Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap

The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

2012-02-04T11:56:00.009-07:00

I did indeed take a foray out to the gem show. :) I went to the Best Bead Show at the Kino Veteran's Memorial Community Center, one I haven't been to before. Very nice! Lots of very pretty lampwork, lots of seed beads. I spent most of my $$ at Dakota Stones. I have been hooked on doing some bead weaving, mostly in the flat spiral stitch. So I was looking for stone in the 6mm - 8mm range. They had plenty of what I was looking for! :) http://www.dakotastones.com

A couple of different sizes of onyx. The pretty faceted ones will be used in a necklace.

Tiger eye and red tiger eye

Sodalite, white howlite, rhondonite

Goldstone, pyrite

Mexican laguna lace agate, apple jasper, iron zebra jasper

I also found some very pretty copper beads from Avian Oasis

Then I zipped across Ajo Way to the Tucson Electric Park. This show is always fun, because it is huge, and there is a lot of variety. Tools, uncut stone (buckets full of uncut lapis and turquoise!), minerals and fossils, beads, jewelry. I got a good fist full of faceted glass beads. :)

AND .. I've already finished one project with some of the glass beads.

Golden Poppies Bracelet

Smells

2012-01-29T10:27:00.003-07:00

Yesterday I was lurking on my favorite soap forum, and was reading in the fragrance section a post about the essential oil palmarosa, and how this person does not like the scent, and wonders now what she is going to do with the amount she has left. This brought on a discussion of blending with palmarosa, and also a discussion about other essential oils that some folks find have a definite "yuk" factor. The entire thread actually has quite a humorous note to it and had me giggling quite a bit.

But it also had me thinking about smells, and how some people like a certain smell and others will find the same smell disgusting. I was born and raised in Western Massachusetts, where there is a bit of farming. I LIKE the smell of cow manure, although I'm sure there are plenty of folks that will say "yewwwwww" to that! And I also like a faint wiff of skunk spray ... not the in-your-face-the-dog-just-got-sprayed overpowering smell, but just a faint wiff is good.

As for essential oils, I like palmarosa, and was a bit surprised to find so many folks think it has a certain yuk factor to it. In fact, one of my favorite soaps is my Palmarosa Lavender soap, which is a blend of palmarosa, lavender, geranium, and patchouli.

One other essential oil always brought up in these kinds of discussions (and yes, there are plenty of them in soap forums!) is patchouli. To me, patchouli by itself has a definite stink factor. In blends, used lightly, patchouli is wonderful. But whenever I make a straight up patchouli soap, I can't wait to get it off my kitchen counter and into the soap room, away from my nose. Funny thing, though. I have been using up a scrap piece of straight up patchouli soap at my kitchen sink, and I LIKE it! Don't ask me what happen, but I like it! Has my nose changed? Has the patch mellowed in the soap? Did I use JUST the right amount of patchouli in that particular batch of soap? I don't know! I do have a newer batch of straight up patchouli soap curing on the curing rack, just about ready to go into the shop. I think I need to try a piece of that batch, see if I like it or not.

So how about you? Do you like certain smells that others think are "yuk"? :)

Valentine's Day Sale at Jewelry From Tucson

2012-01-27T15:15:00.006-07:00

I am having a Valentine's Day Sale at Jewelry From Tucson! Find the perfect gift for your special Valentine. :)

30% off all jewelry. Use coupon code VALENTINE during checkout to receive the discount. Remember, you MUST use coupon code VALENTINE during checkout to automatically receive the 30% discount!

Jewelry From Tucson

Some of the lovely pieces for sale ...

A Turquoise and Red Coral Bracelet
Regular price $109 With discount $76.30

Citrine, Red Aventurine, Carnelian Necklace
Regular price $48.00 With discount $33.60

Red Garnet Earrings
Regular price $20.00 With discount $14.00

Flat Spiral Stitch Bracelets

2012-01-26T13:21:00.008-07:00

I taught myself a little bit of beadweaving, concentrating on the Flat Spiral Stitch. You can find all kinds of tutorials for doing this, especially on YouTube. It's a nice stitch, an easy stitch, and the bracelets have a nice fluidity to them once they are done. I've tried a few different sizes of beads, and a couple of different shapes for the middle beads. But I have found that the best to start with is the 6mm round beads.

This first one pictured is made with Red Creek Jasper 6mm rounds. Complimented with bronze colored seed beads.

Red Creek Jasper Bracelet

I made a doubled row one for Christmas .. a nice bright red and gold ! I used slightly larger beads .. 8mm. So it's a good sized bracelet!

Christmas Bracelet

This next one I deliberately made too big for me, because I knew if I made it to fit me, I would want to keep it for sure! Why? Because it is sterling silver, and I just love sterling silver! :) I used 6mm and 3mm smooth round sterling silver beads. I had a heck of a time getting a decent picture because of the silver - well, actually, I just couldn't get a really good pic. So trust me, the pictures of it do NOT do it justice! At all! The blue accent beads are 3mm faceted sodalite.

Sterling Silver Bracelet

I wanted to make one with pearls. But all the pearls that I have, have very small holes, too small for my needle to easily pass through. I think I will have to get some Swarovski Pearls, which are made from glass. Or maybe at the gem show this weekend I can see if anyone carries pearls with larger holes. BUT I do have some 6mm mother of pearl beads, so I made up a bracelet using some. I used white pearly looking seed beads, and some fantastic cobalt blue seed beads. I like it!

Mother of Pearl Bracelet

I made one using Swarovski Crystals and silver lined seed beads. Sparkly !!

Swarovski Crystal Bracelet

I made one this week, with the same beads as I used for my very first one that I made. The first one I made I considered my practice piece and kept it for myself. Mainly because I used amethyst, which is my birthstone. And I just plain like it! It's a little rough around the edges, but I wear it anyways. This one that I made this week, came out much better than my practice piece. It sold almost as soon as I listed it!!! :) Which made me very happy! Made with 6mm faceted amethyst, 4mm Czech glass beads, and bronze metallic hex cut seed beads.

The big Tucson Gem and Mineral Show is this weekend. I'll be on the lookout for lots of 6mm round beads for making more flat spiral stitch bracelets! :)

Ginger - part 2

2012-01-23T10:16:00.005-07:00

In my last post, I talked about ginger blends. One of the blends is called Ginger Floral, a blend of ginger, eucalyptus, lemon, lavender, rosemary, and a touch of ylang ylang. The eucalyptus was a little annoying to my nose, between that and the rosemary it made it more herbaceous then floral to me. SO, I tried again, just going with the ginger, lavender, lemon, and ylang ylang. YES, I like it much better!

This soap is also a layered soap. I used red clay instead of rose clay, with a touch of red oxide giving a much darker red. The middle line is red clay. The recipe - olive oil, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, rice bran oil, and avocado oil. And I gave it the simple name of Ginger Lavender.

Using the same recipe - actually, the other half of the soap pot - I made a simple peppermint blend. A lot of peppermint, and a little ginger. Naturally, the peppermint has overpowered the ginger, although I can catch faint wiffs of it. The ginger seems to have brought the scent down a note, but it is mostly peppermint that I smell. I used the same red clay/red oxide mix to make swirls. I've been calling it Winter Peppermint, but I'll probably rename it, because everyone is already thinking spring. :)

Ginger

2012-01-22T09:41:00.006-07:00

I've started using ginger essential oil for the first time for scenting my soaps. Interesting scent! I'm not crazy about it by itself, but used in blends can be very nice!

I started with 2 blends. One called Floral Ginger, the other called Spiced Woods (which I call Sweet Orange Ginger). Here's the Floral Ginger

And the Spiced Woods/Sweet Orange Ginger

I used the same recipe for both of them, because it is a nice, easy recipe, slow to trace so I can make my layers or swirl without speeding along .... because anyone that knows me, knows I don't speed along! :-D The recipe calls for olive oil and coconut oil (of course, that is the start of all my soap recipes), canola oil, rice bran oil, and avocado oil. Not only is this a nice recipe for soap playing, but it makes a wonderful mild soap!

The scent blend for the Floral Ginger called for Ginger, Lemon Eucalyptus, Lavender, and Rosemary. I did not have Lemon Eucalyptus, but I did have Globulus Eucalyptus, and Lemon. So, my blend was Ginger, Eucalyptus, Lemon, Lavender, and Rosemary. AND, I added a touch of Ylang Ylang, just because.

The blend is nice, but my nose doesn't like so much Eucalyptus. So I am slightly unsatisfied with this blend. More about this later.

This soap was the first in my series of layered soaps with a middle line, in my attempt to liven up the soap room. I used Rose Clay to color the bottom layer. Once I poured the bottom layer, I sprinkled Rose Clay on the top of it. I just used a tea spoon, and sprinkled it like I was sprinkling sugar on cereal, trying not to make it too thick or clumpy but covering the entire log. I let it set for a few minutes. Then, for the top layer, I used my ladle, and poured the soap from the ladle to my spatula which was hovering as close to the soap in the mold as I could hold it without disturbing either the pink soap already there or the layer of clay. This soap was at a thin to medium trace so it would be easy to pour. For the top swirl, I just used the scrapings from the bottom layer that was left in the soap pot, took a wooden skewer and swirled that little bit of pink soap down the top.

The second soap, Spiced Woods/Sweet Orange Ginger, is a blend of Ginger, Orange, Patchouli, Peppermint, and Lime. It's nice! Mostly the Ginger and Orange comes through. I didn't add anything colorwise to this soap.

I'll talk more about ginger blends in my next post. :)

Earthbound

2012-01-20T13:28:00.003-07:00

I have had a soap in my soap room that I made in April, of 2009. Yes, 2009. I called it Earthbound because of the blend of essential oils that I put together for it .... Cedarwood, Patchouli, Clove, and Lime. A very earthy scent! And made light swirls with Rhassoul Clay.

Now, when I made this soap, I went about my soapmaking routine ... mix the lye and water, leave it in the sink while I get my molds lined, my oils mixed, and any scents, clays, and other additives all ready. When I proceeded to mix the lye mixture with the oils, I discovered that the bucket the lye was in had a small leak in the bottom. Since it was unsafe to stand there with a leaking lye bucket while I thought Hmmmm what to do, I went ahead and poured it into the oils. I had no idea how much of the lye mixture had actually leaked out, so even though I briefly thought about adding more lye, I just didn't know how much it would be safe to add. So I didn't want to do that. But not wanting to waste so much oil, I went about my business and made the soap as otherwise planned, not knowing how it would come out.

It was about 3 or 4 days before I could cut it, it was so soft. But cut it I did, and put it on the curing rack. As the weeks and months went by, every now and then I would poke at one of them, and they just never hardened up like my other soaps. I had no problem making an indentation with my thumb.

And finally, almost 3 years later, last week I decided to use one. And you know what? It's one of the mildest soaps I have ever used! Yeah! They are still kind of soft, just a bit tacky to the touch. But the scent is marvelous! Talk about a mellow earthy scent! The lime scent has faded, but the cedarwood, patchouli, and clove are still strong and wonderful!

I keep wondering about the percentage of superfat. For all the none-soapers, a bit of explanation. There is a specific ratio of lye to oils/fat that is needed make sure that ALL the lye has been used and turned to soap in the chemical process that occurs at the meeting of lye and oils/fats. Any amount of oils/fats over that ratio, we refer to as superfatting. I usually superfat my soaps at around 5-6 percent. I'm GUESSING that these soaps are around 20 percent superfat, but I really am guessing.

Beer Soap

2012-01-03T14:46:00.007-07:00

In the works for this week .. Beer Soap! After making the Raspberry Wheat Beer soap with Oatmeal and Honey, I thought I would do a line of beer soaps. But I don't want to use the average commercial type football beer, I want to use something different! And I don't want to have to buy a six pack, because I only need 22-24 oz per batch.

So I went to a store here in Tucson called Total Wine & More. Ever been to one of these?? It's a Walmart sized store FULL of wine and beer. All kinds of beer. Beer I've never heard of. And the best part, they have one full aisle dedicated to single bottles so you can mix and match.

I got 4 different kinds of beer to start my new beer line. Right now, I have two of the beers poured off and going flat so I can make soap with them tomorrow.

First up, Orange Blossom Amber. Doesn't that sound just yummy as a soap?!! Across the label it says "Premium Flavored Lager Malt Beverage Brewed with Orange Peels". Made by the Indian Wells Brewing Co out of Inyokern, CA. And never mind the beer, look at the label! Some of the labels on the beers are absolutely lovely!

Also poured off is a red ale by a Tempe, Arizona, brewing company called Sleepy Dog Brewery. This beer is called Red Rover Amber Ale. The label calls it an Irish style ale. Very dark! Nice dog label. :)

Another local Arizona beer I'll use next week is out of Phoenix, the Old World Brewery. The beer is called Nitro Blonde Ale. I'm hoping it's a nice light colored beer.

And finally, a beer I got just because I liked the name and the label - Coronado Mermaid's Red. This is a brewing company out of California. I like the description, too. "Sure to put a scale on your tail". :)

I have a great urge to soak the labels off carefully and save them!

Howdy, folks! :)

2011-12-28T10:38:00.011-07:00

Well, my goodness! It's been a long time since my last post! But you know, time flies when you're having fun. :)

The big news in the Goodwin household, is Ray's retirement. This is his first week of retirement from the 9-5 work world! He has many plans, most of them involving photography. With the new year, we will be getting an RV and doing some serious traveling around the country! Be sure to check out his blog, and start following it so you can see all the wonderful places we go!

Sonoran Connection

In October, we took a trip back home to Massachusetts and Maine to see family, some of whom we hadn't seen in about 5 years. We had a GREAT time, and it was so wonderful to see everyone! You can read and see pics of our trip on Ray's blog

Vacation I - Mostly Maine

Vacation II - Mostly Massachusetts

I've been trying to pretty up my soaps, adding some color, doing a bit of layering. Tell me what you think!

They certainly brighten up my soap rack! :) So far, these layered soaps with the lines are all scented with essential oils, trying to keep them as natural as I can! Colored with clays and some oxides, and in one case, gold mica. Not that I am giving up on fragrance oils, no no no! But I am trying to increase my line of naturally scented soaps.

