Blog

It has been nearly a year since my last blog entry and so much has happened.  Somerset Garden has plodded along while I have sorted my life out and I think I am now ready to start making again properly and take this small business up a gear.  Whilst I no longer have my ever supportive husband to help me on my journey, his ideas and enthusiasm will still be carried forward in my making and vision for the future.

From the beginning of June we will be in our brand new cottage in the middle of a lovely Somerset village.  It is just being renovated but they promise me it will be done by the beginning of June.  It has been an interesting project, taking out a skip load of thatch that was hiding in the roof and discovering various wallpaper styles dating from the late 1800's to lovely 1980's chintz!  The well in the garden is looking hopeful as a source of our own spring water for the soaps, just a few more tests to be done and then I will be using it for everything.  I am also investigating having some resident bees for my balms which would be lovely, I'll keep you posted on that one.  As before I will be growing many of the botanicals included in my soaps and a large herb garden is planned (as well as my favourite untouchable nettle crop corner!).

While I have been quiet I have started training as an aromatherapist and my products from the autumn will be taking on a new direction and I will be making more goodies on an individual basis to suit your needs.  This is still in the final stages but I will keep you up to date as I get ready for this exciting project.

The EU regulations that ensure what I sell is safe are being changed in the summer, so what I make will change slightly to ensure my paperwork is minimal and what I make is what you all love.  This is a bit of a headache for me at the moment, but don't worry I will keep going, I just need to get it all sorted out over the next few months.

So all in all a massive change is happening.  I am still making so if you want something then get in touch and I will see what I can do.  My new look will be emerging from it's current chrysallis form over the next few months and will be in full flight by the autumn, ready for some really special Christmas treats!

Today was the day of making wedding favours.  60 small organza bags to be filled with gorgeous deep red rosebuds.  How happy was I when a small helper appeared and took over.  He was careful to weigh each one and ensure they were knotted.  I wasn't so happy when he presented the bill for 60 favours at £1.50 each!!

This week is week 3 of the soap challenge and having run out of time to participate last week I decided that this week was a must.  I was very organised having my work space tidy and all ready to go.  The challenge was to pipe soap - sounds easy, enough people ice cakes surely I can do it with soap - how wrong could I be! There was a bit of a problem starting when I forgot to add the fragrance and had to put my topping soap back into the jug to add the fragrance! Rose geranium fragrance oil was added but I realised too late I only had half the weight I needed, this will be a delicate floral! Making the cake base was easy and colouring with red iron oxide made the soap trace (go thicker) really easily.  I ended up having to dollop the soap into the mould rather than having a beautiful flowing pour.  So with the base made and in the cases I started to pour the topping into the piping bag.  That is when it all went horribly wrong.  What I hadn't thought about was the fact that runny soap will so straight through the bag and out the nozzle.  First time I did it I ended up with soap all over the worktop!  The second time I had figured to hold it over a bowl, but not that I needed to blitz it a bit more to make it thicken.  After 4 attempts to get the soap into the piping bag and actually stay there I decided to attempt a pipe!!  A bit of a runny splodge is nearer the truth!

So not the prettiest soaps you have ever seen and certainly something that needs more practice.  These may not ever appear on my site as I'm not sure I have the patience to keep trying.  Good fun, but probably not for me - next week however is a whole different story - did someone say ALCOHOL soap!

All the really wonderful attempts can be seen here: http://goo.gl/nKCt4

For my first soap swap I have had a lovely swap with Jennifer from Naturalmente Mediterraneo.  She has very similar ideas to Somerset Garden, but with a Mediterranean twist making everything remind me of holiday sunshine.  In my package were three gorgeous soaps which I could smell as the post lady handed them over to me.  Beautifully wrapped there was a Sea Salt soap, plus a pomegranate sample and vanilla olive scrub sample, all lovely. Unwrapping the big soap was a real treat and it was nothing like I expected.  All scrubby and smelling devine, it works a treat, making my skin feel beautiful and doing the world of good to my mood from the citrus summer fragrance.

A big thank you Jennifer and I hope the Spring Floral and little extra arrive in one piece.

Find all of Jennifer's goodies here:  http://naturalmentemediterraneo.blogspot.co.uk/

This week I decided the spread my wings and try something new.  Along with over 70 other mad soapmakers from around the world, I tried my hand at a brand new technique.  The challenge was to swirl the soap with a pattern in the pot and see what happened - sounds easy, but the mess afterwards says it all.

For the challenge I decided to use Japanese Plum fragrance oil, one of my favourites and something that I want to use for a project later in the year.  The only problem is that the fragrance turns the soap a deep brown colour as it cures.  So to try and stop this a little, I swirled a little of the soap white using titanium dioxide and darkened some even more than the fragrance will manage on it's own using an infusion of alkanet root.  It all looked a little mad as the colours were dolloped into the soap batter and then the whole lot was poured into the mould.  I tried to get a pattern on the top but it all went a bit wrong.

It then went in the oven overnight to do it's 'stuff' and I was up early, keen to see what it looked like!  The top was covered in soda ash a by product of the saponification process, but once that was washed off and it was cut it looked solid and chunky - no delicate swirls here.  I think I could have been a bit harsher with the swirling but was too worried I would end up with a grey splodge that I under swirled.  It still looks pretty and smells devine.  The green/brown is darkening all the time and in a week or two will be beautiful.

All the other ideas from this challenge can be seen at the Great Soapworks - http://goo.gl/8Ucaj