DuhBe.com

I’m remodeling the soap room.  Didn’t I just build a soap room in my basement about a year and a half ago?  Yup.  Now it’s time to make it bigger and better.  Here’s a google sketch-up of my future room with cabinets and some colors.

Since the holiday sales traffic has come to a grinding halt, I have some free time on my hands.  Whew!

I gave myself a budget of $500 to tackle this soap room project.  That’s all.  Considering we needed to build a wall, purchase and install a kitchen worth of cabinets, plus cover the walls, floor and ceiling, and extend electrical service – that’s not much budget.  But I tell you this – it can be done.  I’ll save all the gory details for a future post to show off my new soap room which I’m trying to finish before Christmas.

If you want to see all the inspirational photos I collected on Pinterest that helped me design my space, check out my pin board over there…

http://pinterest.com/duhbe/soap-room-design/

I thought it would be fun to share how I make my holiday coal soap with a tutorial.  If you’re a soaper – enjoy the instructions.  If you’re not a soaper, you might still enjoy the wacky humor and inside info I’m about to share.

I make fabric bags to stash my lumps of coal.  But these also work well in purchased drawstring bags, a little stocking, or maybe decorate a glassine or brown paper bag.  Consider stamping, sewing, drawing or whatever media you like to decorate with.  Get creative with the packaging, that’s where YOUR style really comes out and makes this project your own.

NOTE – lots of people make coal soap  using melt-and-pour soap from the hobby store, and use a rock mold to shape the coal.  My skin is not fond of melt-and-pour soap formulas, so I prefer the old-school, hard-core, cold-process method.

I made up a batch of cold process soap and colored it black.  Here’s a guideline of how I did it.  This is not a “how to make soap” tutorial.  I assume you already know how to make soap if you’re trying this project.  I’m just sharing how to turn soap into lumps of coal.   MMM-kay?

• soaping oils of your choice, and the correct amount of lye for them (use a soap calculator)
• 40% lye solution  (means 40% lye in my water, in other words – this is a pretty decent water discount, consult lye calculator)
• bamboo charcoal – 1 tsp PPO is typical, I used a bit less since my FO discolors brown and helps darken the soap
• Fragrance of your choice – I LOVE Santa’s Pipe from Sweet Cakes for these lumps of coal

Since you’re going to hand mold the lumps later on – we really don’t care how ugly the soap is in the mold.  You can soap it pretty warm like 120 F.  Dump the charcoal and fragrance into the oils, then add your lye water and stir until you get trace.  Thick trace is fine.  Heck, this stuff went nearly solid on me and I pretty much packed it into the mold rather than poured it.  Tunnels, ugly tops, we don’t care!  Insulate to make sure it goes through gel phase and let it get as hot as possible without a volcano.  (although black soap volcanoes would be really cool, right?  Save that for the next science fair project.)

Another NOTE – If I were really smart, I would hot process this stuff.  But I’m so used to cold-process so that’s how I make these.   With the 40% water discount, sufficient gel phase, and the 1 ounce size, these little guys cure pretty fast.

Finally, lets get started.

Cut your black soap into bars and then cut each bar into 4 pieces.  This gives me about 1 ounce of soap in each piece…

I want metallic veins in my soap, so I’m using 3 different cosmetic powders from TKB trading.  I used holographic glitter (super irridescent!) along with blackstar gold and antique silver.  Use whatever you have or skip the vein step.

Oh!  See that dust mask?  You will need one if you’re going to sift micas around!  Don’t skip it – your lungs will thank you later!!!

Just put a little sparkly powder in the tea ball and sift it over the top of all your pieces. ..

Then I turn each piece over and sift more powders on top.

I am willing to admit I was too heavy-handed with the micas on this batch.  You can use much less than the photo and be just fine.

The photo below has all the soap pieces dusted with all 3 of my sparkly powders (2 micas and 1 glitter that sparkles greenish in the photo)

Now it’s time for physical labor.  Put on some gloves for this.  (No, it’s not optional, put on the dang gloves)

Grab a piece of soap…

And smush…

I suggest using 2 hands, but I needed one hand to take the picture.  (I’ll let you do the math on that one)

Keep smushing like you’re molding clay…

Is anybody else chanting “2 by 2, hands of blue?”   or am I the only one who channels River Tam when I wear nitrile gloves?

You just want to get some of the sparkly powder into the inside of the lump, then smooth the outside into a lumpy looking thing…

I don’t like the jagged edges so I smooth those out.  They will come off in the first wash anyway.  Here’s a finished lump….

Here’s a tip about shaping your lumps…make them fat and not skinny.  Skinny ones look like lumps of turd and not lumps of coal.  Here, I’ll show you…

See the turd looking thing on top, and the coal looking thing on bottom?

(I will humbly confess that the lumpy turd idea took on a life of its own.  There are tons of things you can do with soap in that shape.  A few family members should be expecting Mr. Hanky soaps in their stocking this year.  But let’s try to stay on task here with the coal, shall we???)