You can buy these soaps from my Etsy shop

Aunt Nancy's Etsy Shop

or my website

Aunt Nancy's Website

Took a new picture of some of my soaps in their labels and wraps. I like how they look all lined up!

Would you like to see some jewelry now? I taught myself some bead weaving. This is the prototype bracelet I made using a stitch called the flat spiral. I used 6mm amethyst beads, 4mm glass beads, and metallic seed beads. This one I made for me! :)

And here's a red and gold bracelet, same stitch, 2 rows. Click HERE to see it in my jewelry shop

Here's another bracelet, I call it Gold and Amber Champagne, kind of a layered weave. Click HERE to see it in my shop.

I had a plan ...

2011-09-27T14:18:00.004-07:00

A soap plan. The next time I have such a plan, I will run it by an engineer.

The plan was a CinnaMint soap, half red, half green. Not layered, but side by side colors. So, I took a piece of cardboard cut the length and depth of my mold. I covered it with freezer paper (same thing I use to line my molds with). I placed it snuggly lengthwise down the middle of my mold.

Before I split my batch in half I debated ... make one side cinnamon, the other side mint? Nah, I said, make it ALL cinnamint. And I debated .... add the cinnamint all at once and then split the batch, or split the batch and add the cinnamint to each batch as I work on it? Nah, I said, add it all, then split the batch.

I did the green side first, using French green clay with just a pinch of green oxide to color. Mixed and brought it to trace, and started pouring it into one side of the mold. This is where an engineer would have been handy. A dam engineer. Because, of course, my dam wasn't going to hold just a settin there! DUH The only thing I could find in a hurry was a couple of plastic cups that individual applesauce comes in, that I use for mixing oxide with. I stuffed 3 of them along the other side of the "dam", and continued pouring my green soap. Yey, it worked! The dam held!

By the time I got to the other batch for the other side, it was already a thick trace. I debated .... keep it uncolored, or try to beat the clock and add the color? Add the color. Rose clay and a pinch of red iron oxide. Mixed it as fast as I could, even took a chance and hit it with the stick blender. It was still just barely pourable, so I removed the middle "dam holder" and stared pouring .. well, more like scooping it into the mold. Removed one of the other dam holders, kept scooping, removed the last dam holder, scooped and scraped the pot clean. Then, took hold of the divider and slowly pulled it straight up and out of the mold. Did a little frosting swirl down the middle to blend them a bit. And pounded that mold on the counter a few times to get rid of any air holes.

Not too bad! Now, I can't wait to cut it, see if I got all the air holes out of it.

(the pictures are not very good because a storm just rolled in and it was rather dark out, so poor lighting. But click on the photos to enlarge)

I also made a batch of Lavender soap, Just plain, uncolored, good smelling Lavender. No drama.

Soaps and Jewelry

2011-09-17T14:22:00.013-07:00

I just finished cutting 2 soaps. One I was concerned wouldn't come out like soap should, because I poured it at an extremely thin trace. But, it came out fine!

Here are both soaps right after pouring them. One is Holiday Peppermint. The other is Frankincense & Myrrh. The Frank & Myrrh is the one I was worried about.

And here is the Holiday Peppermint setting in the Tank, ready to cut

Now, just cut

Pretty, festive, full of holiday cheer! :)

Here's the Frank & Myrrh, setting in the Tank. A little darker than I had hoped (never used this particular fragrance oil from this vendor), but as dark as I figured.

And the cut

I tried a golden swirl with gold mica, but it didn't come out as nice as I wanted. Some of the soaps have hardly more than a few specks. Plus the fact that the soap will darken up, I should have just skipped the golden swirl part.

But still, a nice soap, and smells good!!

This next soap is one I made the week before, The bottom layer is scented with Gingerbread Cookie fragrance oil, the top layer is scented with orange and clove essential oils with a splash of Cinnamon Stick fragrance oil. The middle line is made with cocoa powder. A pretty soap, AND it smells GOOD!!

Jewelry

I went to a gem show a couple of weeks ago, got some great turquoise! Here's a 2 strand bracelet I made

Posed with one of my favorite props

Dakota

Having a sale !!

2011-09-12T17:49:00.009-07:00

I'm having a sale, in all my shops, soaps and jewelry!

10% off ALL soap!
15% off ALL jewelry and beads!

Use coupon code FALL11 to receive your discount. You MUST use the coupon code when checking out in order to received the discount!

This coupon code will remain active until end of day Friday, September 16th. You can use the coupon code in the following shops:

Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap website

Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap Etsy Shop

Jewelry From Tucson

Would you like to see a couple of my new fall soaps ?? OK

Pumpkin Raisin Royale

Apple Orchard

Chai Tea

A couple of pieces of new jewelry ?? OK ! :)

Lapis Lazuli and Sterling Silver Bracelet

Blue Azurite Necklace

Turquoise Heishi Choker

This is a necklace I made for myself, using a pendant I bought about 6 years ago over at the San Xavier Mission.

And a gratuitous picture of Dakota :)

Just Poured Soaps

2011-08-23T14:15:00.004-07:00

Just finished making 2 soaps, and here they are, just poured, still glossy, before gel.

One is Creamy Peppermint with Chocolate Swirl. The other is Chai Tea.

Red Apple and Other Soaps

2011-08-20T07:29:00.016-07:00

A couple of soaps I cut yesterday. This first one is Red Apple. And it really smells like a basket of red apples! Yum! I'm afraid the red is going to darken more than I want it to.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Here it is setting in The Tank before cutting

I also just cut a log of Lavender. Just a pretty plain white soap.

Last week, I made a double batch of Pumpkin Raisin Royale soap. I used real pumpkin puree, and goat milk in this soap, so it should be extra nice! Here's a series of pics. The first pic is right after I poured it into the molds.

Isn't that a beautiful color?! But alas, it will not stay that gorgeous pumpkin color. It will darken.

This next pic is about 10 minutes later, when both logs went into a full, hard, hot gel. Most soaps, it will take 10 to 20 minutes to just START to gel. But between the goat milk, and the pumpkin, and the fragrance oil, this stuff got hot! And I did no insulation.

A couple of days later, they were ready to cut.

And, boy, do they smell good! Put a dollop of whip cream on a slice, and you'll want to take a bite!! :-D

I also tried a coloring technique called "column swirl". Put some kind of column in the middle of the soap mold, and pour many colors of soap onto the column one after another. If you want to see a nice video of this technique (not mine) check this out!

Youtube Column Swirl Video

I used my 12 inch log mold to do this, and I used a piece of 2x2 inch wood as the column. Here it is in the mold

Nowhere near as nice as the one in the video. :) First of all, a couple of the colors traced too fast for easy pouring. Second, this technique looks really nice in a slab mold, but not so much in a log mold.

Ready to cut ....

Here's a couple of soaps listed in my Etsy shop this past week.

Chocolate Serendipity

Sweet Orange Patchouli

Tahitian Vanilla

New Shop Banner

2011-08-02T14:26:00.007-07:00

I made a new shop banner for my Etsy jewelry shop. Whatta ya think? Look ok? Too much sage?

(click on the image to enlarge it)

See it in action at Jewelry From Tucson.

* edited 8/16/11

This is what I finally decided on

Chocolate Layered Raspberry Filled Cake with Cream Frosting Soap

2011-07-28T07:20:00.016-07:00

Is that name too long for a soap ? :)

This is a soap I made on Tuesday, and I cut it yesterday. First layer, scented with Chocolate Serendipity. Second layer scented with Black Raspberry and colored with rose clay. Third layer, more Chocolate Serendipity. And top layer, scented with Black Raspberry, uncolored.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

Now, trust me, the chocolate part will turn a nice deep dark chocolate brown. Look, here is a soap I made last week with the Chocolate Serendipity. When I first cut it, it was light yellowish, and now it is this luscious dark chocolate.

And the 2 soaps side by side.

Here's the cake soap setting in the Tank, before I cut it.

The other soap I cut yesterday is Orange and Clove. I went a bit light on the clove, because it can be an irritant to sensitive skin. So it smells more orange. Hmmmmm, delish!

The log setting in the Tank. I sprinkled the top of it with ground cloves, and put about 1/4 tsp of ground cloves in the soap itself. Scrubby. :)

Isn't that pretty??!!

To buy my soap, go either to my WEBSITE
or to my Etsy shop.

Jewelry

Here's some of the jewelry I have been making.

Chainmaille Bracelet. This is called 4 in 1 pattern, which I've done before. This time, I figured out how to add a row. :)

Turquoise Heishi Necklace - turquoise is from the Kingman mine

Blue Lapis and Wolf Charm Necklace. I would love to do this same one, all in sterling!

A set of wire wrapped blue sodalite

Necklace

Earrings

Same earrings in sterling silver

A chain necklace with a big ol' hunk of Moss Agate

A pair of long pearl earrings

To see all my jewelry, check out my shop, Jewelry From Tucson, on Etsy.

Summer Soaps

2011-07-18T12:59:00.013-07:00

Howdy, folks!

Once again, I have been neglecting you. I apologize! :)

Monsoon season has hit us in Tucson. Last week was not too bad, but the week before was full of storms, microbursts, downed power lines, and floods. Here at the house we only lost power once for a few hours. Ray had to go into work a few times as they lost power 3 or 4 times on the northwest side of town. At the worst of the storms, Tucson kicked up a huge dust storm, pushed it along toward Phoenix, which ended up as a huge haboob which engulfed all of Phoenix! Take a look at Ray's blog, he posted a video of the haboob.

Sonoran Connection

Want to see some new soaps?? OK !

This first one is a soap I made for a Soap Challenge. I am a member of an Etsy team called Soap Artisan Friends of Etsy, and every couple of months we have a challenge, just a bit of fun. The challenge this time was to make a soap using at least 3 different essential oils from a predetermined list of essential oils, and using at least 2 colors.

This is the soap I made for the challenge. I used 4 essential oils - anise, orange, clary sage, and patchouli. For colors, I used green French clay, and rose clay.

The soap is called Sambuca Sunset

(click on any photo to enlarge)

If you would like to see the rest of the soaps created by my teammates for the challenge, check out our team BLOG

Here's a nice refreshing soap, Eucalyptus Mint.

A sensual soap, made with a blend of Patchouli, Geranium, and Ylang Ylang

Tahitian Flowers, sweet and floral!

The next one is a bath and shaving soap for the gals - Lilac Sandalwood. I wasn't too sure about the scent combination at first, but I like it!

Pineapple Salad. This is mostly Pineapple Crush with just a splash of Island Coconut. Yum!!

Violet Patchouli. Nothing like a little floral to bring out the best of Patchouli!

And finally, Black Raspberry. What a great lazy days of summer soap!!

Currently on the curing rack (I didn't take any pics as I was cutting, sorry!) -

Tahitian Vanilla
Chocolate Serendipity
Sweet Orange Patchouli

For my sisters, Dakota fast asleep in the closet.

Fun with jewelry making

2011-06-15T11:19:00.014-07:00

I've been having fun with my jewelry making lately. I've been wanting to use chains, jumprings, and wirewrapping, but have been reluctant because of the price of sterling silver. Last time I bought sterling silver wire for wire wrapping, sterling was at about $12 an ounce. Now, it's almost up to $35 !!! So, I decided to go with a more vintage look with antiqued brass, and some copper.

Here is one necklace I did using fine copper chains. A total of 20 strands make up this necklace!

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Here's the copper clasp I used

This next one I call Swallows in Blue Sky. I got a couple of cute brass connectors in the shape of a flying swallow. I went asymmetrical here, and only put in one swallow on one side. As I was adding a couple of Swarovski crystals for the focal, I noticed a handful of Botswana Agate beads setting in front of me, so I added one to this necklace. Just because it was there!

Speaking of Botswana Agate (I just like SAYING Botswana :-D ), here's a couple of bracelets made with Botswana Agate. This first one is strung on beading wire, with sterling silver.

This second one I wire wrapped the beads with antiqued brass wire into links, and used antiqued brass jumprings to attach the links together. I like the looks of the "more than needed" wire wrapping.

And since I like the over-the-top method of wire wrapping, here's a couple of necklaces I like.

Clear Quartz

Manmade purples and yellows quartz

Ocean Jasper

And how about some earrings !!

Red Aventurine

Blue Lampwork Glass

So, yes, I have been having fun with wire wrapping! To see more, check out my Etsy shop

Jewelry From Tucson

For all you jewelry makers, I have been adding some beads and findings that I got at the Tucson Gem Show this past February to my shop. Check them out, I'll be adding more!

Beads and Findings

I have also noticed on Etsy that some folks like to buy beads that are already wire wrapped and ready to go onto earrings or necklaces. So I have started making up and selling dangles. You can find them in my shop here

Dangles

Soap, Soap, and ... Soap

2011-04-18T11:12:00.015-07:00

Here are a few soaps I have listed in my Etsy shop ... hopefully, today I will get my website update to include them all. Some of these soaps you may have seen as I was cutting them.

Midnight Garden - This one is swirled with a pretty ultramarine blue. When I first poured it, it was much lighter. But because of the fragrance oil turned a dark brown. It has a wonderful violet and amber scent. At first, I was going to call it Blue Garden, but because it turned so dark, I went with Midnight Garden.

This is how light it was when first poured

(click on any photo to enlarge)

And this is what it looks like now

Lilac - Gotta have lilac in the spring!

The Orchard House - This is the one that was SUPPOSE to be Pomegranate Fig, but I only had 1/4 of the fragrance oil that I needed. So I added a couple of fragrances, like Apple Jack & Peel, and Violet Shae, and gave it a bit of a red swirl. It smells good!!

Sage & Flowers - I like this! A blend of essential oils, Sage, Lavender, Palmarosa, and Ylang Ylang. And a green swirl. Very fresh smelling and looking!

A bath and shaving soap for the girls - this is the same sexy blend of essential oils I used in my Night Breeze soap - Orange, Lemon, Clove, Patchouli, and Ylang Ylang. I used all the right oils and butters to keep a good stable lather.

And Bay Rum Bath & Shaving Soap for the guys.

Let's see, what else ......

