It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing the Soap Weekend Intensive for four years now! With last year’s long waiting list, we are determined to get everything organized quickly so you can plan to visit Bellingham. The dates are set – June 10-12.

Our Melt and Pour Teacher is still being finalized but, drum roll, we have confirmed our fan-soapy-tastic Cold Process teacher. Kristy from Kristy’s Lovely Lathers! You may recall that I’m a Kristy fan (blog posts here, here and here). And heeeeeeere’s Kristy!

Kristy Schemrich

My name is Kristy Schemrich and I am the founder and owner of Kristy’s Lovely Lathers. I am a 43 year old housewife and mother of 3 grown children. I live in Shreve, Ohio. I started creating soaps in February. 2006 after going to my husband’s cousin’s home in Atlanta, Ga. at Christmas in 2005. I walked into her house and she had a tray of these square “things” (I thought at the time) sitting out on a plate on the kitchen bar. I asked Bonnie what they were and she said “Oh that is soap, I made it!”.

I was so intrigued that I went home starving for information on how to make it. I made my first batch and it turned out horribly. I broke my wrist after that first batch and couldn’t make soap for 12 weeks. I thought I was going to go crazy. I started selling in 2007 to a major hardware store called Lehman’s Hardware in Kidron, Ohio. They are my biggest customer to date. I started making “fancier” soaps available on Etsy in March 2008 because I have a big love for colors and creating art out of soap. My soap is strictly cold process and mainly goat’s milk.


For more details about the 2011 Soap Weekend Intensive, click here to see a tentative list of classes. Keep checking back too. We’ll announce information here as we add things as well as on the SWI page.

We’re so excited to announce Erin Pikor’s second melt and pour project she’ll be teaching at this years Soap Weekend Intensive: Apple Pie! How cute is that? We’re throwing around the idea of making it into a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for summer. What do you think? Check out the other project Erin will be teaching at SWI 2010, here.

Dates are set for August 13th, 14th and 15th in Bellingham, Washington. Space is limited so sign up today and read more about your teachers HERE.

Amber and I still feel a bit like we’ve been beaten soundly about the neck and shoulders with a cold, wet steak but we’re coming out of our intense weekend rarin’ to go with more soapy projects for you. It’s hard to believe but we’re finalizing our Christmas line (as I write) and are planning out Christmas projects.

First up, I spent the day in the testing lab designing and finalizing two new colors for the Labcolors Line (Pool Blue in middle & Sky Blueon bottom and top layers). This is a photo of them in Cold Process soap.

I added a bunch of Pearly White Mica to the Perfect Teal and made the unique texture on top using a spatula at the end. And that strange drag in the middle is from sifting Pearly White on to form a clear layer. Obviously, not my best attempt.

Next, I started a test batch of Hyacinth and Periwinkle High pHLabcolors. It is so warm in the soap studio that the soap is gelling without any sort of insulation.

Here is a photo of the ‘Floap’ soap I made two weekends ago, unmolded and cut. It’s getting surprisingly hard and I can hardly wait to use it in the shower to see how long it lasts. It’s getting yellow as it is exposed to air longer. I hope it doesn’t end up going brown. Fingers crossed.

I also did a horrific experiment with yogurt and cold process soap where I was trying to find the max amount of yogurt you could add to soap before it broke down. I’ve found that saturation point and my soap is a separating, brown stinking mess.

Finally, I spent around 4 hours designing projects for Martha Stewart Radio. I’ll be on next Tuesday, taking live calls, talking about Flexy Fast as well as some upcoming SoapQueenTVepisodes.