The Cuppa Jo Challenge Winners

The Cuppa Jo Soap Challenge had three beautiful entries and three beautiful winners! The Challenge was described in the previous post, but here is an excerpt:

Since I've moved into my new place, I often wake up before sunset, take my fresh coffee and walk, in my pajamas and slippers, to the Intercoastal Waterway/Lake Worth Lagoon, which is only one block from my new place.  I love the salty breeze that wafts into my face and through my short hair..... while I listen to the small waves slapping against the concrete ledge I sit on.   Within minutes, the black sky turns twilight blue and from the horizon, emerges orange and pink colors.

It has been a new experience living near the water and enjoying the sunrises I get to witness when I sit out there and ponder life's curves, dips and surprises.
 
This one may be hard because I'd really like you to tap into your creative mind and try not to be too literal in your interpretations  (if you CAN).

I want all of you to design and interpret in your own way, my morning cup of coffee at the Lagoon.

If I were to participate in this challenge, I'd start of with a layer of soap mixed with sea clay or mud with superfine coffee grounds (this would represent the concrete ledge I sit on). I'd then make an orange to pink ombre technique.  But that's just me.

JANEL GRUBER-STEVENS, Colorado, USA

"Okay, here is my interpretation of Jo drinking her coffee in her new place. (a little background first - this has ocean critters, but smells of grapefruit, coconut and tropical goodness)...

As Joanna walks out onto the terrace of her new place with cup in hand, and looks out to the sand, ocean and sea, and smells the crispness of the citrus, coconut that is Florida (ha, don't know just guessing here that that's what FL smells like) she sees all the critters of the sea. Dolphins, sea turtles, sea horses, and tropical fish rising to the top of the ocean to greet her for the sunrise, while just under the crashing waves there is turmoil in the sea, but the sandy bottom is calm. Mixed in with the creatures, there are a few shells because they have to get stirred up and taken to the beach somehow, right? 

And as she is most every morning at sunrise -- she is at peace...

And as she is most every morning at sunrise -- she is at peace...

*

BRENDA MERRICK-HAVLICE, California, USA

"At the Intercoastal Cafe and Reflection Center we strive to cleanse our minds and enjoy each sip life has to offer. We manifest our intention to allow our souls to bubble forth with all the promise of a new day!

Goat milk salt bar with coffee grounds, scented with a blend of espresso and sea spray. Mad Oils micas: Tahitian Teal, Neon Orange, Neon Pink 

(note to self: double check which salt you pull off the shelf... Dead Sea Salt results in a gloopy mess and a need to start over...)"

* 

RACHAEL BROWER, Montana, USA

"The smell brings you in, coffee, mocha, espresso, the grit, the bluster of the wind, the wake me up caffeine of it all in one bar, a coffee flavored world. Here is my soap Cafe Mocha, made with cocoa, brewed coffee, and coffee grounds" 

*

Thanks, you three, for participating!  Because there is a lack of entries for the last couple of Soap Challenges, there is really no way I can continue doing them right now, while I am so busy at Mad Oils. So....I would love some participation regarding photo tutorials made for this blog or a blog post on ingredients or processes....etc. Hit me up jo@madoils(dot)com.

peace

Cuppa Jo Sunrise Challenge

I have been neglecting the challenges for WAY TOO LONG.  I have to offer my sincere apology for the major delay in fun.  Mad Oils has exploded and not only are we understaffed, but between seasonal colds and unforeseen employee childcare issues, we have had quite a time keeping up with the floods of orders (which we love!  Thanks to all our loyal customers!)  So having been a bit overwhelmed at work and tirelessly navigating my personal life and continuing to improve on myself....I have been a very bad blogger, and I am sorry.... :(

So I challenge you up, baby!

Since I've moved into my new place, I often wake up before sunset, take my fresh coffee and walk, in my pajamas and slippers, to the Intercoastal Waterway/Lake Worth Lagoon, which is only one block from my new place.  I love the salty breeze that wafts into my face and through my short hair..... while I listen to the small waves slapping against the concrete ledge I sit on.  Within minutes, the black sky turns twilight blue and from the horizon, emerges orange and pink colors.