OH yes, for my soapaholic friend Amy, Hawaiian Citrus Spa. Made with Alaea Hawaiian Red Salt, goat milk, and lots of citrus essential oils!

One I made last year, and brought back for the summer - Carrot and Goat Milk Fragrance Free. Very nice for your face after a hard day at summer's play.

And, Spring Bouquet. This is another soap that ended up with a mix of fragrance oils because I thought I had plenty of one. It was SUPPOSE to be Lily of the Valley. But I only had a too small amount of lily of the valley fragrance oil. So I added a little bit of rose fragrance oil I had, and some myrrh fragrance oil. And I ended up with a very nice springy scent!

Now, would you like to see some soap I cut the other day ??? OK

This one is the same blend of fragrance oils I used in my Snow Spice soap. I like it a LOT, but I'm going to call it something a little more summery. It's a blend of White Spice, Cinnamon Stick, and Sahara Sandalwood. Swirled with yellow oxide and gold mica. Pretty, isn't it? :)

I've had a few requests for more Egyptian Dragon. But alas, the supplier I was getting it from has gone out of business. I only had a small amount of the fragrance oil left (sound familiar? Seeing a pattern here??), so I mixed what I had left with some Dragon's Blood. And it's very nice! It cut the sweetness of the Dragon's Blood a bit, and it's a very nice exotic scent. A unisex scent.

As it sets here in my Tank (the soap cutter), you can see how dark the outside of the soap is. The inside will get just as dark as it cures.

And this one ... this one I made a double batch of. It's called Saguaro Blossom. Saguaro's are the huge armed cactus that grow around here in the Sonoran Desert. They blossom in the late spring, early summer with these lovely big white flowers. These flowers have a scent like ripe melon, and attract all kinds of nectar eating creatures ... hummingbirds, orioles, bats. This is my salute to the saguaro blossom, a white soap with yellow topping, scented with a lily and cantaloup fragrance. Before you see the soap, this is a pic (taken by Ray, of course) of the flowers of a saguaro

And this is my Saguaro Blossom soap

There, that's enough soap for one day, yes? :)

Here's one of the little hummingbirds from the Hummingbird Aviary at the Desert Musuem - Photo taken by Ray (see more of his photos at his blog Sonoran Connection )

What the heck is a BNR ??

2011-04-04T05:57:00.004-07:00

About a month ago, I discovered BNRs on Etsy. And yes, I can hear you - What the heck is a BNR ??

BNR stands for Buy And Replace. But before I can talk about BNR, first I need to talk about Treasuries. Treasuries are an Etsy "thing". Any Etsy member can create a Treasury. Each Treasury has 16 spaces. Here, this is how Etsy describes a Treasury -

"Treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery comprised of lists of items. Lists contain 16 items. Members can feature their favorite items, items selected on a theme or whatever they like. Any Etsy member can create a Treasury list, and there is no limit to the number of lists you can create. You can edit your lists as often as you desire, and post comments to other members' lists. The number of views your list receives as well as the number of clicks the items featured in your list receive are displayed in the list's Stats section."

Here is a Treasury I created that features some of my soaping buddies from a soaping team I am a member of. Now, don't forget to come back after clicking on the link! :)

A SAFETeam Treasury

OK, are you back? Did you see a lot of gorgeous soap ?? :-D

So that is a Treasury. Lots of Etsy folks like to create Treasuries, and lots of Etsy folks like to look at Treasuries. It didn't take long for someone to come up with a wonderful promotional tool using Treasuries. And this promotional tool became known as Buy and Replace. Here's the deal ....

A "curator" creates a Treasury. The curator declares it a BNR. And this is what happens - if another Etsy seller buys something from one of the shops featured in this Treasury, then THAT seller's shop replaces the shop that was bought from in the Treasury. Get it? Buy something from a featured shop, replace that shop with your shop. In order for this to work, sellers who are featured in a BNR will help promote it, by posting a link to it on Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever promotional tools they like to use. A BNR promotion may last a few hours, or all day, or until a certain number of sales is reached. Some BNRs are BNSs, which means Buy and Stay. In a BNS, the promotion lasts until a certain number of sales is reached. All the original sellers that are featured in the Treasury stay featured. Purchases can be from any featured shop. The curator keeps a list of all the sellers that have bought in. Then, when the number of sales is reached, the curator creates a NEW Treasury with all the folks that bought in! And everyone starts promoting the NEW Treasury.

And yes, it works! There is a lot of chatting that goes on in a BNR. People get to know each other. It's a seller helping seller atmosphere, very encouraging, very welcoming. And us Etsy sellers, we like it! Because, yeah, we're buyers too! :-D

OH, and let me add, most featured shops will also be offering discounts!

So now when you see me promoting a BNR, you'll know what the heck I'm talking about !!!

More soap!

2011-03-23T12:19:00.005-07:00

hehe !! Are you surprised?? :-D This is some soap I cut up yesterday.

This first one was SUPPOSE to be Pomegranate Fig, but I only had a tiny amount of Pomegranate Fig fragrance oil. So I added some Apple Jack and Peel, and some Violey Shea. It actually smells pretty good! Like the inside of a big farm stand. I'm calling Orchard House.

And this one is a blend of essential oils - Sage and Lavender, with a tiny bit of Palmarosa and Ylang Ylang. Smells good! I'm calling it Sage and Flowers.

I have a couple of soaps ready to come off the curing rack, I hope to get the photos taken this week and get then listed. One is Lilac, and the other is a blend of Lily of the Valley, Wild Rose, and Myrhh (I haven't decided what to call this one yet).

AND I'm showing you this photo that Ray took of some horses. I just love it! Be sure to click on it to enlarge!

To see more of Ray's photos, check out his blog!!

Sonoran Connection

Blue Garden, Lily Cantaloup, and Shaving Soaps

2011-03-17T06:30:00.009-07:00

Better late than never! :-D

Last Friday I cut 4 logs of soap. The first, Blue Garden. This is scented with a sweet violet fragrance oil, and swirled with ultramarine blue. When I first poured it, it was a nice eggshell white with a lovely blue swirl.

(click on any image to enlarge)

But surprise! There must be quite a bit of vanilla in the fragrance oil, because it is darkening up quite a bit!

As you can see in the photo below, the inside of the soap was still quite light when I cut it.

But see how dark the top and the sides of the soap are? THATS how dark the inside of the soap is now, after almost a week of curing on the rack. I kinda like it! Maybe I should call it Midnight Garden instead of Blue Garden!

Next up, Asian Lily and Musk Melon. This is a restock, and is pretty popular in the warmer weather. It looks and smells just as it should. I love it when a soap is consistent every time I make it. :) Some soaps, it seems no matter what I do, it looks or smells different every time I make it.

And two shaving soaps! Both the same recipe, just different scents and colors.

The first shaving soap is for the girls, because it's just about time to shave those legs! A really nice blend of essential oils - orange, lemon, clove, patchouli, and ylang ylang. For clay, a nice white Kaolin clay.

And for the guys or girls, Bay Rum, with green French clay.

Now, you might be wondering, what makes a shaving soap a shaving soap? Well to start off with, I use oils that help produce plenty of stable lather. By stable, I mean lather that is going to stick around for a little bit, time enough to complete your shave. And I don't want big bubbly lather, I want a creamy lather. SO, of course I need plenty olive oil to make sure your shaving soap is mild. And coconut oil because we do need SOME bubbly lather. Cocoa butter, yes, definitely. This helps with the stable lather part, along with the sweet almond oil. The castor oil adds a little bit of slide, so your razor doesn't drag. Clay also helps with the slide. And finally, a little bit of sugar .. yes! sugar! .... to help with that lather. OH OH I almost forgot goat milk! Gotta have goat milk for mildness, creaminess, and goodness!

All four soaps are now contently resting on the curing rack in the soap room. :)

Taking it to the shower - White Sage

2011-03-01T14:20:00.002-07:00

This morning I took a bar of White Sage to the shower.

The ingredients -
Olive Oil, Distilled Water, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide (Lye), Cocoa Butter, Sweet Almond Oil, Castor Oil, Fragrance Oil, White Kaolin Clay

Oh, I LIKE this soap! First of all, the scent is such a clean scent! Not flowery, not powdery, not grassy, not medicinal. Just a clean sage scent, without being too herbaceous. This is scented with a fragrance oil (high quality, skin safe, phthalate free). I love the way it left my skin smelling so clean!

The lather is wonderful! The recipe utilizes cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, coconut oil, and castor oil, all which help to produce a good, stable lather. And I also included a bit of white kaolin clay. This soap actually makes a good shaving soap, with the creamy lather and the slip from the castor oil and clay. Cause you know, girls, you're gonna be wearing shorts soon!

Getting out of the shower, my skin did not feel dry or tight. The amount of olive oil I use in my soaps guarantee a mild and conditioning bar. And the cocoa butter always adds a good amount of conditioning to a soap!

All in all, I give this soap a big thumbs up, and I'll be using it again! :)

Sage, Rosemary, and Mookaite

2011-02-23T11:37:00.013-07:00

I've got two soaps off the curing rack and in the shops. Well, they are actually restocks that I have had out of stock for a bit.

The first is White Sage. I love this scent. It's clean and smooth. A really nice scent for both men and women. The scent is from a fragrance oil, which is a good, high quality, skin safe, phthalate free (as is all the fragrance oils I use) oil.

And the second one is Herbal Rosemary. This is the perfect kitchen soap. I use rosemary essential oil for this soap, along with some powdered rosemary which I make a swirl with. This soap will get the onion smell out of your hands when cooking!!

Yesterday I made two soaps. They're both still in molds, I'll probably cut them tomorrow. They are both fragrance oil soaps. The green one is French Lilac, cause spring is coming!! The white one I had intended to be Lily of the Valley. However, I only had a drop or two of Lily of the Valley fragrance! So I started with that. Then, I poked around on my fragrance oil shelf, and found a couple of drops of Wild Rose and threw that in. Them I put in a bit of Ethiopian Myrrh. And finished it off with a couple of pipettes full of Ylang Ylang. It smells, well, kind of jasminey. I'll have to come up with a spring time name for it.

Jewelry

I have finished up a couple of pieces of jewelry. This will help answer your question, what the heck is mookaite?? :)

(click on any photo to enlarge)

I love this necklace! The focal is a wonderful carved bead, made from mookaite. This is from the website, mookaite.com ...

"Mookaite is the common, or popular, name for the rock with the geological name Windalia Radiolarite, being a fine grained, silicified and multi-coloured, radiolarian siltstone, found in outcrops, principally on Mooka Station (a sheep farm of around 700,000 acres)on the west side of Kennedy Range in Western Australia. The Kennedy Range itself is located approximately 90 miles east of Carnarvon and 25 miles to the north west of Gascoyne Junction, a small town of around 60 people, and located at the first (heading west from Carnarvon) sealed crossing of the mighty (usually dry) Gascoyne River."

I had a little trouble with this necklace at first. I used one of the sterling silver toggles I had gotten from Blake Brothers at the Gem Show. I tried on the necklace and wore it for a little while, to see how the horse bead set .. whether it would move around, hang sideways, whatever. Well, dang if the toggle didn't come loose on me ... twice!!! So I had to restring the necklace and put a different toggle on it. But my question is, what the heck do I do with the 6 or 7 toggles I have that I now know won't stay toggled together???? So this is what I did with one set ...

Ha Ha !! I made earrings with them!!

I also made a couple of pairs of earrings with pearls and amethyst.

This one is with green pearls

And these, purple pearls

I also made a bracelet with mookaite, that matches the horse necklace

Earlier in the week, I finished a necklace made with Red Creek Jasper mixed with some brown aventurine. This is nice!

And a pair of earrings to match

So, as you can see, I have managed to keep busy. :)

Here's a Dakota picture. She's kind of mad at me because I had to bring her to the vets for her shots. She started screaming her head off as soon as I started putting her in the carrier, and she screamed the whole way to the vets. A real drama queen!!

Dakota

2011-02-17T08:26:00.006-07:00

This is my cat, Dakota. We got her a couple of years ago from the Southern Arizona Animal Shelter. She was already 6yrs old when we adopted her. And she is a perfect lady!

When I take pictures of my soap and jewelry, I do it in the afternoon in the dining room when there is plenty of sunlight. And she's always hanging out in the sun while I'm taking my pics.

Look at how clever she is to position herself just right so the rung from the chair is keeping the sun out of her eyes! And I love how impossibly long her front legs are, and the way she stretches them out in front of her and crosses her paws a little. So casual!

More Red Creek Jasper - Earrings this time

2011-02-16T09:58:00.006-07:00

Yesterday, I made a few pairs of earrings with some of the Red Creek Jasper I got at the Gem Show.

This is a very pretty pair, with lots of Bali sterling silver

Second pair

Third pair (I like the colors in these)

And the last pair, very simple

Fruit-A-Licious, and Red Creek Jasper

2011-02-14T13:44:00.009-07:00

Soap

I cut my four layer soap this morning. I like it! I'm a happy soapy camper. :-D

Here is the first log, waiting to be cut.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

And here it is! Bottom layer is Cantaloup Lily, second layer is Pineapple Crush, 3rd layer is Agave Lime, and the top layer is Orange Lemon.

When I was pouring the second layer, I had a little trouble pouring lightly and in some soaps it caused a little bit of a wave instead of a straight layer.

All cut and on the little rack, ready to be carried into the soap room. I wait a few days for them to harden up a little before transferring them to my large curing rack, to keep fingerprints down to a minimum. :)

And I made sure to make a few quarter bars. :)

Jewelry

I finally got some pics of the Red Creek Jasper jewelry I made last week. Got it all listed in my Etsy Jewelry shop, Jewelry From Tucson.

The Necklace

And the bracelet

Birdwatching

Ray and I went to Whitewater Draw this weekend, to see the Sandhill Cranes. Once again, we saw THOUSANDS of cranes! Check out Ray's blog here -

Sonoran Connection

At the end of the post, he posted a video I took of some cranes landing. I took it with my Droid, so it's not very good, but it will give you an idea of how noisy they can be!

