Meet the Artist - What Activities Do You Enjoy?

First and foremost, I'm mostly a homebody. I love getting immersed in something at home, from reading to movies, from art to just watching nature outside the window. While there's tons of nature in South Africa, I didn't stay in a small enough town where the wildlife could be just outside your window. Now, I'm so enjoying the fact that there are bunnies, squirrels, ducks, and geese around, not to mention all the other birds! I could really get into bird watching if I put my mind to it, haha.

Something else that has really surprised me since I've moved to the USA is that I'm listening to Afrikaans music so much more now than I ever did before. And I'm loving it, actually. Joshua, of course, is going to have to learn how to "langarm" (a Afrikaans way of dancing), haha, but I'm sure he's going to be ok with that as he'll love any excuse to hold me tight. In my romantic mind, we'll langarm even when there's no music playing in the background.

I also enjoy going to events that highlight heritage. Recently, my future mother-in-law, Lisa, and I went to the Tulip Time festival here in Pella, Iowa, which celebrated their Dutch heritage. They had been settled in the 1840s by a Dutch minister named Scholte. I had a stunning time.

These were just some of my favourite pictures of the tulips that they had all over the town. Of course, I also had an ulterior motive for going to the festival as I wanted to take a look at who else would be at their market. I saw quite a few fellow soap and body product vendors, but nothing quite in the same line as what I envision our line to look like by this time next year.

Honestly, there's so much that I enjoy doing, and I'm sure that with Joshua there is going to be tons more things that we're going to love doing together, just because we are doing it together.

Trouble Shooting

Well, this was a little frustrating. Something that I've made with great success back in Cape Town (see above picture) turned out to be a challenge here in the U.S. There could only be a short list of things wrong with these salt pebbles, so trouble shooting was going to (hopefully) be taken care of quickly, but this highlighted to me again that you can't take your recipe for granted.

• The humidity might have changed, either due to the seasons changing, or due to moving half way across the world.
• A key raw material might not be the same standard that you're used to.
• You might be using a fragrance that doesn't require as much as you normally use due to its concentration, thus changing the liquid volume previously used.
• You may get an idea to add in a new product which you've not tested before.
• You might now be working with a gas appliance instead of electrical.

Whatever the smallest change might be, be patient and always be ready to trouble shoot.

With this flop, I was possibly dealing with every single thing that I've just listed above. It was too late to remove the new product that was introduced, but hopefully it helped to offset the lack of liquid from the more concentrated fragrance oil. Additionally, I added in a few sprays of water, too, to see if they help. If nothing else, I hope it helped with the lack of humidity that I suspect is a contributing factor to why this recipe flopped.

I couldn't be 100% sure about the lack of humidity since the powdered honey that I used here was a sugar/honey blend, which, I'm sorry, but if you're going to be selling something as powdered honey, then the only product in that bag had better be powdered honey! Grrr! Anyways, honey naturally attracts moisture from the air, but since it wasn't attracting anything, I wasn't sure if it was a humidity problem or the unwanted sugar.

These look like they're right, but when I tried to lift them out, the bottom half stayed behind on the very few that had actually stuck somewhat together. So, everything went into a bowl and more water was added, stirred through to distribute the moisture evenly, and then packed back into the mold, but the second time I packed it a little less tightly. The fact that some of the flopped ones were fine on the top half, but fell apart on the bottom half (you could tell that zero moisture had reached the bottom half) basically told me that whatever was going on in the top half wasn't reaching through to the bottom half deeper in the mold.

So, I put it into the oven for 2-3 times longer than my recipe previously stated. Maybe a gas oven doesn't work the same as an electrical oven? Who knows?! My original oven was just a mini tabletop one, not a full sized one, so maybe all that extra space isn't concentrating the heat the way it should be either? Thank goodness the flashpoint of my fragrance is over 200F!! That is normally something that I neglect to check when I decide to include the oven in my processes.

Finally I was able to remove these from the molds in one piece! I tried so many fixes that I don't know what was finally the right thing that fixed it, but I'll believe that it was a little of everything and just happily enjoy the fragrance as I start to wrap and seal these against further environmental potential mishaps (maybe it will rain this coming weekend and that would change the humidity in the air again!).

Patience and a positive attitude pays off.

Meet the Artist - What Lights You Up?

Hi, my name is Sharon, and I come from a background of exporting Cape Flora from Cape Town, South Africa, and sending it mostly to the Far East. Crunching numbers was a huge part of my day, and it was peppered with moments of beauty and creativity when I had the opportunity to inspect the flowers and/or photograph them and work on the website. I've carried a little bit of that with me as I still appreciate beautiful flowers, and have a special spot in my heart for Cape Flora in particular.

When the soaping bug first bit me a few years ago, I discovered that finding great suppliers for my raw materials (especially in South Africa where they weren't readily available or grouped together on soap making supplier websites) got my engines going. To me, it was like trying to find that 1 cent that your accounting books don't balance by. I love comparing prices to get the best possible price per kg, finding the best customer service, and also sourcing unusual products.

Soapmaking itself, however, speaks to my creative side. It's reminiscent of pouring art, water marbling (ebru and suminagashi) on paper, silk, nails, and carpet, pointillism, cake decorating, and with soap dough, the possibilities truly are endless. Beyond soap, I enjoy beautiful scents, both fragrance oils, essential oils, and even the beautiful natural scents of the butters and oils that I use. I enjoy the feel of the oils directly on my skin, and I love putting all of these elements together, measuring and weighing out all the ingredients, and watching them meld together into new creations.

When I'm not creating or taking in any soapy creations, then I only have eyes for my Liefie(*), Joshua. It's going on 10 years now that we know each other, and he still makes me weak at the knees. I simply can't picture a future without him in it. I waited a very long time to meet someone like him, and since we've finally found each other, ain't no way I'm going to be walking away.

Since we're a team, Joshua will also be answering the same questions, letting you see a little bit of the amazing man that I know who inspires me on a daily basis to be more creative.

(*) Liefie - Afrikaans word which is the same as saying "lovey"