It has been a new experience living near the water and enjoying the sunrises I get to witness when I sit out there and ponder life's curves, dips and surprises.

This one may be hard because I'd really like you to tap into your creative mind and try not to be too literal in your interpretations  (if you CAN).

I want all of you to design and interpret in your own way, my morning cup of coffee at the Lagoon.

If I were to participate in this challenge, I'd start of with a layer of soap mixed with sea clay or mud with superfine coffee grounds (this would represent the concrete ledge I sit on). I'd then make an orange to pink ombre technique.  Ombre is a gradual GRADIENT change from one color to the next.....

{You can see the tutorial that was posted here on The Soap Bar Blog in 2012.  The tutorial was written by Emily Shieh of Shieh Design Studios.}

I think I would take  some dark mica and mix into a cup of soap batter and pour it in blips and plops from high up, so it reaches close to the bottom of the first layer.  One of those bloops would represent me, a figure.  In the photo below shows some designs from the soap I "blooped".

So I suppose even if I did a tutorial, everyone's soap design would end up being unique because of the haphazard way of the plop/bloop "technique".

So there you go.  Challenge has been assigned.  Please post your final creations on our Facebook Group, Soap Challenge Gallery.  PLEASE tag your post with #cuppajosunrise

Challenge starts now and all soap entries (entries are posted photos) are due by April 9th!  The grand prize winner will receive Mad Oils Micas ~ FOUR Mad Oils mica samples of your choice!

Good luck and soap on!

xoxo

jo

Local Ingredients...

Years back, I was asked by the local glossy magazine, Palm Beach Illustrated (PBI), to create a soap that would represent this area (Palm Beach county). Their 60th anniversary issue was being put together and they wanted a local soap maker to design something just for them.

Hrrrm.  What would feel good to me if I visited a local beach area for the first time?  Because my county snuggles the ocean, I decided that I'd collect ocean water to make my lye mixture with.  I would go to the beach with my empty water gallon jug, fighting the waves (no sand) until I past the swirling water.  Collecting ocean water from the edge of the breaking waves proves to be a sandy water collection.  Ask me how I know. I would hold the empty jug under the surface in order for it to fill: glub, glub, glub, glub. An empty water jug is harder to hold down than one would think.  Then I'd return to the beach with my gallon of ocean and fully drenched from toe to chest.

PBI ended up loving the way it came out and featured it in their magazine.  It DID look tropical and the ingredients I used were luscious. It included coconut milk, ocean water, shea butter and sea salt and it looked like an abstract ocean beach scene. 

People love the idea of handcrafted items made with local ingredients.  And the more "LOCAL AND COMMON" the ingredient, the more interesting it is that the soap almost becomes a celebrity on its own!

Now, I have never heard of potato soap, but if I lived in Idaho, I would love to buy a local soap made from Fingerlings, or Russets.  Wisconsin....cheese (maybe goat??), Florida?  Palm sugar, perhaps??... and so on.  Some of us have spent many hours looking for common ingredients that can make our soap unique and compelling, and it doesn't always have to be food!

I have used actual sand on my soap.  I dipped my freshly cut soap into a pan of white sand and sold it like a pumice soap, but the sand gets washed away after the first few washes.  People loved it!  Especially Northerners who miss the beach sand when they are cold and slushing through snow, sleet and the bitter cold in the middle of winter.

My friend, Charlene Simon, of Bathhouse Soapery, gave a presentation at the 2013 (?) Soap Guild Conference regarding additives.  She brought 20-30 cut up soaps made with different ingredients she had tried, including volcanic rock, which of course, made me want to go roll in that rock just thinking about it!  She emphasized the importance of incorporating local/regional "ingredients" that can uplift your soap from plain ol' soap into a classic art form.  It adds depth to an otherwise basic item.  (I'm not calling soap basic, but when people stand in front of a soap made with ground oatmeal, they may want to see that it's made from the local OAT farm in Wasau County.) 