More Gem Show Stash

2011-02-13T17:49:00.012-07:00

Friday, I was able to get in one more run to the Tucson Gem Show. I needed a few sterling silver toggle clasps, and I wanted to look at turquoise.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

This was the last day for the G&LW show on the south side of town. This is the one I always go to, because it is so convenient for me. I skipped the Gem Mall and headed right for the Holidome. I wanted to check out Kalpataru Beads for my sterling. I kept my blinders on as I passed pearls and turquoise and other wonderful beads. Some of the vendors were already starting to pack up, and they all looked pretty tired. I found Kalpataru, but was disappointed that their silver was $1.39 a gram. A bit too steep for me! So I headed over to the Inn to check out Colbaugh Processing. These are the folks that process the turquoise from the Kingman mine. I didn't buy anything. Not sure why, maybe because there wasn't anything new, and it was crowded in the little room.

So, I was heading back to the holidome tent when I decided to go into the Blake Brothers tent. They do mostly sterling silver jewelry, charms, chains. I thought I would take a look, see if they had some toggles. FINALLY found a table with some sterling silver beads and toggles that were on special for 89 cents a gram. Yay!! So I got a handful of toggles. :) And still had enough money for a few more beads.

So, into the Holidome tent I went. And I found the booth for Intrinsic Trading, the folks I had bought from on my first trip to the Gem Show. I just seemed to be drawn to chunky jasper and agate this year! First, I got these two horse beads. The dark gold and reddish one is mookaite. Isn't it pretty? The blue one is sodalite. Both of them are drilled to be threaded on beading wire.

These are some mookaite beads to go with the horse

A strand of large moss agate beads. I haven't measured them yet, they look around 12mm or so.

A strand of amazonite, which will go lovely with the carved amazonite floral bead I got earlier in the week.

This strand of beads is Mexican Onyx. When the helpful young lady running the booth told me this, I must have looked a little skeptical, because she quickly explained, yes, it's called onyx. It's a form of calcaite. My "skeptical look" was only because I had always associated onyx with black, not that I doubted what she told me.

And finally, a strand of Botswana Agate. I don't think you can tell from the not-so-good photo, but they are faceted. I like Botswana Agate, and I like SAYING Botswana Agate. :-D

And that is this year's Tucson Gem Show! :)

A Soap of Four Layers

2011-02-11T19:32:00.007-07:00

Yesterday I made a soap with 4 layers ... Fruit-A-Licious

First layer, scented with Cantaloup Lily, colored with red clay

Second layer, scented with Pineapple Crush, colored with gold mica

Third layer, scented with Agave Lime and lime essential oil, colored with green clay and green oxide

And the final layer, scented with orange and lemon essential oils, no color added

No soap gremlins, all the fragrance oils behaved themselves, the only problem was the HUGE mess in the kitchen when I was done! :-D

From stash to jewelry

2011-02-10T10:09:00.004-07:00

I've already made a few things from my Gem Show stash beads. Wanna see?? :) I had to dive right into the blue agate. I must have summer on the brain.

A necklace, bracelet, and 3 pairs of earrings (1 pair already sold, and is currently on their way to St. Louis!). I mixed the agate with some aquamarine, just nice seashore colors!

The necklace is really fun, maybe I should have named it Bam Bam, or The Wilma Flintstone Cruise Wear :-D

The bracelet is pretty, doesn't include any of the "plumper" sized beads so it's comfy to wear. The only thing is, I think the extension is too long, but I'll leave it as is for now, when it sells I'll let the buyer decide if they want it shortened.

And 3 pairs of earrings. The earrings with the "plumper" sized beads are the ones that sold already. :)

AND I have already finished a necklace using some of the Red Creek Jasper. No pics yet. I mixed one of the 5 piece sets with a little bit of turquoise. yumma yumma, it's gorgeous! I'll take pics later and post.

AND I completed and listed a 3 strand amethyst bracelet I was working on before I went to the gem show. For all you February babes out there, this is a nice one!

Taking it to the shower

2011-02-09T10:42:00.003-07:00

This morning I needed a new bar of soap for my shower. I love going in the soap room and choosing a bar of soap for myself! So many choices!!

This morning I chose Night Breeze. Yeah! Good choice! :)

Now, my soaps are big honkin bars of soap, they weigh at least 5 oz. And I don't bevel them, so when I first start turning them in my hands to lather up, it's a little hard on my hands. So once I get the soap wet, I use the back of my thumbnail and run it along the edges of the soap to smooth them out a little. It doesn't take long before the edges are rounded out.

Night Breeze .... scented with an essential oil blend of orange, lemon, clove, patchouli, and ylang ylang. The ingredients -

olive oil, coconut oil, distilled water, sodium hydroxide (lye), sweet almond oil, rice bran oil, goat milk, avocado oil, plus the essential oils listed above.

Right off the bat, this soap smells GOOD! Orange is the main smell, followed by the lemon, then the clove. I couldn't smell the patch. The ylang ylang I caught whiffs of, very subtle, very nice!

It's not my best latherer, but it still lathers nicely. No big bubbly lather, just very fine, creamy bubbles. No complaints about it from me!

The bar has a nice creamy feel to it, in part from the goat milk. I just love adding goat milk to soap, it really does make it creamy! :) Goat milk = creamy. It left my skin feeling good, not dried out at all (not to say I don't use lotion ... I live in the desert after all!).

Once I got out of the shower, the lovely scent stayed with me for awhile, and left my bathroom smelling yummy. The ylang ylang adds just enough floral !

So, all in all, I am very happy with the way this soap turned out! It's the first time I have used ylang ylang, and I was afraid I would use too much, so I went very light handed on it. And ... I like it!

Gem Show Stash

2011-02-04T15:24:00.016-07:00

The big Tucson Gem and Mineral Show is in progress here in town, and will continue until Feb. 11. I went today, with the idea of buying more turquoise, cause I love turquoise! And the folks that process the turquoise from the Kingman mine are always set up at the Holiday Inn.

I blew my entire budget at the first Gem Mall pavilion, didn't even make it up to the Inn. And didn't buy any turquoise! tsk

THIS is what I bought

(click on any photo to enlarge)

I manage to stop at 3 booths, and that was it, my money was gone!

The first booth I stopped at was Lanshang Co. at booth 1106. LOTS of nice gemstones! I ended up buying these lovely light blue faceted agate beads. I think they are going to make FABULOUS summer pieces, a necklace, bracelet, earrings. The large beads are about 18mm and are as big as plumper marbles! :-D I could make a real nice Wilma Flintstone necklace with those. LOL The smaller ones are 9mm.

Then I stopped at Multi Creations at booth 1107/1208. I love getting my Bali silver here, it's always really nice! They also have lots of Hill Tribe silver, but I'm always drawn to the Bali. This year, they're selling it for 99cents a gram, last year it was 69cents a gram. So you can see how much silver has gone up in the past year!!

This year, I got 2 strands of bead caps, which I don't usually buy but I have been wanting to do a few pieces with decorative bead caps. The larger caps are 12mm, the smaller are 6mm. I'm thinking these will help dress up some of the earrings I make.

From there, I knew I had enough money left for my turquoise, but figured I would continue poking around in the Gem Mall pavilion. And I stopped at Intrinsic Trading at booth 1219. *sigh* That's as far as I got. He has some gorgeous Red Creek Jasper that I started looking at. Beautiful 5 piece sets cut and drilled in beautiful patterns, with plenty of different sized strands of Red Creek Jasper rounds, flats, ovals. So at first I thought, I'll just get a couple of these 5 pc sets.

Then I had to get a few strands to go with them, because I didn't think I had anything at home to match.

And he also had some beautiful cut pieces drilled just right for beading, so I thought, well, get a few of those.

See how the holes are drilled? Perfect for a focus for a necklace!

And look at this one, I really love the colors and the design

So at this point I'm thinking, have a totally busted my turquoise budget?? Well, not completely, but certainly cut into it a bit! But, I kept looking. And found some gorgeous stuff called Ruby Zoisite! I couldn't help it, I said to heck with the turquoise! I need this stuff!!! Look at it!

The beads are beautifully faceted, and the focal pendant is lovely and smooth. With a bit of silver, I'm going to make a dynamite necklace and matching earrings!

This is what GemSelect.com says about Ruby Zoisite
"Ruby-Zoisite, also known as anyolite, is the natural combination of ruby and zoisite crystals in a single specimen. Zoisite, the same mineral as tanzanite, provides an earthy green and black color while ruby lends pink and red highlights. Ruby-zoisite is usually shaped as cabochons or carved into decorative shapes, including animals and religious icons.

Ruby-Zoisite was first discovered in 1954 in Tanzania. The name anyolite derives from the word for "green" in the native language of the Massai.

Ruby-Zoisite has a hardness of 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, and is thus of moderate hardness."

So, you can see, it's a newer gemstone which doesn't have much history associated with it.

So, there went my budget for turquoise. All I could do at this point was to finish up what was left of my money right there. :)

A piece of carved Amazonite

An Ametrine pendant (Ametrine is Amethyst and Citrine together). I have plenty of both amethyst and citrine to make a necklace and matching earrings.

A carved Chrysocolla lizard pendant

And that's it! No turquoise!! :-D

On The Curing Rack

2011-01-21T12:43:00.010-07:00

I just cut a couple of logs of soap. Thought you'd like to see them.

First, White Sage (fragrance oil from Majestic Mountain Sage). I just love the look of a log of soap before it is cut! This is a restock, something I have been out of for quite a while! I used to make it with shea butter, but shea butter sometimes make me break out, so I've stopped soaping with it. This time I used my cocoa butter recipe.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Also a restock, and the cocoa butter recipe - Herbal Rosemary. Scented with rosemary essential oil.The swirls are made using ground rosemary. I love this soap in my kitchen. I ALWAYS have a piece of Herbal Rosemary soap next to my kitchen sink.

These two soaps have been whisked away to the soaping room for their cure. :)

Also on the curing rack ....

Spruce. I've been longing for spruce this winter, finally was able to get my hands on some spruce essential oil. This comes from Canada and is just wonderful for this desert rat that loves the piney woods! Spruce oil is invigorating and refreshing, has a long history of being used in saunas and steams to help revive and reenergize. This recipe has avocado oil and goat milk in it. Can't wait to use it!

Also, a soap I am calling Night Breeze. Same recipe as the Spruce. For the scent, a blend of Orange, Lemon, Clove, Patchouli, and Ylang Ylang essential oils. I think this will make a very nice spring scent for those that don't like heavy florals. I put just a pinch of Ylang Ylang, so it's just a very mild floral.

For jewelry, I am working on a Valentine's bracelet ... I should probably get this done soon!!! :) A sterling silver chain with Swarovski crystal dangles, including 1 heart dangle in the middle. With a sterling silver heart shaped toggle clasp.

And just a reminder, ALL jewelry, beads, and kits in my Etsy jewelry shop are still marked down 20% !!!!

Jewelry From Tucson

I haven't been crocheting lately. Bad Nan!

Last weekend, Ray and I went birdwatching and photographing in Patagonia, which is in the Santa Rita Mountains. We went to the Patagonia/Sonoita Creek Preserve. Very lovely!! We saw many birds, and a few deer. The deer were especially accommodating, letting Ray get plenty of pictures. This young buck was very much more skittish than the does. I say it was because he was trying to lead us away from his doe, but Ray says he was just a chicken. :)

Check out Ray's blog for lots more gorgeous photos of our day out

Sonoran Connection

And here is a gratuitous Dakota pic

Grand Tucson Gem Show Sale !!!

2011-01-10T13:10:00.005-07:00

ALL ITEMS AT JEWELRY FROM TUCSON HAVE BEEN REDUCED BY 20% !!!

All the jewelry, beads, and kits at Jewelry From Tucson have been reduced by 20%! Why? Because the huge Tucson Gem Show is coming, and I want to buy more beads! So be sure to take advantage of MY desire for MORE BEADS! :)

Even the lovely Desert Princess has been reduced! Original price of $650 marked down to $520 for this sale!!!

The Desert Princess

This lovely Amethyst Necklace, original price of $95.00, marked down to $76!!

And this Tigereye Bracelet, originally $26.00 marked down to $20.80 !

All these items and much more can be seen in my Etsy shop

Jewelry From Tucson

ALL items ... jewelry, beads, and kits, have been marked down 20% for this sale! All prices shown reflect the markdown.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-04T14:17:00.017-07:00

And so we start another year! 2010 just zipped right by.

So let me show you all the new soaps, jewelry, and crocheting I have done since my last post. :)

For new soaps, I have Christmas Tree

(Note: Click on any photo to enlarge)

Winter's Night

Sahara Sandalwood

Red Hot Cinnamon

Snow Spice

And Orange Blossom

For jewelry, I made this really pretty necklace using Bali sterling silver beads and spacers, and a bit of lapis.

And a couple of pairs of matching earrings

I've also been keeping busy crocheting. I made, for myself, a winter ensemble. A hat, a pair of fingerless gloves, a pair of leg warmers, and a cowl (because cowls are the big rage now and I wanted to see if I like them! )

I like the hat because it doesn't squash my glasses against the side of my head.

Fingerless gloves are nice up to a point. But for when it's really cold, they are kind of useless. These are nice for my morning walk, but I need full gloves when bird watching.

Woolen leggins. :) Snug around the ankles, and flare out a bit at the foot and at the calf. These go more than half way up my calf. The sides are not sewn together, the buttons hold them together so they are adjustable.

And a cowl. I've never worn a cowl before, and wasn't sure what size I would want it. This one is rather large, and I haven't used it yet. It just goes over my head and sets around my neck and shoulders.

Ray and I have been having fun birdwatching. This past weekend we went down to Whitewater Draw to check out the Sandhill Cranes. To see pics, check out Ray's blog - well worth it! We saw THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of cranes!!!!

Sonoran Connection

And I must not forget a gratuitous Dakota picture. :)

Just cut and headed to the curing rack

2010-11-12T14:26:00.007-07:00

I just cut up 4 logs of soap.

The first one is Christmas Tree. A blend of Fir Needle and Cedarwood essential oils. Green clay and green oxide color the soap, and I used deep gold mica to swirl. The swirl is a little more wispy than I wanted, but it's still good!

(click on any photo to enlarge)

Next, Sahara Sandalwood, a fragrance oil. I brushed some gold mica on top. Smells good, looks good.

