I am new to soapmaking. Really new. I have been a handcrafter for over 20 years and I have always had an interest in soapmaking. I purchased a book on natural handmade soapmaking, some years ago. I read a few pages and it seemed so complex, at that busy time in my life...so I put it aside. Well, I am on the countdown to retirement (4 yrs, 11 mos) and I am hoping to spend my retirement doing something that I KNOW I am going to love doing...making and selling handmade soaps. I am so excited about it all. Nervous and excited. I figure it is going to take me these 4 years, 11 months to really learn the craft so that I will be ready by then. I purchased some more books, I am starting to gather needed supplies...and now I have found you. I'm batting 1,000. Looking forward to interacting with you all.
Hi Everybody...
- Thread starter CiCi
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dragonfly princess
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Well welcome to our forum! Happy early retirement!!!!
Blondebubbles
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Welcome! 
I'm also a newbie - just finished my first batch last week, which turned out so well that I'm convinced I'm an expert
. No, I'm just thrilled that I can do this and want to share the encouragement.
There were certain qualities I wanted in soap that made me try to do it myselt, and achieving that was a great satisfaction for me.
Wishing you the best of luck, and may all your retirement dreams come true! (But don't wait till then to try your hand at making soap!)
Bubbles (Linda)
I'm also a newbie - just finished my first batch last week, which turned out so well that I'm convinced I'm an expert
. No, I'm just thrilled that I can do this and want to share the encouragement. There were certain qualities I wanted in soap that made me try to do it myselt, and achieving that was a great satisfaction for me.
Wishing you the best of luck, and may all your retirement dreams come true! (But don't wait till then to try your hand at making soap!)
Bubbles (Linda)
Soapmaker Man
Well-Known Member
Hi CiCi! Glad you're here! We do love chatting with like minded soap interested members! Look forward to many conversations! 8)
Paul
We do love chatting with like minded soap interested members! Look forward to many conversations! 8) Paul
Thank you and thank you.
Blondebubbles, you just started and your first batch was perfect??? How cool. What is scaring me is all of this calculation stuff. I'm not getting it. I've spent hours reading on the site and I am confused about only that. If I can get the understanding of the calculations and knowing what to put with what for what reason...I will do fine. All of these percentages of stuff has me bonkers. Oh, I do plan to start soaping soon. I won't wait until retirement. I just think it will take me that long to bypass all of the trial and error and get the experience under my belt.
Blondebubbles, you just started and your first batch was perfect??? How cool. What is scaring me is all of this calculation stuff. I'm not getting it. I've spent hours reading on the site and I am confused about only that. If I can get the understanding of the calculations and knowing what to put with what for what reason...I will do fine. All of these percentages of stuff has me bonkers. Oh, I do plan to start soaping soon. I won't wait until retirement. I just think it will take me that long to bypass all of the trial and error and get the experience under my belt.
Blondebubbles
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Hi CiCi!
I didn't read any books, but I thoroughly went through everything on the Miller's Soapmaking Pages website. Kathy Miller has some great advice, and she posts tips from other soapmakers as well. I used the saponification tables from there.
My recipe was a simple olive & canola oil/water/lye combination that I checked against Kathy's tables. It had to be corrected, as it was very lye-heavy, and I added salt to make sure it hardened (a tip I had read on her pages). I also ended up cooking it over medium-low heat on the stove to get it to light trace. (This from another olive-oil recipe I had seen). It might just have been beginner's luck, but it worked and I wrote it all down. Mostly I just read and read some more until I had it all in my head how I wanted to do it.
Did you read the little cartoon link she has posted on the SAP tables page? It helped me understand how everything worked together as much as anything. It's also very entertaining.
Best of luck,
Bubbles
I didn't read any books, but I thoroughly went through everything on the Miller's Soapmaking Pages website. Kathy Miller has some great advice, and she posts tips from other soapmakers as well. I used the saponification tables from there.
My recipe was a simple olive & canola oil/water/lye combination that I checked against Kathy's tables. It had to be corrected, as it was very lye-heavy, and I added salt to make sure it hardened (a tip I had read on her pages). I also ended up cooking it over medium-low heat on the stove to get it to light trace. (This from another olive-oil recipe I had seen). It might just have been beginner's luck, but it worked and I wrote it all down. Mostly I just read and read some more until I had it all in my head how I wanted to do it.
Did you read the little cartoon link she has posted on the SAP tables page? It helped me understand how everything worked together as much as anything. It's also very entertaining.
Best of luck,
Bubbles
Bubbles...I am impressed. Good for you! I hope I will be so fortunate. I haven't read Miller's pages yet, though I do have it bookmarked for later reading. I just haven't been able to get to it yet. Sounds like it's a great teaching site. I can't wait to "hear" how your next batches turn out. Next Friday, I'm going to go looking for glass bowls and things I can use for unigue molds. I'm pretty use to molding. Just not soap. I have hundreds of molds that I used for hydrostone (whiteware), but many are way to big for soap. Plus, they probably would not hold up to the soap heat. Nice chatting with you.