Perhaps finding a local farmer, local winery or other business owner may be good for business.  Perhaps include them in your plans to make a local soap, tourists.  And you and the biz owner could benefit from it.  Equally!and discuss a possibly partnership of sorts.  I know there are soap makers that use their local winery to make wine soaps and the winery sells the soap at the winery!  Or a microbrewery, a sugar farm, even a diamond jewelry maker could grind up unsavory diamonds and you could use the diamond dust in your soap....one never knows if there could be a common thread that can be an uplifting hit to the local area, to you and to your business choice.

So for this challenge, I want you to take some time to think about your area and what may bring tourists there or what might be a surprising tidbit about your area that interests you and work that into your soap plans.  Then perhaps after you make soap with that ingredient and share with our group, you may even be able to approach your local business with your soap in hand and talk it out.  Expound on the idea and make it exciting.

Post your photos here on Facebook.  Use hashtag #localyocal so I can quickly find it.  Challenge ends on October 20th.  Then we shall talk a bit about Halloween!  Bwahahaha!

xoxo Joanna

Origins

Peridot is the birthstone of August and green is one of my very favorite colors. It has many symbolic meanings:  It has been said that its owner, when worn would have the power of invisibility.  Some people believes it can bring peace and protection. It has also been worn to calm anger by soothing ones nerves, expelling negative energy. My favorite symbolism and the one I found inspriation from was that it promises growth for the future and gives strength to individuals.  GIVES STRENGTH.
Onward and upward.  We shall gain strength this month from the process of this challenge.

August is a transitional month for many of us who are effected by school.  Summer winds down, vacations come to an end and nerves arise because of going to a new school and the weather will be changing.  It's a time where we may need to find love and strength from a new source.  Focus on something bright green and go with it.

This challenge has a few challenges to meet.

I want you to make a soap with a food product that, after some cure time, you can photograph next to or on food product's place of origin.  For instance:  incorporate cherries into your soap recipe and when it's ready, photograph your soap at the base of a cherry tree next to the fallen berries.  Or use milk in your soap and take pictures of a cow alongside the soap maybe on a fence, or stump. I have to insist you take photographs by natural light.

In short, find a food product that you will be able to access its source at a later time, then use the food in your soap and once that is complete, you must then photograph the soap at the place of the food ingredient's origin. I will accept ONLY those photographed by natural light. Be creative.  Be you: unique.  Think outside the box and don't be afraid of trying new things.  Remember, I do this so you can grow as an artist and expand your thought process. We all think so differently from each other that it's fun to see all of the interpretations of these challenges!

Please post your photos in my Facebook group:  Soap Challenge Gallery with the hashtag: #origins to be considered for this challenge.  Ends:  August 25th.  You can take on this challenge multiple times if you wish.  Please do not post photos of previous soaps.  That is cheating. You have to MAKE the soap for this.  That is the point of these challenges.

Good luck!  There is a tiny prize for the winner of something meaningful. Thank you again, for all your wonderful participation. 

 

Summer Loving. The Memories Don't Die.

There were very few entries this month, but they were all wonderful and I thank you for participating.

As with our latest challenges, I have asked for an explanation along with the soap you made, so that we, as artists, draw out our thoughts as we create and really get in touch with your art and your inner artist.  It also makes the soap more interesting to look at as a viewers standpoint because the history adds depth and understanding.

When I say dig deep, some of you clearly do and I am honored to have the remains of the upheaval shared with me.

I loved EVERY submission.  This was about memories (or fantasies) and you all rocked it!  The most original soap in my opinion along with the back story is Milo & Otis.  She describes the moments of her lying at the bottom of the river, looking up at the surface while listening to the unique sharpness of stones tapping together underwater.  The description of that magical moment of time brought back huge memories for me...being underwater in complete oneness with no angst. I remember loving the feeling of being immersed in water.  It erased the tensions of the world above and made me float.  It muffled all the yelling and hatred and calmed my soul.  I wanted to be a fish and never leave or sometimes wished I would painlessly and magically drift away into the bliss I found alone and under the world I knew.