This one is Cinnamon Stick, a fragrance oil. Bottom layer is uncolored, top layer is colored with red oxide. Pretty! I like that deep burnt red! Smells good, it's not an in-your-face cinnamon scent.

And finally, Orange Blossom, a mix of 2 fragrance oils - Fleurs D'Oranger and Orange Blossom. Traced really really fast, I was afraid it was going to rice on me. But I got it in the mold in time. No coloring, the swirl is the result of the fast trace. I knew these two fragrance would do that, so I made sure my soap mix was blended really well before I put them in.

So look for these in my shops in about 3 weeks!

Off the curing rack, into the shops!

2010-11-10T14:59:00.009-07:00

A couple of soaps listed both in my Etsy shop, and on my website.

Psychedelic Patchouli

(click on any image to enlarge)

Golden Myrrh

Campfire

And have you seen these two?? Listed them a while ago, but I didn't blog them. :)

Orange and Clove

Dragon's Blood

And a gratuitous cat picture :)

The Desert Princess is listed !!

2010-11-07T13:20:00.004-07:00

I have listed The Desert Princess in my Etsy jewelry shop, Jewelry From Tucson. Check it out!!

The Desert Princess

Thank you to everyone for all the kind words and great encouragement as I recorded the making of this beautiful necklace! :)

Crochet Projects

2010-11-04T12:00:00.011-07:00

Here's a couple of small crochet projects I have completed.

This first one is a pair of ankle warmers I made for myself. These are snug around the ankles and flare out a bit at the calf and at the instep. I can either just slip them on, or unbutton them and wrap then around my ankles and button them back up. I just use one of the spaces between a double crochet as a button hole.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

Next, a small bag that I am using to keep my ball of yarn in while crocheting. I do most of my crocheting sitting in my computer chair, so I just hang the bag off the arm of my chair in an attempt to keep the cat from pawing through the bag as if it is her own private toy! :-D

This is a little open shoulder purse. Not sure what the heck it could be used for, but ....

A book bag, or project bag. I have this one for sale in my Etsy shop (Click *here* to see listing)

A little wallet, or business card holder which I felted (click *here* to see listing in my Etsy shop)

And a couple of cell phone or IPod cozies

The Desert Princess - Completed !!!!

2010-11-01T20:40:00.005-07:00

I finally finished the embellishments I was working on, and The Desert Princess is a completed project !!!! :-D

I am happy with the results, and I will be listing it in my jewelry shop once I get a few more good pics.

The Desert Princess - A Work in Progress Oct. 26

2010-10-26T14:16:00.008-07:00

I have pretty much completed the necklace except for some embellishments I would like to add to the connectors. I wanted to make sure it would hang ok before I did any extensive wire wrapping. With the last strands connecting to the clasp, I made the outside strand a bit shorter than the inside strand. Usually it's the other way around but I needed that outside strand to pull the bottom 4 strands up a bit.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

I invision this on someone much taller than me. When wearing a T-shirt, it hangs too low on me, but if I put on a blouse with a wide collar and wear the necklace on the outside, or if I wear a turtle neck sweater, it actually looks good! Here is a not very good pic, but just to show you

OK ! Now to go and add a few details!

(edited a few hours later)
Embellishments !!

Some Personalized Soap Examples

2010-10-25T13:06:00.005-07:00

Island Coconut and White Sage small soaps for party favors.

Labeled and still unwrapped. First cigar wrap is plain white light weight card stock.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

Second cigar wrap is a heavier weighted ivory card stock with colored speckles

And here's both with a deli wrap

The Desert Princess - a Work in Progress Oct. 18th

2010-10-18T12:18:00.010-07:00

OK, where did I leave off on the Desert Princess?? :) It's getting a little harder to find time to work on it as the soap is starting to demand more and more of my attention. Which, by the way, is a GOOD thing!

I added the last strand to the piece. I know I said I was going to add a couple of pieces of red coral, but I just love this blue blue turquoise too much !!

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Now I am at a point where I have to think outside the box a little, a bit outside my comfort zone. These 2 sections need to be braced apart, so they are not collapsing into each other. I do a little bit of wire wrapping, so I have plenty of sterling wire. So, using a 6 inch piece of 18 gauge half hard, and my little wigjig, I made a simple modified U shaped connector, with 2 loops on the ends which I will connect strands of sterling silver beads.

And here they are attached to the necklace

And this effectively holds the two sections apart! Kind of plain looking, don't you think? I have some 24 gauge soft wire that I will do some wire wrapping with turquoise embellishments to spiff them up a bit. THEN I can make the sterling bead strands that will connect to the clasp. I still haven't decided which clasp. These are my two choices:

I'm liking the hook, but the toggle will probably hold up better under the weight of the necklace.

And speaking of princesses .....

First Crochet Project Completed

2010-10-05T08:54:00.006-07:00

I've started crocheting again, after years and years (about 25 or more!) of not picking up a crochet hook. I started again for 2 reasons ...

1 - I have a TON of yarn that I purchased when I was weaving. And I mean a ton! Look at all this yarn ...

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Most of it is gorgeous wool from Bartlett Yarns in Harmony, Maine.

2 - While watching TV, I realized I was wasting so much time! I LIKE watching TV in the evening, so I figured, instead of messing around on the computer while watching TV, I should do something a little more constructive.

I've been practicing my crocheting by making a few ipod/cell phone cozies. And I finally feel confident enough to start making items to sell. This is my first sellable ensemble .... a purse and a matching phone cozy. I just finished washing them and they are blocked out on a thick towel for drying.

Since I don't have buttons in the house, I crocheted the "buttons" for the flaps. Worked out good!

Opps, I see a little thread sticking out in the cozy above ... I'll have to weave that back in when it's dry.

The Desert Princess - A Work in Progress Sept. 30

2010-09-30T07:57:00.007-07:00

More work done on The Desert Princess yesterday. I completed the bottom 4 strands.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

This "unit" in of itself looks very nice together!

Now, started on the top 4 strands. First, the Nacozari turquoise

Then, the green Kingman heishi

And more green Kingman turquoise. This one, I removed the silver beads I had originally placed in the middle, and I exchanged the silver beads I had at the end with the same silver beads as the strand with the Nacozari Turquoise. Looks better.

I hope to work some more on it today, and at least get the last strand added.

Crocheting Some More

2010-09-29T13:16:00.008-07:00

I've done a couple more fun little crochet projects, trying to make the perfect little droid/iphone/ipod cozy. I am finding I have forgotten a lot about crocheting, but it's slowly coming back!

Here's three little projects:

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Starting from the left - This one looks ok from the front, but it's a bit messy in the back. My joining leaves a little to be desired at this point. I tried to think of a way to use some of my beads as buttons. Here I used a fancy jasper faceted tear drop. It works well for decoration, but when I strapped the cozy with the droid in it to my belt, I felt like it wouldn't hold very well. The Droid fits perfectly.

This next one I like! It's a little bunchy on the bottom, but not too bad. The "button" is a crocheted flower. I'm not sure how well it will hold up with being squashed in and out of the button hole. When I strapped the cozy with the Droid in it to my belt, it felt very secure. The back looks ok. The Droid fits snuggly on the sides, the cozy is a bit taller than the Droid. No big deal.

The last one is just too wide to be a cozy, so I just added a shoulder strap to it. Kind of cute, but again, a messy back.

So there you have it. And here's hoping that eventually, practice makes perfect! :-D

Another Craft?? Oh, No !!!

2010-09-27T11:19:00.013-07:00

But oh yes! :-D

Back in the 80's, I did quite a bit of crocheting. And now I'm picking it back up again, something to do while watching TV at night. At first I thought about organic cotton washcloths and soap savers but then I thought, I have SO much yarn around here from my weaving days, I might as well use it! Most of it is wool, some linen, I thought I had some cotton but I guess not. So I'm thinking felted bags, purses, cozies. The wool I originally bought for weaving rugs. Most of it comes from the Bartlett Yarns in Harmony Maine. Beautiful stuff! So I started practicing with little pouches.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

The red one on the left I am using as a cozy for my Droid .. a perfect fit! It has not been felted (the cozy, not the Droid!)

The yarn for the light colored cozy on the far left did not come from Bartlett Yarns. I remember weaving a rug using that and it was the softest rug! I felted this piece. It came out ok, but not great. The little white pouch was made from some wool my friend Tricia spun up. Cute! :) I'll use it the next time I ship some earrings.

The piece in the middle is the first piece I practiced on. It's made with wetspun tow linen that I had originally bought to use as a warp for rugs. Extremely strong! I did this round robin - crocheting round and round without joining. It looks like a stairwell! LOL. Work on it is messy, but after 30 years, well, ya know! After washing it, it's very supple and soft. I have plenty of this linen, and I think it will make nice clutches and bags.

I tried to really felt the next 2 pieces, but they didn't felt the way I wanted them to. They just sort of fulled. :) I think because I was doing a double crochet, which isn't a very dense stitch. And the hot water took most of the color out of the blue one.

And now I'm getting serious! I have some Dark Sheeps Gray from Bartlett Yarns that is just gorgeous! It is a very bulky homespun yarn, natural, not dyed. I'm making a bag with shoulder straps. I'm using the half double crochet stitch, which is very dense. I'll be felting it. This is what I have so far

(Be sure to click on the photo to enlarge. This yarn is gorgeous!)

It's going to be large!!!

The Desert Princess - A Work in Progress Sept. 27

2010-09-27T10:51:00.009-07:00

I am now in the process of putting this necklace together. I'll start with the bottom strand, and work my up.

I got the first strand attached. Easy peasy, as expected. This was much like adding a headpin to an earring wire, I used 18ga half hard sterling wire.

Then came the second and third strand, which are attached to each other by the double holed coral beads ... I took out the double holed sterling beads, they were just too big, it didn't work. Attached them to the reducers double crimping on each end. Well, this did not look quite right. The top strand just had too many beads and was not laying right.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

So I restrung the offending strand. I ended up only removing 3 beads but what a difference!

A close-up of one of the ends connected to the reducer -

That's as far as I have gotten. I hope to be able to work on it today.

The Desert Princess - A Work In Progress Sept 22

2010-09-22T13:45:00.009-07:00

So, I left off with 5 strands done, 3 more to go. I knew I wanted the green Kingman turquoise heishi, just a plain strand of it with no embellishments.

Like this:

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

For the next strand, I was debating between a blue (either iolite or azurite) or some more green turquoise. I finally decided on more green turquoise.

I don't think I like the 3 silver pieces in the middle. It seems to irratate me, like a disconnect or something. I may be taking those out.

Another pic:

And now the strand I really love! Blue blue blue Kingman Turquoise with plenty of silver! It gets top billing. :)

Wait for it ...

It's going to be .....

Leg-end-dary!!

Yeah?? What do you think?! Look ok to you? :)

A few more pics:

Well, folks, all of this has been the easy part. Now comes the hard part - getting all these strands connected to the reducers. If you hear lots of cussing and yelling and screaming coming from Tucson, don't worry, it will just be me! :)

Edited to add:
I'm definitely going to take out the 3 silver beads in the middle of the green turquoise. AND on the top strand, I'm going to exchange the last turquoise bead on each end for a red coral bead.

The Desert Princess

2010-09-20T09:47:00.007-07:00

And the winner of the "Name the Necklace" contest is .....

The Desert Princess

Suggested by Becky, of The Soap Sister

Thank you, Becky! I love that name! :) Just let me know, would you like a pair of earrings, or would you like a couple of bars of handmade soap? You can contact me at nan [at] jewelryfromtucson.com or nan [at] auntnancyssoap.com

And thank you to everyone that participated! I had some great choices to choose from!!!

Statement Piece - Work in Progress Sept 16

2010-09-16T10:04:00.014-07:00

*To read the beginning of this project, scroll down to Sept. 8th entry.

I managed to do quite a bit of work on my necklace yesterday. And I'm really liking it!!

Since I will be utilizing 2 four-strand-reducers on each side of the necklace, I am thinking in terms of 2 groups of strands. The bottom group and the top group. I completed the bottom group by adding a bold strand of lapis lazuli. Take a look .....

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

I was very careful to make this strand a good 2 inches shorter than the strand below it to make sure the large lapis beads didn't intrude. The silver spacers between each of the smaller lapis beads adds a bit of weight. Whoever wears this necklace is going to have to have a strong neck!!

Here's a close up

I also completed the lowest strand of the top group. This I really like! Blue blue blue blue Nacozari Turquoise!

Yeah, I like that!! Here's a couple of close ups

Those are 4mm sterling silver round beads in between the tear drop turquoise beads.

Now I'm thinking of the next strand to put in. My next strand is going to be a plain strand of green turquoise heishi beads, from the Kingman mine, put in fairly close to the blue Nacozari, sort of like this

And here's a few pics of some other arrangements I am thinking of for the rest of it

That top strand of turquoise is definitely going to be used!! With lots of silver! Those beads are from the Kingman mine. The other strand is Nacozari Turquoise heishi.

Or maybe some more green. This is green Kingman turquoise.

I also have a very pretty strand of iolite that would look nice.

And of course, I could go a completely different way, and use some carnelian, or some fancy jasper. We shall see!!! :)

Don't forget, I'm having a contest to name the necklace! Winner gets their choice of earrings or soap!

http://sonoransoap.blogspot.com/2010/09/contest-name-that-necklace.html

Contest - Name That Necklace !!

2010-09-15T10:39:00.006-07:00

* Scroll down to see photos of the necklace I am creating, and documenting about as I make it.

OK, I can't keep calling this necklace my Statement Piece. It NEEDS a name! So I propose a contest! And *I* get to choose the winner!

And the winner gets their choice of either:

A. A pair of earrings of your choice, up to $15.00 in value. You can even choose some stones that you may see in any of the pictures of The Necklace as I am making it, and I will make the earrings for you. Earrings can be seen in my Etsy shop Jewelry From Tucson

OR

B. Two handmade soaps of your choice from Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap!

Just enter your idea for a name in the comments. I will choose the winner this Sunday, Sept. 19. And make sure to leave your email in the comments so I can get in touch with you if you are the winner!

