Soap Excellence

Jason, I'm so proud of you, your first batch of soap is awesome. Yes, it's lacking scent and I would prefer it to be a little more moisturizing. But really once you out of the shower for a bit and it drys your skin feels great. I don't think the bursts of yellow are that weird either, it's almost like you meant for it to do that. I can't wait to get my hands dirty with you next weekend, so I can say I contributed in making the next batch. Then we can both say "yeah that's right, we make soap."

Soap Update

Saturday afternoon I created our first batch of soap. I wasn't sure I was going to go through with it. I was nervous all day and kept putting it off. I finally pulled everything out so that I either had to go through with it or clean up everything for no good reason.

It was the lye I was nervous about. Adding powdered lye to water creates a chemical reaction so violent it can heat the water to near boiling almost instantly. I had no idea what to expect. But I followed protocol and it ended up being somewhat anti-climactic. It was pretty cool though, overall. It did heat the water almost to its boiling point. But it wasn't violent. Just warm and misty.

Overall the batch was a success. I took it out of the mold today and tested its PH. Right where it should be. I sliced it into bars and stuck it on a rack to cure. That takes up to a month, but I plan on testing it every couple days to get a better understanding of what happens during the curing process. Cool stuff.

I screwed two things up, though. The first was a shortcut gone wrong, and the other was just stupidity at work. I added the colorant in its powder form directly into the combined soap mixture. You're supposed to dissolve it water or oil first and then add it, but I thought I could speed things up a bit. You can't, and I know why now. It doesn't dissolve in a saponifying mixture. So our soap bars have specks of undissolved colorant that will burst into temporarily skin-staining blasts of yellow whenever they reach the surface and come into contact with water. Needless to say we won't be distributing bars from this batch. But lesson learned.

The second mistake involved the mold. I built the soap mold myself from 1 x 6 and 1 x 4 pine beams. It came out nice, I thought, but the wood I used for the base was bowed a bit down the middle, causing the sides of the mold to slant in slightly. It didn't dawn on me what a problem that would be until I tried to get the soap out of the mold. It was stuck. The mold was wider at the bottom than at the mouth and so was the soap block. I had to destroy the mold to get the soap out. Given that any soap I made in the mold would get stuck, it was no major loss. I'll build another one this week, careful to keep it slightly wider at the mouth than at the base. Lesson learned.

I'm going to shower tomorrow morning with one of our new bars. Apart from the yellow dye explosions, I'm excited. This weekend we're making batch number two, sans mistakes. Hopefully.

MORNING UPDATE: The soap is soap. It works brilliantly. The scent didn't really come through (add more next time) and it does erupt in blasts of yellow (the next batch won't), but it lathers nicely, is mild on the skin, and rinses clean away with a slightly moisturizing afterglow. That's the best part for me. Kate likes moisturizing soap, but I usually can't stand it because it never really feels like it rinses off of you. This soap seems to be a good middle ground. I'm curious to see what Kate thinks.

The First Batch

The big day has arrived. After I finish this entry, eat some breakfast and go to the grocery store to buy some safety gloves I'm going to whip up our first batch of soap. Kate's working today and has a CPR class tomorrow, so she won't be able to help, unfortunately, but I figure I'll be able to share with her what I learn from this batch, and we'll do the next together.

I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited. I've read enough now that I know how to handle the lye safely, which is really my only concern. Beyond that I just want to get through all the steps once so I can translate what I've read into meaningful actions and empirical knowledge.

This would have happened last weekend, but I discovered at the last minute that lye can't be bought in Maryland in retail locations anymore, other than at a few specialty stores. Red Devil lye, the original commercial retail lye has been discontinued because of lye's other uses. Not only does it function well as a drain cleaner and a soap saponifying agent, it also plays a role in the production of Crystal Meth. I'm sure my name is on a list somewhere now because I purchased eight pounds of lye from an online supplier. But I have no plans to manufacture Meth. I mean, our first soap batch will be a light yellow bar, scented with Tea Tree, Lavender and Crank, but I don't think you'll be able to smoke it.

I do suspect that lye was pulled off of retail shelves because it's harder to track purchases, whereas my online purchase was completed with a name, an address and a phone number. I payed roughly $14 for eight pounds of the stuff. If I were to have purchased it locally at a specialty shop it would have cost me $52 for one pound. Clearly I'm intended to favor online purchase over brick and mortar retail.

So my name may be on a list. It doesn't matter since I'm not intending anything nefarious. I think it's funny what an eclectic list it must be, compiling hardened crank cooks and lavender-laden grandmothers into the same category. Don't worry Homeland Security. Kate and I are hangin' with the latter.

Creativity Through Lesser Known Channels

Sometimes I'm like that easily distracted halfwit of so many stories, drawn to shiny things and pretty, pretty rabbits, George. I find myself falling into as many interests and diversions as you can think of, though often only sticking with them for a short time. But I've always liked that about myself. Not the part about stopping without finishing most of the projects I start. The part where I throw myself into a wide variety of different projects. I feel like it lets me be creative sometimes in ways that most people don't get the chance to.