Milo & Otis made this soap:

This is her story verbatim:

Summers in my childhood meant one thing, the lake and the cottage. Some of our friends referred to it as the cabin, but it was no cabin; It was a sizable white clapboard house on one of two connected lakes that was about 30 minutes from our house. Our family of seven had taken a few vacations, which must have been quite expensive and no doubt provided little relaxation for my parents. Instead of family vacations, they decided to buy a house on a lake within striking distance of our home so my dad could commute for work while we spent the summers and some weekends there.

I remember our first visit to the house for sale, the foreign feeling of being in someone else's house and the familiarity of a lake but the unfamiliarity of this one. While my parents talked with the owners, we played in the shallows and had seaweed fights. They bought it and the house took us on.

We spent endless hours in the lake the way children can without ever becoming bored. My sister and I were delegated the task of watching "the babies" (my brothers are 2 and 3 years younger than I, so it's a relative thing) swim in the area buoyed off for them. They would daringly somersault over the line or swim underwater under it, then U turn and swim back before coming up for air. We didn't mind their shenanigans but occasionally yelled at them so it remained fun for them to do. We all became excellent swimmers, completely comfortable in the water, probably more home to us than the house was. I would man the big net with my brother, catching minnows for bait. Within a couple hours, my sympathies would get the best of me and I would move silently under the pier to the bait can floating in the water, quietly open the top and tip it over. Swim free, little minnows! I took a couple fishhooks to the head, standing too close to my brother as he swung the rod back to cast, then as he threw the rod forward, the hook would set in my scalp, me shouting at him to stop before he yanked me off the pier. He was good at getting them out.

We played alone and together, the five of us. I loved wearing a mask and swimming along the bottom, enthralled with everything in the green light, watching the pull of the waves sending swirls of detritus to and fro. I would lie on my back and exhale enough that I would sink to the bottom where I would be lulled by the ebb and flow as I followed the beautiful patterns of the sun on the surface of the lake. I never failed (and still don't) to be amazed at the clarity of the sound of stones being tapped together and how far it travels underwater. We dunked each other, cannon-balled off the pier, stood on inner tubes, and were generally loud and happy. The constancy of our feet on the bottom packed it down into firm sand and obliterated any weeds. Just beyond our pier, the water was over our heads and we hated walking past the end of that demarcation. Your foot would sink into the clammy, cold, obscenely mushy bottom and the seaweed would brush your skin in way that felt perverse. As kids, we called it "the ooglies." If we took running starts to jump as far out as possible off the end of the pier, we all swam back as fast as we could.

Sometimes our dad would take us out in the boat to our favorite swimming spot. It was a ways offshore from an abandoned lakeside restaurant and was instantly recognizable by the wide expanse of water that had no weeds, in spite of being deep. We didn't know why there were no weeds there and we imagined it to be unfathomably deep, although our anchor told us otherwise. Every time we went, we would watch the anchor come up from the bottom, waiting to see evidence of seaweed but all we ever saw was sand floating off in a thin trail. We loved it there. We would do flips off the boat and dive down, although none of us ever made it to the bottom, perhaps to protect the mystery we felt. Hippo, our dog, would occasionally jump in to swim with us, then, not understanding that the boat was our station, she would take off for shore. One of us would have to go get her and lead her back to the boat so someone could lift her back to solidity.

Two doors down from us was a restaurant that got heavy traffic, being on the far side of two lakes and town. They had boat slips, a bait shop, a boat launch. The pier ran through the deep water in a big square and in the middle, although it was thickly weedy, was where kids who were visiting would jump and swim. One morning a man and his nephew went out to fish in the early morning before it was light. It was a Sunday, their last day on the lake before they went home, and during their horseplay, the man pushed the boy into the lake. When he didn't come up, he thought the boy had snuck to shore and gone home, a sore sport. He shrugged it off and headed out to fish, leaving the boy in the dark cold water in the ever tightening weeds, until he could hold his breath no longer. Later, when the day was hot, the kids came to play in the water and in their jumping, they knocked him loose from the weeds and he finally came to the surface under the pier.