Statement Piece Work in Progress - Sept 14

2010-09-14T18:08:00.007-07:00

*To read the beginning of this project, scroll down to Sept. 8th entry.

Today I completed the bottom most strand of my Statement Piece Necklace. It's nothing like I said it was going to be. :-D

(click on any photo to enlarge)

It is actually 6 strands of seed beads! All of them joined together in a sterling silver cone. The cones will be attached to the reducers. I've added a few stray beads - turquoise, lapis, carnelian, sterling silver - through out the 6 strands, along with one large lapis lazuli bead as a focal.

Three strands down, five to go!! :) For the next strand, I'm thinking lapis. But .............

Statement Piece Work in Progress - Sept 12

2010-09-12T15:44:00.009-07:00

*To read the beginning of this project, scroll down to Sept. 8th entry.

I've done a little work on my statement piece. And the planning of other strands is coming together. Here is the first strand ... actually a double strand.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

I realized I have a few reducing connectors, that will reduce 4 strands down to 1. I'm going to use 2 reducers on each side of the necklace to reduce 8 strands down to 2, then connect those 2 strands to a 2-strand toggle. Here's the reducing connectors

And the toggle, which I bought yesterday at the Gem Show

The next strand I'm going to work on will be the very bottom strand, and will consist of these beautiful Nacozari Turquoise flat tear drop beads. I'm not sure what to use between these beads yet. I bought some heishi turquoise yesterday, also from the Nacozari mine that would be beautiful. Or I have plenty of silver to choose from.

And just to tease all you jewelry makers, here's some of the silver I bought yesterday. This is all from Kalpataru Beads, one of my favorite vendors at the Tucson Gem Show. He'll be back at the BIG Gem Show in Feb.

While I was buying a little bit of turquoise, Ray took this picture of Sleeping Beauty Turquoise nuggets at the booth of Turquoise Jewelry Mfg of Albuquerque. I couldn't afford these gorgeous strands. Isn't it beautiful !!!

Soaps on the cutting board

2010-09-09T19:46:00.004-07:00

These are the soaps that I cut into bars today. Orange & Clove, and Dragon's Blood.

*note: "The Tank" is the soap cutter.

Orange & Clove soap in The Tank.

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Orange & Clove just cut. Bottom layer has ground clove, top layer does not. That's the only difference. I sprinkled ground cloves on the top. The soap may darken up a little.

Dragon's Blood in The Tank.

Dragon's Blood just cut. This soap will darken to almost black. The red swirls in the soap and on top of the soap may end up getting lost, but it's worth a try.

Closer look at the Dragon's Blood. Of course, now I'm going to have to make different labels than I use now because I don't usually mound up the top like this so it looks like a loaf of bread.

Statement Piece Work in Progress - Sept 9

2010-09-09T07:48:00.005-07:00

* Follow along as I make a "statement piece" necklace. I will post updates as I work on this necklace.

I have started the first strand of my necklace. The double strand theory looks really nice with the tube turquoise beads. I had thought I had more of those, but alas! I have way fewer than I thought.

This is as far as I got yesterday. Even as I look now, I may change it a bit.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

A Statement Piece - A Work In Progress

2010-09-08T10:08:00.012-07:00

I am going to make a necklace. This is going to be a "statement" piece. The statement?? To see how many beads I can fit on a necklace! LOL

Seriously, I have in my mind's eye a glorious necklace full of lots of turquoise, lapis, coral, and a few other additions. I'm thinking up to 12 strands. Maybe a few charms, or dangles, I'm not sure yet. And I would like to document as I go along, and show you this work in progress.

Here is what I have gathered together so far.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

The main theme will be turquoise. Most of the turquoise I have is from the Kingman mine here in Arizona. I also have some from the Nacozari mine in Sonora, Mexico.

Hmmm, I also have some green turquoise from Kingman that I didn't pull out. I'm sure some will find their way into the necklace.

I also have some lapis lazuli. Beautiful cobalt blue lapis!

I have a couple of huge red jasper beads, drilled down the center, that should be noticeable even within 12 strands! Some brown aventurine. A couple of strands of double beaded red coral (dyed sponge coral). More lapis.

For spacers, I have these interesting Bali sterling silver double holed spacers. These will be in the "main" strand, or at least the one I am going to start with. Which will actually be a double strand. A double strand of mostly turquoise.

I have a few sterling silver reducing cones that I'll be using. I may have to use 2 on each end, I don't think 1 is big enough for 12 strands.

I've pulled out a couple of my heavier toggle clasps. However, the Tucson Fall Gem Show (not the huge one that happens in the winter) is this weekend, and I will be looking at multiple strand toggles.

So be sure to check in every now and then to see how my work is progressing. It may take me a few days, it may take me a few weeks. More likely a few weeks.

What's on the curing rack ??

2010-09-03T10:36:00.012-07:00

I've got a few new soaps, and a couple of restocks, on the curing rack.

Restocks, I have Pomegranate Fig, and Oatmeal & Honey

(click on any photo to enlarge)

New soaps -

Sandalwood Vanilla - This is a different Sandalwood Vanilla fragrance oil than I usually use. It has a more woodsy fragrance than the other. Kind of nice! For oils, I used olive oil, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, grapeseed oil, and avocado oil. For coloring, I used a combo of red clay and red oxide, which gave it a real nice mahogany red color.

Egyptian Dragon - Same recipe as the Sandalwood Vanilla. The fragrance is a amber, vanilla, sweet frankincense and myrrh, with a light touch of patchouli. A touch of green clay for color, with a little bit of green oxide for a swirl.

Now this next one is for all us chocoholics! It's called Chocolate Serendipity and BOY! does it smell good! Like chocolate fudge brownies just out of the oven. For oils, I used olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter (of course!), sweet almond oil, and castor oil. Added some goat milk so it's nice and creamy. I added a little bit of powdered cocoa just to insure a nice dark brownie brown. A bit of unscented soap splashed down the middle of the top gives it a bit of frosting.

Honey Almond - the same recipe as the Chocolate Serendipity. Added goat milk. And I added a little bit of yellow oxide hoping for a golden color. The Honey Almond is the soap on the left. The other soap is the Pomegranate Fig.

The next two soaps I am really happy with. They both smell wonderful, and they are both pretty to look at.

First, Pumpkin Spice. For oils, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, organic canola oil, and wheat germ oil. Added goat milk. The white swirls have a bit of white kaolin clay. And I added a dash of ground cloves. I hope that beautiful pumpkin color doesn't darken! I like it just the way it is.

And last, but certainly not least, Pumpkin Chocolate Cake Devine! Same recipe as the Pumpkin Spice, including the goat milk. Bottom layer is Pumpkin Spice, top layer is Chocolate Serendipity. The two together smells so good, it makes my eyes cross!!

So there you have it!

AND of course, a gratuitous cat picture.

Nilus Leclerc 36" 4 Harness Floor Loom - For Sale

2010-08-14T12:52:00.023-07:00

**** NOTE: Edited on 11/7/10 - The loom has been sold!! It will be making it's way to Silver City, New Mexico, on Nov. 21. :)

*** NOTE: Edited on 11/3/10 - The price of the loom and accessories has been reduced to $600 !!!

** NOTE: Edited On 10/01/10 - I reduced the price of the loom and accessories to $700! However, the yarn is no longer available!

This is a loom I have had for over 30 years. I have woven many a beautiful project on this loom, and it has served me well! But since I have not done any weaving in almost 10 years, it's time to let it go.

I am selling this loom, and all the accessories, including a boat load of wool yarn, for $900. This needs to be fairly local (Tucson, Phoenix area), no shipping. We can deliver for the cost of gas money, or buyer can pick up.

This is a Nilus Leclerc 36" 4 harness jack type floor loom. It's perfect for limited room as it can easily be folded up and stored, even with a warp on it. It's made out of beautiful hard maple.

Click on any image to enlarge.

A warping board, made out of pine

An extra reed, raddle, lease sticks

Shuttles, bobbins, bobbin winder, sleying hooks, etc

*** Edited on 10/01/10 - the yarn is no longer available!

And about a ton of yarn. Most of this yarn I got from Barlett Yarns in Harmony, Maine. It is beautiful wool !!!

Contact me with any inquiries!!

nan@auntnancyssoap.com

Weaving

2010-08-10T14:26:00.004-07:00

I used to be a weaver. I've been dragging my loom with me through 3 moves, and even though there was an almost complete project on the loom, I couldn't seem to get back into it. SO, I have decided to sell the loom and ALL the stuff that goes with it. Today, I took the incomplete project off the loom.

The project was a coverlet in blue and white. I was doing it in two pieces each 32" wide by about 76" long. I was going to sew the two pieces together for a 64" x 72" coverlet. I completed the first piece, but the second piece is short by about 24". I thought about finishing it, but the tension has been so compromised by the moves that I knew it just wouldn't be right. Plus so many warp strings had broken. So I just did a few quick rows of tabby, measured 4" for fringe, and cut it off.

The first piece looks pretty good. Nice even edges. A few places where it looks like I wasn't very consistent with beating, but I should be able to remedy that when I wash and block. The second piece, well, one edge looks good, the other is very uneven, probably from working on it in small spurts and with so much time in between, and the loom getting folded up and moved around.

Here's a couple of pics of the first piece. The tan color weave on the end is filler and will be removed for a 4" fringe. It will make a nice piece to lay across the bottom of the bed. Since it is 100% wool, and is a little coarse, it wouldn't make a good blanket to keep on the couch for wrapping up in on a cold winter's night. Although washing should soften it quite a bit.

Monsoon Madness Soap Sale !!

2010-07-30T13:27:00.007-07:00

Here in Tucson we have a monsoon season. During the months of July and August, we can expect torrential rainfalls, booming thunder and lightening storms, flooding in the washes, and unexpected microbursts that are so full of wind and lightening trees are snapped in half and power lines come down.

Now keep in mind, we are used to having the sun shining on us for weeks and weeks at a time, with hardly any humidity and with no worries of cloudy days. So during monsoons, when the sun is hiding behind dark and heavy storm clouds, and the humidity creeps up above 30%, we here in Tucson go slightly crazy.

We call it Monsoon Madness. So in my madness, I am offering a B3GO soap sale!!

B3GO SALE

From now until end-of-day Sunday, August 1, I am offering a FREE bar of soap with your purchase of 3 or more soaps! This offer applies to both Aunt Nancy's Website and Aunt Nancy's Etsy Shop.

When ordering from Aunt Nancy's Website, enter your choice of FREE bar in the buyers comment area when checking out. Please note that discounts apply when buying 3 or more soaps. To find out more about these discounts, and shipping costs, click here: Pricing/Shipping Info.

When ordering from Aunt Nancy's Etsy Shop, be sure to look for my listings that offer your choice of 3 soaps, or your choice of 5 soaps. These listings have discounts built into them, and will save you money! Enter your choice of FREE bar of soap in the "Comment to Seller" section during checkout.

Recommended Soaps

One of my newest soaps has quickly become a favorite. Flower Bomb! I can't begin to tell you how good this smells! I have been using it. This morning I even used in on my hair, just so I could smell like Flower Bomb all over!

A while ago I went crazy making soaps using carrots. Yes! Fresh carrots that I pureed in my blender and put in my soaps. Why carrots, you ask? I wrote about in on my blog. You can read about it HERE

Fragrance Free Carrot Soap
Goat Milk and Carrot Fragrance Free
Goat Milk and Carrot Energized!
Carrot Cake Soap

And finally, Summer Peppermint. Peppermint with a bit of Lemon. SO refreshing in the summer heat!!

And a gratuitous cat picture, for my sisters. :)

Carrot Soaps

2010-06-29T15:01:00.009-07:00

In case you haven't seen all the carrot soaps I have. Click on the titles to see the listings.

Fragrance Free, a nice gentle soap.

Another Fragrance Free, this one with the added bonus of Goat Milk ... Good Stuff!!

Carrot Cake Soap

Carrot and Goat Milk Energized!

A Carrot Quartet - an Etsy listing

How To Chose Handmade Soap

2010-06-05T13:23:00.008-07:00

A lot of times I have actually heard people say they don't know what kind of soap to buy when looking at handmade soap. There are so many different kinds, so many different ingredients and additives, so many scents, so many colors!

So I always tell them, look at the ingredients. The ingredients tell all!! The first thing you need to think about is if you have any allergies. If you are allergic to nuts, stay away from soaps with nut oils. If you are allergic to latex, stay away from shea butter. If you are allergic to lavender, stay away from soap with lavender essential oil. Look at the ingredients and use your common sense when it comes to your allergies.

If you feel you have sensitive skin, stay away from fragranced soap, at least to start out with. Look for soaps with plenty of olive oil. Olive oil makes a very mild soap, good for most skin types. Look for additives like goat milk, or honey which are natural and good to your skin. Once you have found an unscented soap that your skin likes, THEN look at the same soap with some fragrance added.

Fragrance Free Goat Milk Soap

Now think about what you want your soap to do. Do you need a real scrub-a-dub soap that will clean dirty hands that have been out in the garden? Or do you need a soap for your face? If you need a scrub-a-dub soap, look for soap with additives like dried herbs, seeds, or some other kind of exfoliating property. If you need a soap for your face, you need a mild, unabrasive soap. Do you need a soap that is conditioning, or a soap that is for oily skin? My soaps are all formulated for conditioning. So I start with olive oil, add coconut oil for lathering, then add other oils and butters such as grapeseed oil, canola oil, wheat germ oil, avocado oil, sweet almond oil, cocoa butter, or shea butter .. all mild, all conditioning.

Herbal Rosemary Soap

If you are interested in scented soap, again look at the ingredients. Soaps will be scented with either natural essential oils, or synthetic fragrance oils. If you want natural, stick to the essential oils. But don't be afraid of fragrance oils! Even though they are synthetic, most soapmakers go out of their way to find high quality, skin safe fragrance oils. I myself always buy my fragrance oils from reputable suppliers, and I always make sure they are phthalate free.

Asian Lily & Musk Melon Soap

If you want a pretty soap, again look at the ingredients to see what is used for a colorant. There are many natural and skin safe colorants, such as clays, herbs, oxides, micas. I have used cocoa for dark brown swirls, carrots for a wonderful yellow, ground rosemary for a brown/green swirl. Fragrance oils with vanilla will give a soap a tan to a deep brown color, depending on how much vanilla there is in the fragrance oil.

