What Classes Would Interest You?
As we are gearing up for our annual Soap Weekend Intensive (a weekend filled with soap and toiletry making classes in Bellingham, Washington – and we just had a cancellation so last I heard, we had one last opening), we are thinking about what we want to teach next year. This year, we are teaching CP soap with milk, emulsified scrubs, 80’s inspired melt & pour soap, swirling cold process soap, and lotionmaking. Above are some examples of the CP soap the soapy team will be teaching in classes.
We would love to hear from you about techniques and products you’ve always wanted to try or a technique that you know and love. We are looking for a brainstorm of ideas for SWI 2013 and would love to have you be a part of the conversation! Just leave us a comment below on what you’d like to see us teach and what you’re interested in. No idea is too zany or basic. We want to design the best SWI 2013 we can. Talk to us! We’re listening.
I purchased some soap texture mats…and I really don’t know how to use them… Can anyone tell me or post a video on it… It would be much appreciated.
Hi Charmaine!
Textured soap mats are so much fun, you are going to have a blast using them! The best way to use them is to lay them in your mold (we love the Silicone Tray Mold for using soap mats) and pour your soap on top!
https://www.brambleberry.com/Glossy-Silicone-Square-Tray-Mold-P4752.aspx
You could also cut down your mat to match any of your molds at home, there are just so many things you can do with the soap mats and they are super easy to use!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
2012 SWI was great! I conquer with all the suggestions put forward by all, and would like to add a couple more. Facial soap MP and CP, also how to photograph soap or bath products for a portfolio or even website.
What great ideas Heidi! I’ll definitely pass those along. =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Please please please come to the Washington, DC area for a weekend and do a class. We are feeling lonely and unloved over here. Give the east coast some love too. :o)
We’d love to make it over there and will definitely announce it if we do! =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I’m a CP/HP soap maker in Spokane and if I went, for the best value to me, I’d want to learn all new things but not anything MP. The recent Alabama soap conference agenda had a lot of things that would interest me:
plus:
More on hot process
Shampoo Bars/formulation info
formulation for facial bars/shaving bars
Bath soaks
10:30 How to Make Silicone Molds – Amanda Griffin
1:00 Find Your Soap Personality with Creative Packaging! – Michelle Rhoades
2:30 Dead Sea Lavender & Emu™ Facial Bar – Tammy Doering
3:15 From Kitchen to Store Shelf – Creative Ways to Market Your Business –
Elizabeth Hill
9:05 Formulating Creams & Lotions – Marla Bosworth, Keynote Speaker
1:00 Mono-Fat Soaps – Deborah Bruijn
Thanks for your input Sonya! We always appreciate it when we get open and honest feedback on what would interest our customers the most. =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
What about a format where you could sign up for just one day- focus on soaps one day and lotions etc the second day. More folks could perhaps afford 1 day.
I would love to know how to make “Bubble Bars”. It would be great to be able to buy a kit with instructions.
Excellent suggestion! Just a little FYI, we are currently working on how to create a bubble bar! =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I love all of the ideas so far! And along with that I’d like to have a class on making bath bombs. I can’t seem to ever get two batches the same consistency or hardness. My bombs, although still nice in the tub, never get rock hard and have to be wrapped so they won’t crumble apart. I’d like to know how to create a consistent product.
I’d like to see a ‘what CAN go wrong in soaping and how to try and either make the end result better or rectify the situation’ workshop if I wasn’t in a different country. lol
That was supposed to be silicone.
CP textures on loaf like when curls & pieces are used to decorate or how to work with liquids like coffee, milk, beer, juice. Or cilicine mold making. Or how to package, where to get labels, printing, different wrapping and where to buy. Or that swirl with the cardboard down the center. Or m&p embeds in cp soap. Or how to make your own wooden soap mold. I’ll stop now!
Great suggestions! I love the embedding curls idea. That seems to be a popular technique right now.