Our neighbor's rule was that he and his kids would play softball or volleyball every day. It was optional for us but not them and anyone was invited to play. I watched the softball games rather than play and that day, as I stood with the batting team, we saw people come running up from the lake to the restaurant. One of the kids, in the bald blunt way of children, yelled over to one of the batters, "Jay, your brother's dead!" I could see Jay, caught half in paralysis, half in panic, try to understand and finally start to move, jumping the fences between the yard and the restaurant. We went down to the lake shore in front of our house, where I saw my dad, sadly shaking his head, kneeling next to the boy on the pier. He had been in the water for too long for there to be any possibility other than death. My dad, his face grim, crossed the yards back to our own, incongruous in his orange jumpsuit. (He was not a convict. It was the 70's and his favorite color was orange. You can get away with wearing just about anything on a lake.) As I stood and stared at the still body on the pier, it started to rain. The clouds were high and bright, casting a yellow light, and it seemed too scripted but there it was. Maybe the skies do look down on us and shed tears. My parents had been preparing to go back to our house and we got in the car, driving in silence all the way home. I watched the rain spatter on the windows and thought about the people who had only wanted a weekend of sun and swimming. The lake broke that family.

We were aware of the dangers of the lake even before that boy's death, and my parents surely were acutely conscious of it. We were not allowed out in any of the boats without a life preserver. However, they were bulky and hot and we were all good swimmers, to say nothing of the fact that kids are notoriously overconfident. My sister and I took the paddle-wheel out one day and of course took off our life preservers. We were on the return leg, not too far out from shore or our house. I had gotten up to stand and pedal backward when we heard the slap of the wooden screen door and my mother's piercing shriek. It stopped us in our tracks and we watched her bull-like charge across the yard with trepidation. Shouting at us non-stop, she stomped across the neighbor's lawn, pushing a wave of ferocity ahead of her. Her eyes lasered in on us, she did not look where she was going and went down face first in the neighbor's hostas. Laughter burst out of us for a mere moment, pushed back as quickly as she snapped back up to continue her lambasting all the way to shore. It was like laughing in church; the more inappropriate the place, the stronger the urge, but we did not dare give in to it. You simply did not laugh at my mother. Thankful for the distance, we reluctantly started our trek in to the pier where she went to await us, but the moment her back was turned, we laughed into spasms. She continued to exude fury but we were shielded by the vivid image of watching her face plant. Whatever her punishment was, the count was clear. We won that one.

On some nights, we played Hearts. Before a remodeling, our long long dining room table was on a porch barely wider than the table itself. How my parents got it in there is a feat of engineering I'm not certain I will ever understand. Family, friends, neighbors all, we would cram around the table, its oilcloth tablecloth wiped down after dinner, our places marked by sweating glass bottles of Squirt and Coke, the Real Thing. We played to win. No mercy, no matter what your age. The two losers would have to wash the dishes the next night, a duty that defaulted to my sister and me otherwise. We used real dishes, no paper or plastic, for a minimum of seven people and far more frequently for 10, 11, 12 or more. No dishwasher. I tried to win but I tried harder not to lose; the feeling of lettuce leaves in dishwater still sets my teeth on edge. We had to play under fake names. My Hearts name was Mabel. Through the game, we would toss out cards and jabs and lighthearted insults, but tensions built when it became clear that someone was trying to moon (collect all the points). It could be a deal breaker. If someone managed it, they had to literally moon the table, by law, which we all did with relish. The exception was my mother. Fonzerella struggled with the idea of dropping her drawers in front of everyone; I think perhaps she worried it would undermine her authority. (It didn't) It wouldn't surprise me if she purposefully avoided it except for the times she was dealt a hand that made it impossible not to moon, and then she would gloat. There were always shouts and cheers when someone mooned, but when my mother got one, it was near bedlam. We would be hooting, pounding the table and catcalling, drowning out her protests until she finally got up and flashed us so quickly, you had to wonder if it had even happened. How did she do it so fast? Did she practice in front of a mirror? We could probably identify any other player by their butt, but my mother retained her dignity in a difficult situation. After the game broke up, everyone would go their separate ways, sometimes for a night swim or skinny dip, if you weren't in mixed company, to read or watch a movie or lie in front of a fan, making sounds into it so you could sound like a robot. Too often, the next night, the losers would be forgotten and my sister and I would be in the kitchen, singing theme songs from TV shows to bide the time, getting dishpan hands.