Black Raspberry Vanilla Swirl Soap

Never hesitate to ask a soapmaker a question about their soaps. I have never met a soapmaker that didn't like talking about their soaps and what goodness lies within them! :)

Carrots

2010-05-30T11:05:00.005-07:00

Fragrance Free Carrot Soap

I recently made some soaps using fresh carrot puree. Now, I've always known that carrot is good for your eyes, and good for your skin, but until I started to research on the carrot, I didn't know how magical it really is!

Carrots are extremely rich in Vitamin A, which is essential for health eyes. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, and plays an important role in the development and maintenance of healthy skin, hair, and mucous membranes. It also has antioxidant properties that neutralize free radicals in the body that cause tissue and cellular damage.

Carrots have many important vitamins and minerals, besides Vitamin A. They are rich in antioxidants Beta Carotene, Alpha Carotene, Phytochemicals and Glutathione, Calcium and Potassium, and vitamins A, B1, B2, C, and E, which are also considered antioxidants, protecting as well as nourishing the skin. They contain a form of calcium easily absorbed by the body. Finally they also contain Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorous, and Sulphur.

Here's an interesting tidbit .... usually, raw veggies and fruits are much better than cooked. But did you know that cooked carrots are more nutritious that raw? This is because raw carrots have a tough outer cellular wall which makes it hard for the body to convert the beta carotene to Vitamin A. Cooking the carrots partially dissolves cellulose-thickened cell walls, freeing up nutrients by breaking down the cell membranes.

Here is an interesting and fun website about carrots and their goodness:

World Carrot Museum

Drink a glass of carrot juice everyday for healthy glowing skin!

I think I am going to have to experiment more with carrots in my soaps! Carrot seed oil is something I have not tried yet, but I am certainly going to look into it! If you google "carrot seed oil skin care" you'll find TONS of info! It looks like it would be wonderful to use in a facial mask. It even helps you get a golden even tan while helping to protect you from harmful UV rays of the sun!

Just magical, carrots are!

Carrot Cake Soap

Fun with a Droid

2010-05-23T13:24:00.005-07:00

So, we switched from a land line telephone to a wireless smartphone last month. We got a Motorola Droid, and I have been having a lot of fun with this phone! So much more entertaining than a boring ol' land line!

Yesterday we took a drive up Mt Lemmon, and I took the phone with me. With it, I was able to relist one of my items that sold in my Etsy shop while we were out, by using the pre-intalled browser. When we heard a song on the radio and we couldn't remember who sang it, I used an app called Shazam that will listen to whatever music is playing, and will tell you the name and who is singing. It told us who was singing! To which we replied DUH. I took a few pictures with it, although it's really almost impossible when you are standing in the sunlight because you just can't see the screen. And just before we started out day trip, I activated an app called My Tracks. This is a GPS app that will track were we go until I tell it to stop recording. So when I got home, I told it to stop recording, and it gave me a bunch of (maybe useless) information. First it showed me a map of our trip. Then it gave a little report. Total miles - 106. Total time - 5hrs 53min. Min elevation - 2,327ft. Max elevation - 9,006ft.

Here's a pic of some patches of snow up on top of Mt Lemmon taken with the Droid camera:

And here's a pic of the Ski Valley

Now, if you want to see some REALLY good pics of our trip, go to Ray's blog Sonoran Connections.

And a gratuitous cat pic for my sisters :)

May Soap Sale!

2010-05-19T13:49:00.009-07:00

It's time for another soap sale! I know you are all waiting! You're getting dirty planting that garden, washing those windows, cleaning out the garage. And you need to stockpile some nice handmade soap to keep you fresh and clean!

B3GO SALE

Buy 3 or more soaps, get another of your choice for FREE!

From now until end-of-day Sunday, May 23rd, I am offering a FREE bar of soap with your purchase of 3 or more soaps! This offer applies to both on Aunt Nancy's Website and Aunt Nancy's Etsy Shop.

When ordering from Aunt Nancy's Website, enter your choice of FREE bar in the buyers comment area when checking out. Please note that discounts apply when buying 3 or more soaps. To find out more about these discounts, and shipping costs, click here: Pricing/Shipping Info.

When ordering from Aunt Nancy's Etsy Shop, be sure to look for my listings that offer your choice of 3 soaps, or your choice of 5 soaps. These listings have discounts built into them, and will save you money! Enter your choice of FREE bar of soap in the "Comment to Seller" section during checkout.

On The Curing Rack

I have some soaps that are still on the curing rack that you can order as your free bar. I will put a "cure date" on the label so you'll know when it's good to use. These soaps are:

Fragrance Free Carrot Soap - ingredients: olive oil, coconut oil, distilled water, sodium hydroxide, sweet almond oil, organic canola oil, pureed carrots, avocado oil

Carrot Cake Soap (smells like carrot cake!) - ingredients: olive oil, coconut oil, distilled water, sodium hydroxide, sweet almond oil, organic canola oil, pureed carrots, avocado oil, fragrance oil, essential oil (orange)

White Sage with Shea Butter (a clean scented white soap) - ingredients: olive oil, distilled water, coconut oil, sodium hydroxide, shea butter, sweet almond oil, caster oil, fragrance oil

Black Raspberry Vanilla Swirl (white with blue swirls) - ingredients: olive oil, distilled water, coconut oil, sodium hydroxide, organic canola oil, grapeseed oil, wheat germ oil, fragrance oil, blue oxide

Fleurs D'Oranger (smells like orange blossoms) - ingredients: olive oil, distilled water, coconut oil, sodium hydroxide, organic canola oil, grapeseed oil, wheat germ oil, fragrance oil, red clay

Palmarosa Lavender - ingredients: olive oil, distilled water, coconut oil, sodium hydroxide, organic canola oil, rice bran oil, wheat germ oil, essential oils (lavender, palmarosa, geranium)

If you have any questions about ordering these "on the curing rack" soaps, feel free to email me!

The winner of the soap giveaway ....

2010-05-07T09:10:00.003-07:00

And the lucky number is #4!

Footjeweler is the lucky winner of the soap giveaway!

Footjeweler is Amy Dikes of Barefoot Bling, home of “high-spirited indulgences for toes that show!". If you like to dress up your toes, feet, and ankles with toe rings, barefoot sandals, and sparkling anklets, Barefoot Bling is the place to go!

Congratulations, Amy! :)

Soap Giveaway !

2010-05-03T13:15:00.006-07:00

*** Giveaway closed with 14 comments. Thanks to all! :) ***

Just a fun little giveaway .... a bar of my handmade soap, your choice! To enter, just answer, via comments, my little "soap poll" below. On Friday, May 7th, I will draw a random number using random.org. Counting down the list of comments (1,2,3,4....) I will match the number given to me by random.org to the comment, and the person who wrote the comment that corresponds to the number drawn, will be my winner!!

** Please be sure to leave me an email address so I can track down the winner! **

And if you get a chance, please check out the great soaps on my website! Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap

Soap Poll

Which kind of handmade soap do you usually look for?

1. An unscented soap, that is gentle to sensitive skin.

2. An all natural soap that is scented with essential oils and colored with natural clays.

3. A soap that is wonderfully scented with florals or food scents from skin safe, phthalate free fragrance oils.

And just so you know, I have all three kinds of soaps! :)

ps: You may list "other" if you'd like. :)

And the winner is .....

2010-05-01T08:50:00.001-07:00

The winner for the Handmade Necklace Drawing is ...

Lavanya from CA !!!

Congrats, Lavanya!!

Last Day for Handmade Necklace Drawing

2010-04-30T07:32:00.002-07:00

Today is the last day to become eligible for my Handmade Necklace Drawing. Make a purchase from ANY of my shops - Aunt Nancy's website, Aunt Nancy's Etsy shop, or Jewelry From Tucson - and you will be entered in the drawing! For more details, go to Aunt Nancy's website.

A Scavenger Hunt for Mother's Day

2010-04-28T20:18:00.004-07:00

Just look at this wonderful basket of goodies! Wouldn't Mom just love a basket full of luxury!!

Click HERE for the details of this scavenger hunt.

And good luck! I hope you win. :)

Soap Molds

2010-04-20T10:00:00.005-07:00

I was talking to another soaper about soap molds, and I was once again telling someone how much I love my molds! Ray made them for me about 2 years ago, and they are still as good and strong as the day he made them! Just a bit of staining from the soaps, which is to be expected.

Here's a pic of one of them (I have 4 in all) in pristine condition, before any soap hit them

There are piano hinges on the long sides so I can just fold down the sides to get my soap out. On the ends, a threaded rod runs through holes on each long side, a wooden end piece is placed on the inside of the rod, and then I tighten it all up with a wing nut. This is what holds the whole thing together. When ready to unmold, I just undo the wing nuts, remove the rods, take away the end pieces, and fold down the long sides.

The next sequence of photos shows how I take the soap out of the molds.

Peel off the freezer paper, and I'm good to go!! To clean them up, I take an old expired plastic credit card or gift card and scrape any excess soap off. Put the ends back on, tighten everything up, and back in the soap room until I need them again.

One thing I really love about these molds, is I can pour at a very thin trace and they do not leak!!

And here's a recent pic of the molds ... a little soap stained but still going strong! I expect these babies to last me a long long long time!

The making of a turquoise heishi necklace

2010-04-14T12:13:00.004-07:00

These are a couple of pics of turquoise heishi and assorted findings for making a necklace. Click on the photos to enlarge.

A very nice light sky blue with copper matrix. The slightly graduated strand is 16 inches, the other strand all 6mm is 20 inches. The graduated strand is in nicer condition than the other. Plenty of 4mm round sterling beads. Either a toggle clasp, or a lobster claw clasp. The lobster claw is safer for lighter necklaces. I put the red coral beads there because ... well, because I love red coral with turquoise.

So we decided on the graduated beads. As I was stringing them, I weeded out any chipped beads. I like to use the round silver beads around the back of the necklace because I found that those little heishi beads like to snatch at your hair in the back. Little devils!

And the finished necklace:

Personalized Soaps for Little Hands

2010-03-29T15:08:00.007-07:00

I just listed my Personalized Soaps for Little Hands on Etsy. They are adorable! I am very happy with how they turned out. :)

click on the titles to go to the Etsy listings.

Personalized Dirt Soap for Little Hands

Personalized Sweet Confetti Soap for Little Hands

I hope to get them on my website asap!!

Drawing for a Handmade Necklace

2010-03-23T13:39:00.016-07:00

Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap and Jewelry From Tucson

Bring you a a Drawing to win a lovely handmade necklace!

Spring is here! The birds are singing everywhere, the desert is blossoming, and I feel good. I feel like celebrating! And what better way to celebrate than to offer my good customers a chance to win a beautiful handmade necklace, made by ~yours truly~ me!

The Drawing:

Besides making soap, I also make jewelry. My jewelry can be seen here: Jewelry From Tucson. From now until the end of day April 30th, I am offering all customer making a purchase a chance to win a handmade necklace, retail value $60. Actually, you will have a choice between two necklaces!

Drawing Rules: Make a purchase from Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap website, Aunt Nancy's Etsy Shop, or Jewelry From Tucson up until end of day April 30th. Each order will be assigned a number as I receive the order (sequential number starting with number 1), and you will be notified of your number. On May 1, I will use Random.org to generate a random number for me. The customer with that number will be declared the winner, and will have a choice of ONE of the necklaces pictured above!

The first necklace is made with carnelian, glass, sterling silver, and a couple of freshwater pearls. The second necklace is made with turquoise from Arizona, brown aventurine, and sterling silver. Each necklace has a retail value of $60.00!

Carnelian Necklace: This necklace is made using carnelian beads of different shapes and sizes, including 10mm barrel beads, 8mm rondells, and 6mm rounds. I have included four very unusual looking long glass tube beads, with a circle design on them. The pendant is made from a sterling silver chandelier earring finding. I added dangles of a long carnelian tube bead, small carnelian beads, and freshwater pearls, all accented with Bali sterling silver spacers. It is finished off with a sterling silver toggle clasp for easy fastening. The length of the necklace is 21 inches. The length of the pendant is 2 1/4 inches.

More pictures:

The Turquoise Necklace: This lovely choker style necklace is made with beautiful blue and green turquoise beads from the Kingman mine here in Arizona. Accented with lovely brown aventurine beads and Bali sterling silver spacers. And finished off with a sterling silver lobster claw clasp for a secure hold. This necklace is 17 1/4 inches long.

More pictures:

Personalized Dirt Soap For Little Hands

2010-03-11T14:58:00.010-07:00

This is what I am working on, and as soon as these little soaps cure, I'll be ready.

For all you with little ones, summer days are coming. And your little ones are going to be gleefully running around outside playing in dirt and mud, coming home with little hands and faces as dirty as you can imagine! And is it a hassle to get them to wash their hands and faces? How about a soap sized for their little hands, with globs of "dirt" imbedded in them, and smells a bit like dirt, and comes with a wrapper with their names on it! Would this give a little incentive for them to use soap instead of just maybe sticking a finger a wee bit in the water?

I gathered up a few brown soaps (light brown, medium brown, dark brown) and shredded them a bit, and cut them up into small pieces of different shapes. Then I made a batch of soap using my olive oil and cocoa butter recipe, stirred in the shreds and cuts, and added a bit of cedarwood essential oil for that oh so wonderful earth smell. When I took the soap out of the mold, I cut them into my regular big bars, then I cut those bars into quarters. And what I got was nice small (2 1/2 x 2 x 1/2) bars imbedded with what looks like pieces of dirt! Once they are cured, I will sell them in quantities of 6 and 12, personalized with whatever name is requested on the wrapper.

I've kept a few bars at full size, for the big kids. :)

I also did a much more colorful batch, and scented it with a bit of Asian Lily and Musk Melon. This one will be called Sweet Confetti for Little Hands, and will also have personalized wrappers. This one actually would be great for guest bathrooms, or maybe even for favors at parties, as well as little hands.

