The Beginner Cold Process class today at Otion was a huge success. We had eight students. For our little store, that’s a full house! Three of the students drove all the way from Portland, Oregon (a 5 hour drive). Erik and I co-taught the class and had a blast.
Erik did a great job during his hands-on segment. I am so proud of his progress as a soapmaker. He’s been at Otion only 9 months but has already logged over 550 pounds of soap in his short time as the lead soapmaker.
Like all of the Otion’s Beginner Cold Process classes, students were able to fully customize two seperate batches of soap. Check out the differences in these two take-home soapy creations. Each student used their personal preference to pick fragrances and color. The colorful artistic soaps were beautiful. They would be considered a success at any level of soapmaking.
While Manager Erik was teaching his segment, I used the time to test an exotic fragrance for Bramble Berry (tamarind). The fragrance performed well enough for a swirl using Red Labcolor. Fingers crossed that the fragrance holds up in the larger, five pound batch. It did well in the first 4 ounce mini test batch.
If you’re thinking about taking a class at Otion, consider the Soapmaking Weekend Intensive. It’s two days of intensive, full days, of Cold Process, Melt and Pour Advanced Techniques and Lotionmaking. You can go here for more information on this 2 day Intensive Class.
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Beautiful Anne Marie!
Just gorgeous…
~Thanks for the tip singingwolf & erik.
I agree with you singingwolf, the Gladlock containers work amazingly well for test bars and take home bars of soap. At Otion they are used quite regularly.
I wish it were only a five hour drive for me! I’d be there in a heartbeat! (If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you’re taunting us East Coasters. LOL) Thank goodness for your blogged tutorials.
Andrea – I found that the “snack sized” gladlock (or store brand disposable “tupperware”) containers are the perfect size for a test bar of soap. The snap on lids make them safe for transport, they can withstand the heat of soap going through gel, and they are (relatively) cheap and available at most every grocery store.
~Those soap-to-go containers are very cool! Is there a chance you could offer them through Bramble Berry? I have a few ladies that want to do a soap day, and I have been really trying to figure out how they can take their soap to go without catastrophe.~Andrea~
I definitely would love to do the weekend again …. but ask me after we’ve done it. =)
It does seem to be an ideal fun weekend with four Master teachers and something that would be good to do annually.
Joanna, the Tamarind is amazing in the bottle (fresh, juicy, tart yet sweet) but the real question will be how it does in the larger CP soap batch.
The tamarind soap sounds delish. I love the red color swirls.
I wish I could be there for the intensive class. Maybe one day. I love the last soap.
That’s a great color on the red. Was the other part colored? It looks like it might be a more neutral ivory, so a little discolored?
I would LOVE to go to the soap weekend, but just can’t with the little ones! 🙁 Do you think this is something you would do again, especially with Paula there?