Summer memories jumble together. We went barefoot all summer and would start the summer limping and hopping over the sharp stones of the gravel driveway, "winter feet" we called it, and ending in hardened soles that could take anything except a direct jab to the arch. We went all day, swimming, then drying off, then pulling on our cold sticky suits once again in the sweltering heat that existed behind the house and miraculously disappeared as soon as you got to the lake. It made you wonder why you were in such a hurry to get back in the water.

We slept in our clothes, ready to go the moment we woke up. Some mornings were utterly still and the lake looked like "Glass lake! Glass lake!" my oldest brother would shout, running through the yard, sending up the alert to my cousin, brothers and neighbors. He would wade in to get the boat off the mooring and bring it to the pier, unsnapping the cover as he went. Within minutes, they would be ready to ski, heading out to break the calm surface of the water with rooster tails from the slalom. I spent most of my time in the boat watching for falls and signaling to the skier the quality of their sprays. I wasn't much of a water-skier but my cousin and I worked on a trick. Wrapping my arms and legs around the thickness of our life preservers and him, I would hang on his back until he got up, then I would climb up and sit on his shoulders. It was our only trick, so its life was relatively brief. The last time I recall doing it was when my mom drove the boat for us, which she didn't do regularly. When we said, "Hit it!", she went full throttle, which was more than required for two kids. I scrambled up to my perch on my cousin's shoulders and realized we were going far too fast. We frantically signed to slow down before my cousin wiped out. I fell from the height as if onto concrete, skittering along before sinking. I learned that if water is going fast enough, or you are relative to it, it can perforate tender skin. I'm not sure my derriere has ever been the same.

Most summers we would walk across the lake on the logs of a long fallen bridge that ended on our seawall. We knew where it was and, dragging a boat with us to let other boaters know we were there, we would pick our way, feet finding the slippery roundness of the huge logs, long submerged, until we were at the sandbars all the way on the other side. We'd play in their water for a while and then head back across to our home shore. We would canoe into the lily pads, listening to them hiss, feeling them on the underside of the boat. We'd watch for the huge carp that loved the warm murky waters, fearful of falling in and frantic if we did, sure we'd be eaten.

My sister and I would canoe around on 4th of July, singing every patriotic song we knew at the top of our lungs before dusk fell. Once the fireworks started, we renewed our singing efforts while sitting on the pier in the dark. Sound really carries on a lake; I feel a bit sorry for the people across from us.

The smell of the water, the smell of boats, the sound of feet pounding on the pier, the deep ka-ploosh of a well-done cannonball. The lake, the green lake, was what summer was. I didn't like it there so much when I was a teenager, but that's another story.

My soap is made to look a little like the surface of the lake as I lay on the bottom, looking up to the sky.

Please go see some of the beauties that were submitted in the Soap Challenge Gallery facebook group.  Search for summerloving and see the art!

Thanks for all the support of this soap challenge group.  And thank you for following my blog.  Kisses!  xo Jo

Summer Loving...It Happened So Fast

Do you remember when you were a kid, school had ended and summer stretched out in front of you filled with endless possibilities?  How you were full of optimism and excitement and it felt like you had all the time in the world to make anything you could imagine happen?

Today's soap challenge is to design a soap that represents your childhood summers.  Whatever the wonders of summer were for you, whether they involved new love, hours on the beach or the simple joy of opening a fire hydrant on a hot summer day in the city, represent them in your soap.

When posting your Challenge photo on the Facebook Group, you must also tell your story or the photo will not be judged.  You do not have to be a good storyteller, but it helps the viewers (me and others) understand your soap's content and a little about you.

Memories can be extremely difficult to tap into for some, and for those of you that have almost no good memories, share with us just one, even if it was a childhood fantasy and not an actual memory.  I understand we all have had different lives and experiences.