Just listed in my Etsy shop

A couple of soaps just listed in my Etsy shop (they will be posted on my website within a day or so)

Lilac

Patchouli

Dark Musk

Pineapple Crush

Spring is Coming !!

2010-03-01T10:14:00.006-07:00

Yes, spring is coming! A lot of you that are knee deep in snow may not believe me now, but it is! :)

And to prove it, just listed is my Lily of the Valley soap.

Also just listed, Asian Lily & Musk Melon. I can't tell you how great this smells !!!

Both soaps can be found on my website

Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap

AND in my Etsy shop

Aunt Nancy's Etsy Shop

On The Curing Rack

Currently on the curing rack -

Lilac (ready to go, just needs to be photo'd and listed)
Patchouli (ready to go, just needs to be photo'd and listed)
Musk
Pineapple Crush
Rose Clay Fragrance Free Facial

And this week, I will be making Fragrance Free Goat Milk (a restock), and some confetti soaps (scents TBD).

New listings!

2010-02-21T10:00:00.006-07:00

A couple of new soap listings on my website this week.

The first one is a new blend for me. This one I call Green Fields. It's a blend of clary sage, lemon, and lavender essential oils, and is colored a lovely green with French green clay. It smells wonderful!

The next three are blends and fragrances I have done before, and have been popular sellers. The first of these is Island Coconut. This is scented with fragrance oil, and is so intoxicating! At the farmers market, it would bring some folks right to their knees!

Energize Me! This is a great soap for your early morning shower. A blend of spruce needle, orange, black pepper, May Chang, and patchouli essential oils will convince you it is indeed time to Wake Up!

And last, but not least, Creamy Peppermint with Chocolate Swirl. Scented with pure peppermint essential oil, and swirled with organic cocoa powder. With a little bit of goat milk to make it extra creamy.

All of these great handmade soaps can be found on my website:

Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap

Or in my Etsy shop

Aunt Nancy's Etsy Shop

2010-02-11T10:06:00.005-07:00

GRAND OPENING!

Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap New Website!

www.auntnancyssoap.com

I have completed my new website, designed and built by yours truely! And to celebrate this accomplishment, I am having a BOGO sale!

BOGO SALE

Buy 3 or more soaps, get another of your choice for FREE!

Check out my new website by clicking here! I hope you like it. I worked very hard to make it easy to navigate. Pricing is all set up to take advantage of multiple purchases, so the more soap you buy, the better the discount. Shipping is all set up to deal with combined shipping of multiple items. Payment options include Paypal, and direct credit card processing on an SSL secure server.

And from now until end-of-day February 14th, I am offering a FREE bar of soap with your purchase of 3 or more soaps! During checkout, there is a comment area provided for you to enter your choice of free soap. It's that simple!!

And what about my Etsy shop?

My Etsy shop will remain open and up to date. Etsy has been good to me, and I'm not giving it up. So if you prefer to buy my soaps through Etsy, no problem! Click here for my Etsy shop.

PS: BOGO sale applies in my Etsy shop also!

An ongoing process.

My website will be an ongoing process. I will be adding more pages, including favorite links, a customer comment page, and a blog type soapy informational page.

AND, I am working on my spring and summer soaps, including some wonderful scents like Lily of the Valley, Lilac, Asian Lily & Cantaloup, Dark Musk, Pineapple Crush, and more! So be sure to bookmark Aunt Nancy's Handmade Soap, and come back to see me often!

What's on the curing rack ??

2010-02-02T18:39:00.007-07:00

I have a couple of soaps on the curing rack. Would you like to see them? Three are restocks, one is a new one.

First, a favorite of mine, Energize Me. A blend of a couple of essential oils including spruce needle, orange, black pepper, a drop of patchouli and a drop of litsea. Swirled with Rhassoul Clay.

Next, Creamy Peppermint with Chocolate Swirl. Made with cocoa butter, scented with peppermint essential oil, and swirled with organic cocoa.

Another restock, and a scent that I love love love, Island Coconut. Made with cocoa butter, scented with a fragrance oil that has enough vanilla in it to turn the soap a gorgeous dark brown.

And finally, a new blend of essential oils give this soap a wonderful grassy lemony scent. I used clary sage, lemon, and lavender, and colored it with green clay. I think I will name it Green Fields. It's really nice!

And, newly made and still gelling in the molds, Oatmeal & Honey, and Pomegranate Fig.

Gratuitous cat pic

New Listings - Soap AND Jewelry !!

2009-12-23T14:30:00.015-07:00

Finally, some new listings on Etsy!

Pomegranate Fig is back in the mix! Yippee!!

A new fragrance free. This is for a couple of my customers that have asked for a soap with no wheat germ oil, and no sweet almond oil. This one has olive oil, coconut oil, rice bran oil, grapeseed oil, and avocado oil. No nuts, no wheat. :)

I brought back Orange and Clove, this time with a bit of ground clove added. It smells delish!

Lemony Mint with Shea Butter. A great blend of orange, lemon, peppermint, and rosemary. Hmmmmm, nice! This is the soap I was in the process of cutting when my soap cutter bit the dust on me, so some of the soaps don't have as clean a cut as I like.

White Spice. This is an interesting fragrance. It's a very sharp spicy scent, sort of like sniffing a cup of hot orange spice tea.

AND ....

I have been making some jewelry!

A turquoise necklace with lots of sterling silver spacers.

And matching turquoise bracelet

These sterling silver earrings match really nicely

As do these turquoise earrings

And finally, a pair of Swarovski Crystal earrings. Can you say bling bling?

Of course, a gratuitous cat picture. How good is sleeping in the sun!!

What's on the curing rack ??

2009-12-14T14:19:00.003-07:00

Well, let's see ...

There's Pomegranate Fig, which will be ready in about a week. And from the same soaping session, a new batch of Palmarosa Lavender.

Orange & Clove with shea butter, with more orange, less clove than my previous batches. And also with shea butter, a nice blend of lemon, orange, peppermint, and rosemary. This came out a lovely creamy yellow color. I can't wait to list it!

And the winner is .....

2009-11-02T11:04:00.002-07:00

Today I get to pick a WINNER for my soap giveaway. I have gone to random.org, and used it to generate a random number for me. The number generated is number 8. So the WINNER of the giveaway goes to comment number 8. Which belongs to Ricki !! Ricki, come on down!! :)

Thank you to all who participated. I appreciate all the great comments about my soaps!

Regards to all,
Nan

Blog Soap Giveaway !!!

2009-10-27T10:43:00.004-07:00

**** This giveaway is now closed with 29 comments **** Winner to be announced momentarily ****

I am giving away one bar of soap (your choice!) to one lucky reader. To enter, just add a comment here with your email address (if you aren't registered with Blogger) and I will draw a lucky winner on Nov. 2 using random.org to pick the number. Whichever comment number matches the number I draw will be the WINNER! :)

This giveaway is open to the world! :-D

The winner will be announce Monday, Nov. 2.

Beautiful Spirit

2009-10-22T08:39:00.002-07:00

From Ray's collection of photos

Photo by Ray Goodwin
Tucson Mountain Park

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-21T10:21:00.002-07:00

Photo by Ray Goodwin
Red Tailed Hawk in Madera Canyon, AZ

No Nuts, No Wheat

2009-10-11T13:56:00.004-07:00

My favorite soap recipe contains wheat germ oil, which my skin loves loves loves. My other two recipes, one with cocoa butter and the other with shea butter, contains sweet almond oil, which helps to add lather to a bar of soap, and is a great moisturizer.

But I have had a couple of customers ask for a soap with no nut oils, and no wheat germ oil, due to allergies. So I tweaked my recipe a little, and came up with a soap that contains olive oil, coconut oil (a seed, not a nut!), grapeseed oil, rice bran oil, and avocado oil. I made my full batch, which fills 2 molds, and split the batch. First batch, fragrance free. Right now it smells clean and sweet, due to the avocado oil. Second batch, colored with green clay and scented with a spruce needle and cedarwood essential oils blend. It smells just like a Christmas Tree! I just turned them out of the molds and so far, so good!! I will cut them tomorrow, and slice off a tiny sliver of each for me to try out. OH, sorry, I can try them out now, but everyone else will have to wait at least 3 weeks before I start selling them. :)

Each of the soap logs pictured are 20inches long.

And a gratuitous cat picture, for my sisters. :-D

Craft Show Report - Rex Allen Days in Willcox, AZ

2009-10-06T12:50:00.014-07:00

This past weekend, we did a three day craft show in Willcox, AZ. This was the Rex Allen Days festival in Willcox, AZ., which is a 90 mile drive from here. So we had reservations for Friday and Saturday night at the local Best Western.

We got up ultra early Friday morning, and left the house at around 5am, which put us in Willcox at around 6:30. Found our spot in Railroad Park and set up our tent. I had tons of soap, my lip balms, and some whipped shea butter. Ray had some of his photography.

Notice the train in the background? These trains went by about every 20-30 minutes, were about a mile long, and very very noisy!!!! They do not slow down at all, and they blow their whistle many times so people know they are coming! Made it very hard to do a decent sales pitch!

On one side of us was a vendor selling items made from the fleece of her alpacas. She brought along a couple of the animals with her. Look at these faces!! How cute are they!!!

The three day festival was all about cowboys. Rex Allen was a cowboy film star, songwriter, and singer from Willcox, and he was known as the Arizona Cowboy. His horse, KoKo, is buried beneath the large bronze in Railroad Park.

There were a lot of folks around in period costumes. The most predominate was Lee Anderson and his horse Concho. Lee is an Educational Living History Re-enactor, located in Central Arizona, and known as The Vaquero. He has written articles on the subject of the 1880's Mexican cowboy. Concho is a thoroughbred that Lee rescued after Concho sustained career ending injuries in a racing accident. Lee helped him heal and trained him. And my oh my what a show off that horse is! Lee rode around the park all day Friday, and Concho was perfectly happy to prance and twirl around for everyone.

Here's Lee and Concho with one of the other "actors", must be a bank robber!

And a couple of other folks in costume.

Although there was plenty of entertainment around, there was not much for customers. As a vendor, it was a dismal day. But we were very hopeful for Saturday, because the Rex Allen Days big parade comes right down Railroad Ave. So even though Friday was a bust as far as sales goes, we figured we would make up for it on Saturday. We closed up shop around 5pm, grabbed some supper at the motel restaurant, and crashed. I slept like a log!!

We woke up around 5am, and Ray informed me that it looked like it had been raining a lot. The tent is waterproof, and Ray had packed up all his photography, but you can never be sure if things are going to survive a rain storm. So we got ready, had our breakfast, and headed over to Railroad Park. WELL, my goodness, such goings on! My neighbor on one side had a canopy with no sides, that she left up with gallon water jugs as weights. Her canopy was blown over the fence and almost on the railroad tracks! Our tent, which is weighted with 20lb weights on each leg, plus Ray had bungeed the inside middle of the tent to his photography display which is pretty heavy, was blown 3 feet backwards! So one of the tables which I had left my soap on, covered with just a flannel sheet, was almost exposed! Yikes! Hurried into the tent, the flannel sheets were a little damp, but the soap was ok. Phweew!!

Ray helped our neighbor retrieve her canopy, and we got our set up all arranged and ready. Ray decided NOT to put out his photography, because it was still wet, drizzling, and windy. And it was COLD. So we left three of the tent sides in place, to keep out rain and wind. Our neighbor had her two little grand daughters with her, 3 and 5 years old. She kept trying to bundle them up and keep them warm, I told them to come into my tent until the rain stopped. So I had 2 little bouncing cutie pies in my tent for awhile. :) Didn't sell anything in the cold windy morning. The parade got started at 10am, and Railroad Ave was fully lined with folks (I'll list a link to Ray's blog with lots of parade pics).

So Ray sat up on the sidewalk to get pictures, and I stayed back at the tent to keep an eye on things. I could see most of the parade, except for the little Shriner cars. The sidewalks on both side of the road were lined with people at least 2 deep. When the parade ended, I hurried back into the tent, and got ready. Figured oh, good! here they come! So all these people watching the parade, turned and headed right for me, then went right by me to the parking lot. And they were gone!

Now we knew this couldn't be good. There were a few folks that stayed around and did some shopping, but not many. We decided NOT to stay the night, because we knew that Sunday there would be even fewer folks. We started packing up around 2:30. Once packed up, we went to the motel, packed our suitcase and checked out, and came home.

It was pretty much a break-even event.

Here is a link to Ray's blog with lots of parade pics:

Sonoran Connection

And here's a couple of my favorite pics. Here is Lee again on his other horse, Dusty. Dusty is also a thoroughbred that Lee rescued.

And this is my favorite horse in the parade. What a beautiful pinto pony!!

Upcoming Craft Shows

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I have a few craft shows lined up for the fall. The first one is a three day show, in Willcox, AZ. It's for the 58th Annual Rex Allen Days, Oct. 2, 3, and 4. Vendor booths will be set up along Railroad Avenue in front of the Rex Allen Museum. Some of the activities include a parade, western music festival, tractor pull, a carnival, classic cars. Here's a link: Rex Allen Days. Should be a hoot ! :)

On October 24th, I'll be at the Tucson Estates Foothills Craft Show. Nice little inside show at the rec hall in the development my mom lives in.

October 30, 31, November 1 I'll be at the 19th Annual Southwest Flair A-Fair Benefitting Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson, at Plaza Palomino here in Tucson. This is a good show, for a good cause. 15% of my proceeds go to BBBS.

On Nov. 7, I'll be at the Painted Sky Artisan and Craft show at the Painted Sky Elementary School in Oro Valley.

I've Been Blogged !!!!

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Karley has blogged about some of my fall soaps on her blog, Chic & Green. I can't begin to tell you how much I have appreciated Karley and her wonderful support for my soaps over the past year and a half. And if you want to keep in touch with all things green, check her blog on a regular basis. She will tell you the good and the bad in store-bought cosmetics, she will give out little DIY recipes for your own skin care, and for household cleaning. She likes to highlight independent craft businesses. She'll tell you about her two boys, Nick and Ben. She also has an online facial care store, called KZM Facial Care Boutique which has some really great products!!

So give her blog a visit, I'm sure you'll become a faithful follower!