Case in point. I just designed a card game. The initial game design phase is mostly complete. I have a full deck of cards, 130 in total if I'm remembering them all, some illustrated (poorly), and a working set of rules. Now I just need to play test it with people to work out which rules and which cards work, and which don't. Though it's based on a card game that's roughly 60 years old, I've reset it entirely in a new storyline, added new rules, new cards and card actions and have, hopefully, come up with something fun, though a little geeky and not necessarily family friendly (remember what I said in a previous entry...everything's better with zombies, including card games.)

Yes. I know. Just two entries I was going on and on about making soap. Now I'm designing card games. You'd think I was A.D.D. with the amount of interest hopping I do. I'm not, I'm pretty sure (I've tried Ritalin and it definitely does the opposite of calm me down.) So yes, I flop around like a fish in a hobby shop. I think overall it's a good thing. Some people never have a hobby. I've had twenty six or more, to varying degrees. With some I never got past the initial foot-dipping. Some get waded into up to the knees. Most get jumped into whole-hog with an almost religious fervor, only to be abandoned. But some have stuck. Anyway, how can you ever know what you're good at if you don't give everything that even slightly piques your interest a try? There's nothing wrong with quitting. It's never getting started that's the real tragedy.

I'm still planning on making soap. Now I'll just package each bar with a small assortment of Zombie Run cards. Collect them all!

Getting Excited

Anyone that knows me will know that this is my normal operating procedure, and will probably chuckle under their breath. What can you do about it? I am how I am, and I'm getting really excited about the soap making business. Have I made any soap? No. Do I know at all whether I'll enjoy the process? No. Have I sketched out a five-tier, multifaceted marketing plan, including web, Etsy and craft show presences featuring a constantly expanding product line? Of course! Our horse can't even see the cart anymore, it's so far out in front! But that's the fun of all this. The planning. The devising. The scheming. I can only hope that the doing of the plans and the living of the schemes is just as much fun.

My post yesterday garnered a comment from one member of a husband and wife team that sell hand-made soap, lotions, scrubs, candles, scents and more under the moniker Ten Digit Creations. He or she wanted to make sure we'd done our research and were aware of the risks Lye posed. Thanks for you concern, 10DC. We have done a good bit of reading and feel pretty confident to give it a try.

After reading the comment I took a look at the 10DC website. That's when I really started getting excited. This husband / wife pair was doing a lot of what I'd been thinking about, in terms of product design and description. I was thoroughly impressed with the site and with their business model. What they're able to do, just the two of them (she makes the candles and scent-oriented products while he makes the soap) is really commendable. I'd love to approach this business from the same angle and hopefully be successful.

Now we just need to start making soap. Step one, followed immediately by Step 76.

Unexpected Support

Two days ago I posted a quick blurb on Facebook about how Kate and I had ordered all the supplies and equipment necessary for making soap, and how we were that much closer to our first batch. It was the first time I'd mentioned it on Facebook, so no one had any preconceptions about what we were doing. Almost immediately I got a comment from an old high school classmate asking if we were planning on selling our soap, adding that she'd happily buy some if so. That was followed minutes later by another old classmate chiming in her intentions to purchase, too. A few other people entered the conversation after that, and it felt good that my short comment had stirred an unexpectedly large reaction.

The next day my formerly good friend (we just lost touch...it happens) from high school, Heather messaged me for the first time in years to ask if we'd made our soap. She was excited for us as well. It was really a great experience because it showed me that there's support out their for any endeavor you might try your hand at. And you don't even have to look that hard. Kate and I haven't made soap bar one and we already have customers. I think that's pretty cool.

As an update, all the stuff we ordered ought to come in sometime next week. That weekend after is Kate's birthday, and then we're at the beach for a few days with the extended family. So, hopefully, if nothing changes, we'll create our first batch of soap the weekend of the 19th.

What a Beautifully Complex World We Live in

It never ceases to amaze me just how complex our physical world is. As I learn about the chemistry of soap making, I'm reminded of that again. The basic elements of the physical universe are simple. Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, etc. Basic atomic building blocks that make up everything we can see (and everything we can't.) Combine them in different ways, in differing amounts and you get vastly different chemicals with a nearly infinite range of properties. Two chemicals with nearly identical molecular makeups, with just one subtle shift, can behave vastly differently.

And what I find more beautiful and encouraging than the processes themselves is the fact that we humans, puny little denizens of a forgotten rock, orbiting one sun out a billion billion suns, understands them. We've managed, really only in the last 250 years or so, to work out the most hidden of physical processes. At least on a macro-level, our understanding of how the universe works is fairly complete. It's tested, verifiable and re-creatable. It's an amazing accomplishment, and its effects on modern life are readily apparent.