OK.  Now you just repeat the smooshing chunks into lumps for all the gazillion little soaps in your batch.  Yep, it’s tiresome.  Yep, your hand might cramp up.  I thought I would never finish smushing the 72 lumps in this batch.  But I did, and I lived to write this post.  Here’s a pile of lumps…

They are perfectly fine that way in the photo above.  But I didn’t like all the gold on these so I decided to rinse them with water to get rid of some surface powder.  I swished each lump in a bowl of warm water and laid them on some plastic canvas to dry.

See the suds on the soap?  We don’t like that.  It leaves a film.  Get out your bottle of alcohol and spritz…

See, the alcohol killed all those bubbles instantly.  Now the soap is shiny and not so gold.

Here’s a whole bunch of them, as they dry off…

Another group pic of a happy bunch of lumps…

I cut one open to show the veins of sparkle inside.  These will begin to show on the outside when the soap is used and gets smaller.

Now take your lumps….

…And let them cure or dry out for a couple of weeks and then package them up for the holidays.  Since these are small, the water evaporates more quickly than in a 4-5 ounce bar soap (the discounted water in the formula helps there too).
These little lumps should be ready to use much faster than your typical cold-process soap.  (two weeks for me, but your mileage may vary depending on the oils you used, as well as humidity and other such variables.)  As I stated earlier, making these with the hot process method is probably a better way to go.  I’ll try to remember that for next Christmas.

I’ve already sold out of my first batch of coal and had to make more before the holiday season really gets started.  So it seems these little lumpy critters are popular?  If this whole process is too cumbersome for you, pop over to my Ballyhoo Bath Etsy shop where I have these for sale in handmade fabric bags.

Howdy-Ho and Happy Holidays!

I need to show-off the 6 new soaps I added to the Ballyhoo Bath lineup.  Some are limited Edition Holiday Soaps, and some are for the regular lineup all year if they prove to be popular.  (My soap lineup is continually morphing)  I’m really pleased with 5 of the 6 new soaps.

Sack of coal scented with one of my favorites scents -  Santa’s Pipe.  I made these bags myself, complete with fabric printed label which is haphazardly sewn on with  my signature tattered style of sewing.

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I’m sharing some good news today.  Ballyhoo Bath got it’s first wholesale account at a retail store this week.  It’s a very exciting step for my little bitty business!

The shop is in Kenosha, WI (where I live) and it’s called A Piece of Mine.  It’s a really cute shop with vintage and handmade products, so I’m really proud to have my line of bath and body added to their product offerings.

Since no blog post is complete without photos, I’m sharing some shots of the cigar boxes I decorated to display my products in for the retail shop.  Using the Silhouette electronic cutter makes quick work of the paper dolls and signage.

How about you and your handmade products?  Do you want to sell in the retail world?  After much thought, I know I want my brand in boutique style shops, but not in the chain stores.  Of course, I will continue the online shop through the Ballyhoo Etsy and my own website very soon.  Everybody has their own preference – where do you prefer to sell your handmade goods?

The first dozen of my little fairy dolls are done and will be listed in the Duhbe Etsy shop today.  Here are some details about how the fairies are made, and how they can be worn and displayed.  There are also some warnings to heed at the bottom of this post.

These fairies were designed to be worn on your hair or clothing, but they can adorn so many other places. Stick them on curtains, attach them to your magnetic white board at work, hang them from a lamp or just keep them peeking out of their can. Their adorable little faces look sweet just about any way you display them. This little guy is clinging to the chain-link fence in my backyard…

Fairies can be naughty, so beware!  My daughter got attacked by 3 fairies.   She came away unharmed, but it was a little harrowing for her.  (By the way, only 11 of the 12 fairies are going up for sale, because dear daughter already claimed one for herself.)

Each fairy comes in a metal cannister with a label I’ve designed myself.  You can pose the fairies in and around their cans with their magnetic hands.  There is also a unique magnetic “pillow” for each fairy. These are used to attach fairies to fabrics like clothing.  Put the pillow under your clothing and the fairy will attach to that on the outside of your clothing or fabric.  This makes the fairy hold on tightly during normal wear.  The magnets are enclosed inside the pillow for 2 reasons – (1) so the metal doesn’t touch skin, and (2) so the tiny magnets don’t get lost when you remove the fairy.

The pillow also makes a nice prop when the fairies are being posed like in the photo below.

They also stick to other metal/magnetic items around your house:  the fridge, magnetic white boards at your office, metal decorative accessories.   I got this rustic metal bucket stack at hobby lobby and the faires liked crawling on it.

And now on to the nitty gritty of how these babies are made.

Their bodies are sewn from upcycled fine fabrics, mostly silks.  The bodies are not stuffed, since stuffing makes them heavier and harder to pose.

Their hair is feathery fluff.  Each fairy has a different hair style.  Some styles are rather extravagant.