Feed your artist; Feed yourself. 
Dig.
Discover.
Make Soap.
Share.

Challenge ends:  June 25, 2015
Post your photos here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/soapchallengegallery/

Proud Of My Peeps

We are all busy with life.  I know it now more than any other time in my life.  Starting Mad Oils has been the hardest and most challenging life change I've ever made.  Busy, busy, busy.  I work way more than I should, but things need to get done and so hours fly by... and the great thing is: I love my job!  I DO know about time limitations and the fleeting moments in my life that I take to focus inward.  Everyone's life is filled, but you took the time and dug.

The idea for the latest Soap Challenge was memory based and certainly emotional.  It required you to dig deep, remembering experiences from the past and somehow translating your memories into a planned, colorful soap.  This type of challenge begins to extract parts of you that need to be tapped into.  It helps an artist translate a memory or feeling into something tangible; whatever the medium.  This challenge was for creating a "Colorful Memories" soap and the entries were posted on the Soap Challenge Gallery on Facebook.  The challenge was to take a fond memory and translate it into soap, whether literally or in an abstract way.

I'm very proud of you for trying this very difficult task.  I think this may have been the hardest one I've thrown at you, so kudos to you for attempting it!!  I'm also going to guess that you feel a bit proud of yourself as well.  And you should be.

The winner of this #colorfulmemories challenge is:  
Mandy Oian Davis, of Minnesoapah Handcrafted Soap

Well done, Mandy!  Your translation was spot on and I was transformed back to that night with you as you told the story.

Mandy explains her inspiration for this design:

"Every summer weekend of my childhood was spent at my great aunts cabin on a lake. Unless it was pouring rain, this meant bonfires on Friday and Saturday nights. We had two spots, one up by the field to the rear of the cabin, and one down on the lake shore. I remember so many nights of playing under the stars until exhaustion would take over myself and my many cousins and we would gravitate towards the bonfire and the adults. Great Auntie Bev always had a stack of quilts, and she would lay them on the ground, inviting us to crawl in and rest, then tell us stories and sing us songs while we stared at the fire. To this day, I am mesmerized by the dancing flames of a bonfire.

I used chunks of an old soap to make the "logs" and worked to do a hanger swirl only half way down to make the flames jump and dance. It is scented with Witching Hour, the combo of cinnamon, smoke, and the patchouli is so wonderful with the idea of the fire and the handmade quilts that were stored in a cedar chest. Thanks for this challenge, it was fun to come up with the idea and translate it into soap! "

Runner Up

 Curtis Hayden, of Haus of Hayden

Wow, Curtis, you put so much thought into this soap and your description sounds so fun.  What a special time in your life, now in tangible form for you to share, use, look at....  Way to go!

 Curtis says this about his soap creation:

"This soap had A LOT of thought put into it so forgive me for going into such depth. One of the BEST times of my life and the BEST memories came from my trip to Europe! I was able to explore so many different countries and do so much that I never thought I would be able to do! This soap represents my trip as a whole! The title is "The Edge of Germany" which is a reference to "The Edge of Glory" which was my song that played everywhere throughout Europe. I fell in LOVE with Germany which is why there is the German flag in the middle and also as a Mica top came from! The colors as a whole represent me having pride in the fact that I am German but also the fact that I went to gay pride in Germany!! Individually these colors also stand for things as well! The Red=London telephone booths/buses. Blue=Jumping into the Bay of Monaco. Green=The apartment we stayed in London had NEON green balconies. Yellow=The Eiffel tower lighting up at night. Purple=Regular trips to parliament and such (the chairs were purple). Pink=Going to the Nicki Minaj concert in Berlin. Orange= Sunsets in Switzerland. Also since I was going for a German themed soap of course it had to be beer based and have German Chamomile essential oil!! And the center smells like Spiced Ale while all the colors are super citrusy and uplifting because every time I think back on all the fun I had it makes me super happy! And I wanted all the colors to intertwine because in my mind the entire trips memories flowed one into another. I hope you enjoy my entry and thank you for taking the time to read all my crazy inspiration that went into this!!"

