The second day of the Soap Intensive Weekend is over and we are all leaving tired but enriched. Some of the comments after the weekend were, “I learned so much, my head is spinning. And, that’s in a good way” and “I would recommend that anyone interested in soap and starting a business come here first.”
We started day two of the Soapmaking Weekend Intensive with Cold Process Soap Basics. Alicia Grosso, author of The Everything Soapmaking Book, covered things like fragrance oils, using colorants and mold options before guiding the class through a by-the-books cold process recipe. After a short break, she got right back into it by deliberately trying to seize, rice and otherwise ruin three perfectly good batches of soap. The entire class cheered when she achieved “soap on a stick (blender)”. The goal with Alicia’s Advanced Cold Process class was to push the soap batches to their very extreme limits. It was freeing to try to ruin the soap and a sense of wild abandon accomponied these experimental batches.
Check out the unmolded soaps from Paula’s (PJ’s Soaps) Melt and Pour classes yesterday. These nuggets of artist expression were made by students that had little or no experience in making soap.
They are astouding in their detail. She achieves all of this through her tool kit. It makes teensy little precision work much easier.
After a delightful lunch break, Debbie from SoapyLove taught two soap techniques – Sillouette and Alien SpaceShip Soap. It is a testament to the expertly designed projects that every single student made perfect Sillouettes and Alien Soaps. Debbie’s style is very fresh, modern and fun. She posts her creative musings on her blog here.
We finished the day with a short graduation party, complete with four types of cupcakes and graduation certificates. The Tiramisu Cupcakes went the fastest. I was left with six Chocolate Chocolate cupcakes to take home. The hardship duty didn’t feel very … difficult.
Thank you for sharing the weekend with us in blog and twit-pic history. In the upcoming weeks, I’ll cover each of these projects in more detail, giving you an opprortunity to follow along to create wonderful soapy works of art in your own home.
I had such an awesome time at SWI! Meeting so many other soap junkies was like being at the best party I could imagine! 🙂
I definitely encourage anyone interested in attending the 2009 SWI to sign up early. Class size is small, which means you get LOTS of personal attention. Plus it’s just a great time!
Serahs, I wish you were there too! Maybe next year =)
Thank you for sharing. I wish I could’ve been there!
Hey Anne-Marie!
You can get a copy of the cartoon from my Etsy shop, simply right click and save the image.
http://craftycartoons dot etsy dot com
You can send me an email if you have any questions
craftycartoons at gmail dot com
Ryan, I love that cartoon and it'll be up on the blog tomorrow for sure!
The Foxes Den, it was delightful to push, push and push the limits of the soap and see how forgiving it could be. I'm always so upset when something ruins and it was freeing to not worry about it and even hope for the worst!
Heather, I haven't even attempted to take the crib down. I am so exhausted after the non-stop weekend that I couldn't be bothered to do anything productive this evening except make soap (which is fun). I even skipped real food for dinner and had a cupcake and cheese instead. Probably not such a winning idea for long term but it sure tasted good tonight!
Erin & Lynn, we're going to regroup and figure out what worked and what didn't and then start working on a speaker's line up.
In the meantime, expect class materials lists to hit the blog this week with the option to buy them at a discount so you can follow the tutorials along at home over the next four-six weeks. I think it will be fun to have an e-soapmaking session that way. =)
Hi Anne-Marie
My wife loves your blog, just thought you might get a kick from this soap cartoon:
http://www.craftycartoons.com/2008/07/craftycartoon-3-honey-have-you-seen.html
Feel free to post it on your blog and share it with your readers!
Ryan
I always love to see the soaps you feature on your site… they are always so pretty!
And pushing the limits of the soap… interesting idea. I was always afraid of wasting my precious oils. I was proud of the fact that I have lost very few batches… and here you guys are TRYING to ruin them! Looks like lots of fun!
Looks like it was a great weekend! BTW, Tiramisu Cupcakes sound delicious!!
Thanks so much for posting about your fun, fun weekend! I can’t wait to see the instructions for all of the fun projects! Of course I HAVE TO HAVE Paula’s tool kit… can’t wait til it gets here! Hope you get some rest… Was it as fun to get the crib down as it was to put it up?
The soaps are so beautiful, and the classes seem like so much fun!
Me, too…I’d love to attend next year!!
Erin
I hope next year I’ll be able to come — please do it again. I’m already saving money.
But in the meantime thank you so very much for sharing!
Lynn
Looks like a wonderful weekend of learning. Thank you for sharing…. hoping to make it for next year.
Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend. Now rest….enjoy your cupcakes. :0)
This was really wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing it all with us!