Take soap making for example. Soap was likely happened upon by accident thousands of years ago during temple sacrifices to one god or another. As rain washed the fats and ashes from the burnt offerings into rivers, the water, fats and alkaline from the ash (the constituent elements of soap making) reacted to create a soap film on the river which then washed down to where people were cleaning clothes. People noticed that when they cleaned clothes using water tainted with this film, clothes cleaned up better. Eventually they put two and two together and began making soap intentionally.

But it was hit or miss, and batches of soap could fail for a number of reasons. There was no way to know how strong the alkaline (lye) solution was for each batch. Nor could anyone tell reliably if there was any other chemicals entering the reaction that shouldn't be there. Thermometers for monitoring temperature are a modern invention. So most of the factors that dictate the quality of soap were totally unmeasurable. Soap, as a result, was often harsh and irritating, and sometimes dangerous.

Today we have such a deep understanding of the process that not a single chemical property goes unnoticed. We know the saturation levels of different fats. Their molecular weights, and how that affects the alkaline reaction. We can precisely measure the amount of the alkaline sodium hydroxide that goes into our lye solution. We know exactly, on a molecular level how much alkaline is necessary to fully saponify (convert fats to soap) a certain weight and density of fats and oils. There so much more I won't go into. It's exciting stuff, though, trust me.

How I didn't end up a chemistry major is beyond me. I think I just realized how important and interesting it is too late in life.

Palpable Anticipation

This weekend is living up to its promise. Yesterday was incredibly productive. We got through all of Kate's photos and made final selects for her portfolio. I tried hanging our remaining ceiling fans but needed some screws and got stopped by the closing of Ace Hardware. No worries. They'll go in today. Kate's photo gig got rescheduled on account of rain, so we have a little more time today.

But that's not what this entry is about. It's about the palpable anticipation we both feel regarding upcoming endeavors. Getting Kate's portfolio done is breathing reality into the business. The fact that we'll finally be able to advertise for paying gigs is incredibly exciting. It makes all of her previous free gigs feel worth the effort, providing great photos for a professional portfolio. We bought the URL www.luminouseyephoto.com last night, so we should have the site live by this evening.

Plus, Kate's now firmly committed to her new career path. She's applying for substitute teaching positions as well as getting everything in place to begin training to be a full-time elementary ed teacher. Scary? Yes. Exciting? Even more so.

I'm doing web design for a few companies, and hope to expand it to more.

And, as if that's not all enough, Kate and I are going into the soap business. Why? Because we can, and because everybody needs soap. It's cheap to make, cheap to buy and a commodity that's always in demand. As I said in my last soap entry the chemistry involved is really interesting to me, and Kate is jazzed about cooking up new scent combinations. We've been spitballing ideas for names, products, marketing plans, etc. I bought a few soap-making books from Amazon, which should be arriving Monday. Then the experimenting begins. I'm sure we're months off from having anything to sell, but the excitement has already arrived.

Here's a contest. Send us your ideas for soap company names. They can be serious, funny, light-hearted, witty...whatever. If we pick your name you'll get a whole raft of free soap...when that soap gets made, whenever that is.*

There's a lot of good, new stuff cooking at the Karbownibloom household. Our philosophy? Throw as many balls into the air as possible and see which ones get caught.

*Raft meaning, "a sizable quantity". You will not be receiving a rubberized rowboat full of soap. That's both dangerous for the soap and a quantity far to sizable for us to give away.

The Chemistry Behind Soap

After yesterday's heady, six page entry I'm going to keep things easy today. We spent some of Friday night and most of Saturday at Artscape, watching musical and theatrical performances, animated shorts at the Charles and perusing the artisans booths. One thing I noticed is that a lot of people are hand making soap these days and selling it at crafts fairs. In one aisle of Artscape alone we passed three different soap vendors. It got me interested in the chemistry behind handmade soap.

From when I was younger I remember hearing stories of soap and candle making by the early European settlers in the United States. It sounded like a nasty, labor intensive process involving animal fat and caustic lye. Turns out that's exactly how soap is still made by hand today, though the process has been streamlined a bit, and "vegetarian" options exist, using all vegetable oils instead of lard. I read through the whole process last night and found it fascinating. It's all about very precise measurements and temperatures for your different oil and fat ingredients, water and lye. If you get it all right and stir it all to the right consistency a process called "saponification" starts. Once it's begun, nature takes over and converts the oils and caustic lye into a gentle bar of soap.

It's a cool sort of Ying and Yang process, taking two disparate elements, one viscous and slimy, the other caustic and dangerous and fusing them into a single, subtle object with a completely different purpose from its constituent elements. I'm sort of curious to try it. We met a couple at a party a few months ago that were raving about the process. The guy was even more enthusiastic about it than his girlfriend was. They both really loved it, and made soap together. I like that idea, and I think Kate does, too. We'll see. I haven't had a chemistry kit since I was ten years old, and I'm really interested to watch the chemistry happen. I'm also curious to see how saturated (no pun intended) the soap market is. Can you make a little extra scratch selling soap?