I’m still alive and well, and very busy.

Most of you know that I turned my attention to skin and haircare a couple of years ago.  My time for other crafting has been short while building up the Ballyhoo Bath Etsy shop and other aspects of that business.   Quite frankly, it’s a big conundrum for me whether I should continue on the DuhBe blog or should I start a new blog more related to the cosmetic chemistry I’m studying?  I’ve been wrestling with that for months now, and I know I want to start a new blog that helps people figure out their hair and skincare problems, but I also enjoy the craftiness over here at DuhBe and I still have lots of sewing and crafty tutorials up my sleeve!  It’s 2 separate worlds and I enjoy both.

What to do, what to do?  I’ll let you know when I figure all of this out.  In the meantime, I’ll share a photo I took with my new (used) DSLR camera.  I’ve been meaning to blog about photography some more anyway.   Comparing my photos from a few years ago to the ones I take these days – wow!  If I can get better – so can everybody else.  I’ll try to talk about photography in the near future.  K?

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 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!

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.

…Peppermint Swirl, scented with natural oils of Peppermint and Tea Tree…(the ballyhoo girl got a new hat!)

And then there’s the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.  I love how these swirls turned out and how the gold dusted on top really adds sparkle.  And the spicy citrus smell is divine.  But I had problems getting this soap out of the mold, so the sides are wonky.  Looks kinda cool though.

This one I consider my ugliest soap to date (and I’ve made some ugly soaps!)  I call it HoneyPie because it’s scented with honey, vanilla, lilac, cinnamon and a tiny bit of citrus.  It smells sweet and rich and really delicious.  I like the fragrance a lot, I’m just not sure it will sell online because of the funky color.  The vanilla makes soap turn brown.  (opinions on the looks, please?)

Then there’s the Bay Rum for men.  I really like the vintage cologne smell of this manly soap, and the black and red swirls turned out really cool.  This is my modified hanger swirl technique where I use a square dowel rod contraption to swirl the entire 18″ log of soap all at once.  I don’t know of anybody else uses this technique that I came up with.

And finally, here is the moonscape soap I’ve been working on for about, 10 or 11 months.  I even made a couple of prototypes during the summer before coming up with the final version.  It’s made to look like you’re standing on the moon, looking out at the earth.

What I’ve leaned in the past year of selling soap is that most anybody can make soap.  But making it look pretty is much more challenging.  I’m always looking for new designs, methods, or tools to make my soaps unique.  That’s part of the fun – always changing and never staying in the same place.

Just curious – where do you get your inspiration for new designs?

BTW – all my bar soaps are on sale for $5 now through my birthday December 2nd.   You can find them in my Ballyhoo Bath shop on Etsy.

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?

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.

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!)

I’m trying to engineer these little guys to attach to a costume I’ve been working on for 2-3 years now.  I want a Fairyologist or Fairy Hunter costume to wear at Windycon Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention this November.  Ironically, it was this same costume concept that spurred me to make fabric roses several years ago which have become a staple in the DuhBe shop.  I’ve got a floor length vest that will have roses and tiny glow fairies hanging from it.  I’ve also got my husband to make me some leather arm bands that hold my “fairy hunting” tools.  The imagination is still working on those but here’s one of his belt modules the “fairy hunting tool bands” will be based upon.

And another pic of the glow fairy.  She still needs wings – I’m digitizing some stiffened lace wings on the embroidery machine for that.  And she needs better clothing, and a thinner neck which means a whole different system of attaching her head.

Ya know, making dolls to sit pretty on a shelf is much easier than making dolls that cling to your costume while being drug around  bustling convention hallways full  fandom – many of whom are under the influence of alcohol and too much sci-fi so they bump into you a lot.

Oh, and rose colored goggles are a must for any fairy hunter.  I made myself some, and the husband liked the idea so much he’s making them to sell in his Etsy shop (Pasquali Studios which just got a facelift last week, but I’ll blog about him later)

Before I can go hunting fairies, I must look the part first.  Creating costumes is so much fun!

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.

Here are some things I learned that could mean success or failure for embroidering lace on your machine…

1. Use a heavy kind of water soluble stabilizer.  Look for the Vilene brand or similar.  I got mine from Long Creek Mills.  It’s the 60″ wide stuff for $4/yard that they compare to Vilene.  Don’t waste time with Solvy – that stuff makes me want to cry.

   

2. Use 2 layers of stabilizer instead of just one.  I found this kept the “fabric” in the hoop better, otherwise the design shifted.
3. Use a bigger needle.  I found my size 14 embroidery needle flew right through the lace projects and didn’t perforate the stabilizer at all.

   

4. You should always use the best thread you can get to embroider, but it becomes even more important with lace designs.  If your thread shreds a lot – switch to a better brand.  I’m glad I did.
5. Match your bobbin thread color to your top thread color. Since I was making black lace, I used lightweight black bobbin thread and it worked great.

   

So what did I make?  These Steampunk lace masks that Urban Threads came out with a couple weeks back…

I wore my mask on Steampunk weekend at our Ren Faire and it was such a hit – several people bought them from me.  I’ve put a couple up for sale in the  DuhBe Etsy shop since last night.

Now that I know how to make my own lace – I want to make lots of it.  Some lace pieces will blend nicely with the husbands revived leather shop (more on that in a future post.)  I would like to digitize my own lace designs, but I need to get my new Mac running Windows programs like Embird and I just haven’t found the time for that fight yet.  Add it to the list of projects that is already a mile long.

(disclaimer – I realize that Urban Threads sometimes runs ads on my blog through project wonderful.  But they do not compensate me to mention them – I am just a happy customer of theirs and a big fan of their designs.)

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!>

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.