i'll try not to swear.but really....
i had it all set up for a good soap making time. i had spent weeks gathering the right ingredients, the right amount of courage, and reading and rereading the instructions from several different sources, in english and norwegian, just to be sure to get it right.
and everything went well, until i took the soap out of the mold and started cutting it into blocks.... it crumbled. not into, well, crumbles, but into layers of soap, making the oddest shaped blocks. this won't be of use to anyone, i'm afraid. damn! (ha! i did it again!)
if anyone has any experience with this, please let me know what i might have done wrong!
Gosh, no idea. But I would love to see your miss soap, the soap layers ... Hope you find some advice soon!
ReplyDeleteSoap is next on my list.... I'll let you know if I have any better luck. I love all the process pics though, even if the result was dodgy!
ReplyDeleteno idea too!!
ReplyDeleteis not good when the recipe doesn't work the way we wanted!!
Oh...that's too bad, although the crumbles can be remade into soap (which is a good thing!). My own experience tells me that temperature is the key for you. Find some excellent soap makers on Etsy who are willing to share their secrets with you regarding temp. The best soap maker I've known told me that this was the key to her success and consistency when it comes to hardness.
ReplyDeleteyour pics do look beautiful, though. i never tried, but a friend told me you can redo the crumbled peices like tan family mentioned. i wish you better luc next time.
ReplyDeletetan family: it turns out we have a soap maker in my daughters kindergarten! he said the same thing; the temp of the lye and the oil should be exactly the same. the book i found at the library said it should be the same too, but didn't say what could go wrong if it weren't exact. i'll keep the crumbles and go for another batch this weekend :)
ReplyDeleteUhh, kausisk soda? - jeg har vist brugt det til at afsyre et skab med engang. - kan man ikke lave sæbe uden? Det har ellers en virkelig flot farve - hvad er det gyldne for noget? Kommer til at tæke på, at du da har lavet sæbe før - vi fik engang sådan nogle små sæber med figurer og strandskaller i :)
ReplyDeletemona: den sæbe, i fik, var lavet af sådan noget færdig sæbemasse man køber i panduro etc - lige til at smælte, blande farver etc i, og hælle i forme. dette her er sæbe fra grunden af, dvs man kontrollerer selv, hvad der kommer i sæben.
ReplyDeleteal sæbe er lavet af kaustisk soda og fedt i en eller anden form, animalsk eller vegetabilsk - ingen kaustisk soda, ingen sæbe! kan du huske, fight club? :)
Breathe in.....breathe out! ;)
ReplyDeleteI never made soap, so I´m not any help in that department. Sorry!
Have a great weekend and I hope to see some pretty soaps soon, Jeannette
I have made soap before but it's tricky. The temperature has to be just right while it's setting up.
ReplyDeleteI keep thinking I should try doing that again, because I haven't made any in several years.
The last batch I made, I set up on a high shelf cool and set up, but in the middle of the night, the shelf fell and splattered my husband's face with raw lye soap. That was why I stopped making it.
Åhh, anede ikke at der altid er kausisk soda i. Nå, ja, så er dette her sæbemageri jo avanceret kemi. Pøj pøj med det :)
ReplyDeletego to http://fimby.tougas.net
ReplyDeleteshe makes soap.
Hey thanks for visiting FIMBY and Kyndale that was super sweet for you to link to me.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, Thanks for the great comment on the slumdog post I wrote. I've appreciated hearing what other mother's do. How they handle all the pain in this world and work to make a difference.
Re: soap. I've never had this happen but what a bummer. I would rebatch it, melt and repour it. I mix my lye/water with oils at about 95-110F. But the temperatures are always the same, ie: both 95F or both 105F.
I made a batch recently, that I had planned to sell at our CSA farm that totally did not turn out as planned. I used beet juice thinking it would be pink. Wrong, all wrong. It's about as blah brown as you can get, with a lemon scent. Now I'm a total loss what to call it (I name all my soaps, even if I don't sell them).
Well, anyway it was nice to visit. I'll be back.
Well, you have more guts than I! Good luck! The pictures are awesome though!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea!!! Soap is high on my 'to-do-very-soon'-list though. LOVE your pictures though. Held og lykke nœste gang ;-)
ReplyDeletecrescent moon: sheesh, i don't hope he got burns! that sounds like a traumatic experience - maybe finding a different place to stor the soaps would be a good idea...
ReplyDeleterenee: thanks for the advice. maybe call your soaps lemon blah? :)
mona - det er palmeolie. slet ikke sikker på om den virkelig skal se sådan ud - og den er heller ikke optimal, da fremstilningen af den skader regnskoven... jeg skal lige finde nogen andre opskrifter der ikke involverer ting jeg ikke kan få fat på!
ReplyDeleteOh, I wish I knew... It seems interesting ...I would love to try one day!
ReplyDeleteHope you have great weekend! ox
which is exactly why i continue to buy my soaps from other artisans. i know my limitations and frustrations!
ReplyDeleteIf you have soap that won't stay in bar form, you could always used the trick a friend came up with for those annoying last little slivers-- she took an old baby's bib and sewed the bottom and sides together, then turned it inside out and put the bits in there. You can use the neck-part to hang the resulting loofa thing.
ReplyDeleteThere's also the option of using it in liquid soap bottles, as a sort of decorative thing.
(No idea how I got here, following a chain of craft blogs with "you'll love this!" links, so I'm totally lost. Good luck, though!)