I guess no one can accuse me of being too chatty online, but it is obvious that I need to blog more. So here we go again.

​At the beginning of 2024 I was seriously ill for 3 months. It actually came down to Hypercalcemia due to a high dose of supplements and my body not excreting the excess. My brain was stupid, and I stopped making soap. My sense of taste was so off, everything tasted terrible and I lost 30 pounds. Finally I landed up at the Conway Medical Center ER and Dr deSalvo figured it out and told me what to do. I has taken me a long time to become myself again, but I am back. My next show will be the Savannah Low Country Home Show in Jan 2025. I am not doing outdoor shows any more. I am getting too old for the hassle.
Now what new? These are exuberant bars cuz every once in awhile I cut loose and cause myself a lot of joy in the studio. I do like to play! I cast these skin loving bars in a Vert de Gris Green, Scarlett, and Purple and fragranced them with a Winter Potpourri. It is a mixture of bayberries and cranberries with a top note of freshly crushed cinnamon bark with hints of orange zests. It is zippy and a perfect wake me up.

5/23/23
​It has taken me a long time time to get over Covid and I never even got it. Why? Here ’s my boo hoos: I had three shows cancel without returning my prepaid fees of thousands of $. Sucks.


Then the small city where I live closed the Recreation Center, including the Pool where I was a lap swimmer. What’s a girl to do? How to fight the blues? become a couch potato for the first time in my life.


Since the rec center reopened I have become the Queen of the Rowing Machine. I usually set myself a goal like: Rowing  to Merrill’s Inlet, or Little River, or Georgetown or Charlestown. Hey, I am a “legend in my own mind.” 


And, I have been making new soaps again. So here is my new Lemon Verbena which my fragrance distributor describes This way: “A fresh, crisp scent of lemon verbena is delightfully blended with the zesty layers of a citrus complex, including juicy hints of grapefruit and orange. Tantalizingly tart!” And it smells good too. I don’t blend my own fragrances because I am awful at it. I rely on the people called “Noses” who have a superior sense of smell and know what they are doing.


Now color I know. I used gorgeous saturated turquoise, and orange, separate by a band of red-violet. I cast it in Shea Butter and just a tad of Glycerin. It is beautiful and very kind to your skin.

http//www.handmadearcade.com_like-mother-like-daughter_.webloc

In 2012, my daughter Allison and I were interviewed by the Handmade Arcade's Sarah Ulrich on the topic of artistry and craft running in families. Check it out

These two beauties are my possible contestants for the January Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge for a Lotus style Taiwan Circling Swirl. I used my favorite Coconut, Palm, Olive, Rice Bran, Avocado, and Castor Oil Recipe and hope to have these beauties and their siblings ready for sale after they cure for one month. 

​This is one pair of exceptional soaps. This is a very advanced technique in cold process soap and Mamoucha did it in Burmese Woods fragrance. First I layered  Creamy Beige, Red Earth, and Silver soap batter of moistuizing Olive, Coconut, Palm and Avocado Oils, just so. Then I used a “hanger” tool to drag the colors just right. Ta Da! It's a butterfly.
 
It is too cool and I cannot bear to break up these two bars, so I am offering them together. You will get 9-10 oz of a one of a kind pair of very unusual soaps. There are two other pairs from the same batch, and if you are interested, I will send you a "quick and dirty" pic of them.

​This tall and skinny bar will appeal to men and women with its clean fragrance and crisp colors: sunny Yellow, Lime Green, floating in charcoal.Made from scratch I used Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, and Avocado Oil to make this bar moisturizing, last long, and fit nicely in your hand.  It goes without saying that it is really good looking cuz we don’t do plain or ugly at Mamaoucha’s.

I have been fiddling around with the “Clyde Slide” technique for the September “Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge”. These pics are of my efforts, and I have a problem choosing which one to enter. I like the laughing man, but the 3rd in line has unusual feathering. Then there is the red, green and black one, and the lighting rod in the first pic. Damn, can only choose one.

 

They are all made with Olive, Coconut, Palm, and Avacodo Oils, with 4% superfatting. I used Earth Red, Hydrated Chromium Oxide, Black Oxide, Ochre Yellow, and Titanium Dioxiode pigments. Since these have to cure awhile, they might not appear on my festivals table for sale until November, or mid October at the earliest.