatives in it. Will preservatives in store-bought lard affect my measurements? -and- Does all purchased lard contain preservatives? Thanks.