Here are some blog posts that you’ll probably love =)
Beer Soap https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/last-call-advanced-oatmeal-stout-cp-2/
Goat Milk https://www.brambleberry.com/E-Book-Making-Milk-Soap-from-Scratch-P5257.aspx
Cardboard Divider in vertical mold https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/apple-jack-peel-plus-a-cute-owl-winning/
MP embeds in CP https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/cold-process-soap/mp-loves-cp/
Courtney with Bramble Berry
I would love to see more swirl techniques. I do swirl…but it doesn’t look as nice as some I see! Harder to do than it looks! Asheville workshop..I would try to make that one!
All of the above! I would help organize a workshop in the Asheville area of NC!
Any form of advanced CP swirling would be great. I would love to see more premium videos teaching advanced techniques.
That’s a wonderful idea Traci! Have you been able to check out all the advanced technique videos we have available on Bramble Berry’s website?
https://www.brambleberry.com/Search.aspx?k=video
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I would love to get a dvd of these lesson
That’s a great idea Yvonne! While we don’t have that up at the current moment, I think that is a fabulous suggestion. We do have two DVD’s available on Bramble Berry website that teach how to make cold process and melt and pour soap, and we are hoping to get more up!
https://www.brambleberry.com/Learn-To-Make-Cold-Process-Soap-DVD-1-DVD-P3591.aspx
https://www.brambleberry.com/Learn-To-Make-Melt-Pour-Soap-1-DVD-P3590.aspx
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Being in NY, I’ll probably never make it to your classes–but I’d love a weekend to learn about using herbal and clay colorants in CP with hands-on practice.
soap classes will interest me.
You know what would be great…a virtual SIW (for those of us who live on the East coast and can’t quite convince their husband to travel to WA all in the name of soap!). But seriously, maybe you could check out what Papertrey Ink is doing with their weekend Stamp-A-Thon…maybe something like that…or even what Amay at Greatcakes Soapworks has been doing with her weekly challenges…I know I would really appreciate it…maybe something at a premium level, where there is a charge to participate but you get access to special videos, or even but some kind of kit to participate.
Just a thought!
Mariah
I second that idea! Or even some “traveling weekends” where you hold these events in different parts of the country. I’d be glad to help put one together for you in Denver! Sue
Thanks for the great suggestion Mariah! We’ve actually recently taken inspiration from Amy and started our first ever Bramble Berry Challenge, you can check it out here: https://soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/melt-and-pour-soap/bramble-berry-soap-challenge-layers/
We hope you can participate in this challenge, we’d love to see what you can create! =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
How did I miss this? It really is a great idea…Amy’s challenges and videos really helped me to refine some techniques that I *kinda* knew but needed some help with. Looking forward to BB’s challenges!
I want to go so badly, and I’m soo close by, but I just got into soaping so I feel like I need some more experience under my belt before something this intense. Maybe next year!
I have been amazed by landscape soaps..I would love to learn how to do that!
We’d love to have you next year Kathy! =)
-Becky with Bramble Berry
I wish I lived closer, I’d love to be there! 🙁
We have a Soap Week Intensive every year and we hope you can make it out one year, we’d love to have you!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Nothing is old all it needs is a new twist or ingrediant
CP gradients and rubber stamping (after dipping in micas or other powder colorants). Okay. I’m done now. Promise. 😀
Oh! And embeds are fun. (Embedding CP soap in CP soap) There are endless possibilities with embedding in soap 🙂 It’s a bit more work cause you have to do one pour then another pour, but the results are so worth it! Jennifer
I so agree with you Jennifer, embedding is one of my favorite things to do in soap!
-Becky with Bramble Berry
Piping soap 🙂 I admit I’m slightly obsessed with piping. But there are so many different cool things you can create with piping from cakes to cupcakes to even cool loaf designs…so many different possibilities!
I have fun with it and I think it’s something others might enjoy too.
Jennifer 🙂
That’s a great idea Jennifer, thanks for the suggestion!
-Becky with Bramble Berry