Each head, body and hands are molded and shaped from polymer clay.  They have beady little eyes.  Some fairies have a pale complexion in a matte finish, while others have a little more tan and an iridescent glow.  The glow comes from special powders I use in my cosmetic business which catch the light and reflect different colors.  In other words, they glisten like Edward in Twilight.

For the wings, I’m especially proud of those.  Each pair of wings is spun from threads on my embroidery machine.  I designed and digitized the lacy wing pattern myself, so I know you won’t find these wings anywhere else!  Some of the fairies have glow-in-the-dark threads as the “white” color of their wings.

And on a more serious note…Each can is also labeled with the following notice.
WARNING! Not intended for children under 12 years. This product contains small magnets. Swallowed magnets can stick together across intestines causing serious injuries. Seek immediate medical attention if magnets are swallowed.
(all of the fairy magnets are attached to hands or enclosed in the pillow so they are not loose, but please keep them away from children and pets, or adults who like to eat fairies.)

(Note to my regular readers – you might remember the glowing fairies I blogged about last time.  I had to give up the glow for now.  But I might return to that concept later since I really like the idea of it.

Just a sneak peak at something I’m working on, diligently trying to engineer all the pieces to work together…

She’s a glowing fairy doll with polymer clay head, hands and feet.  Her body is transparent with a tiny glowing belly, covered by some transluscent silk.  Her hair is some breezy ostrich feather fluff, reminiscent of Fraggles.  (I still love you Jim Henson!)

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I recently embarked upon making lace on my embroidery machine.  I learned a few things through trial and error that I might as well share.

The concept is simple – you buy a lace design for your computerized embroidery machine and you sew it out on water soluble stabilizer.  When all the stitches are done, you rinse away that gooey stabilizer and only the threads are left in a lacy pattern.

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After 6 years with the same ol’ webhost, I finally decided to move my blog to a new host last week. I think everything switched over quite nicely – but sometimes I see garbage and not the blog. If you’re reading this OK, please let me know in the comments. Pretty please? And if you can’t see this, I guess I’ll need to figure that out.

Here’s a tip for you…If you’re looking to get a website, or change your webhost – stay away from unlimited plans unless your needs are very small. There is really no such things as unlimited bandwidth, so they get you in other ways. You’re better off with an honest webhost who tells you exactly how much space on their computer server they will really give you.

Hopefully the blog pages will now load faster for everyone. As always, let me know if that’s not the case.

<update added 9/12/11 – It turns out my blog was having major problems related to wordpress caching on the new webhost.  The engineer at Hawkhost identified the issue immediately and within minutes my blog was back on it’s feet again.  It’s refreshing to have competent tech support.  All issues should be fixed now.  Hurray!>

Hello.  Allow me to stick my neck out just a bit…

I’ve had so many things going on lately that blogging has been far down on my list.  Maybe it’s time I move blogging back up towards the top?  Because today a sweet reader sent me an email to say she noticed my absence from the blogosphere and she just wanted to make sure I was OK.  She has never left a comment before, but she was out there.  Needless to say – her email touched me enough to make me come and post something!  Anything.

So I’ll share 2 of the things I’ve been up to.  One is scented lockets.  Many of them use my favorite fabric roses.

There are plain necklaces…

And chokers with roses where a little scent locket hangs beneath….

And I’ve also made some rose brooches with a dangling locket…

There is a pad inside the locket, so you add a few drops of fragrance and wear the scent.  I had considered solid perfume in the lockets, but the scented pads mean you can easily change fragrance from day to day, or hour to hour depending on how fickle you may be.  I’m also selling some concentrated fragrances for these, but you can also add your own fragrance.  Maybe I should sell the fragrance separately?

Many of the new lockets are not even listed for sale yet.  Photographing jewelry is more challenging that I thought and I’m having to relearn new tricks just to get these pictures.

The OTHER big thing that has been consuming my time is website design for the Ballyhoo Bath website.  Here’s where my OCD kicks my butt.  I couldn’t just grab some online shopping cart software and pick a template to finish things quickly.  Oh no, not me.  I somehow got sucked down the rabbit hole of creating my own template for a new shopping cart with minimal support (tomatocart for those who care).  And on top of that, I ended up learning many new tricks for CSS3 and HTML5 that apparently many website designers are not even using yet.  Why do I even bother?  Because it’s so darn fascinating to me – learning all the cool new stuff on the cutting edge.  Maybe it’s a sickness, but I’ll enjoy the disease.

Here’s a sneak peak at the site in progress.  The finished design will not look like this, I’d say it’s only 1/2 way there.

Between web design, filling order for bath products and roses, and also spending every weekend at the Bristol Renaissance Faire, things have been very busy around the DuhBe/Ballyhoo hut lately.  But all is well – peachy actually.  Thank you so much for asking, and don’t hesitate to poke me again the next time I go missing.  I’m sure it will happen again.

Disappearing is another one of my talents.

Sometime I detour.  Because it’s really about the journey and not the destination.

This week I played with dolls made of paper & fabric.

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