I enjoyed every single photo entry along with the amazing stories of your memories.  I feel blessed that you have decided to share with me and that you involve yourself with these challenges.  I want to thank ALL of you for participating and being a part of this piece of history.  Our history.

I hope you do this for you and not just for "the challenge".  These challenges are meant to open up your artistic passages so you can breathe again and see things you stopped seeing or never saw before.

I raise my coffee cup to all of you and, MAN (!!),  I am a proud challenge-giver-blogger-woman-soaper this month....

Mwuah!

Love, Joanna

xxoo

Colorful Memories

It's easy to allow day to day stress to push our fondest memories out of our minds.

This past weekend, my daughter turned eighteen years old and my memories of our past came flooding back. The whole pregnancy was amazing, the birth was hard, and the first few years with her was the finest time of my life.

The idea for this soap challenge is definitely based on your individual experiences from many years ago, whether it be from your childhood or young adulthood.  Bring forth your fondest memories of a time that will always have a special spot in your mind.

"How can I do that in a soap?," you ask.

I imagine that you need to pluck out things, colors, feelings and whatever fits from your memories and show how you felt back then.  Express yourself.  You know that if you make soap, then you are an artist, so don't short change yourself.

Don't minimize your talent and abilities. 

I believe there is incredible talent that you haven't tapped into. 

Believe in yourself.

You have 3 weeks to complete this task.  This project can be expressed however you see fit, but you have to explain it.  Please do not post a soap you have already made.  These challenges are meant to open a piece of you and challenge your inner self as an artist.

I ask that you please take a picture of your soap in natural light and that it be in focus.  When you post it in The Soap Challenge Facebook Group, use the hashtag #colorfulmemories so I can do a search for it and your photo will be included in the judging.

Deadline:  March 27th (Friday), 2015

Good luck to everyone!

Dig deep...

xo  Joanna

Food Soap Challenge

One of the reasons I post challenges on Soaper's Retreat on facebook is to push your abilities to express yourselves and the photographs you take of the masterpieces you make.  In life and in work, I always feel like if I don't push the envelope or think outside the box, in my work, or anything else I do, will just be overlooked, be plain, "pedestrian"... and like everyone else's.  So this challenge, The Food Challenge, was to use a food item, never used BY YOU before in your soaps.  I was clear in my food challenge description, that failures (meaning that if the food item created a soap on a stick scenario or whatever) or ultimate messes, would all be considered. My hope was to open the idea to THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX and challenge you to add something unconventional that would, perhaps, open up a world of possibilities in your own mind in your soapmaking.

So after reviewing such amazing entries and photographs, I am only able to choose a few, but know that I was tickled pink to see the efforts and awesome envelope pushing I saw with this challenge.  I am really proud of the people who really left their "drawing within the lines" state of mind and took a chance with this challenge.  GOOD FOR YOU.

I hope you know that these challenges are not for this blog.  Not for any status symbol.  Not a popularity contest.  I do it FOR YOU.  To challenge you to not only think about your art and express it from YOU, but to also better photograph your art in new ways that you feel comfortable with and that show off the beauty of your artistic work.

Now, let's get to some photos.....

Food: Made with Budda's Hand (fruit), by Melinda Wimm Wolff Foster

Food:  Tahini + Honey with Acacia Gum sprinkles, made by Clara Lindberg

Food:  Sriracha Hot Sauce, mad by Debbie Thomas

Food:  Kale + Raspberries, Made by Katye Fredieu

Food:  Carrot Juice + Raw Noodle Topping, Made by Andrea Gerlach

Food: Dragonfruit, Made by Fransiska Tanadi

Like I mentioned, I couldn't list all of them, but these were some of the more unusual ingredients used in the challenge and I am proud of everyone who tried a new food in their soap.  Everyone!  Well done, people, well done.  Now hopefully, adding new things in your soap won't be as scary...O.o

xxxooo  Jo

Naked Tops

I created a challenge on Soaper's Retreat to photograph their soaps in natural light (as I always do).  But this time the soaps needed to be naked: no sprinkles, glitter, seeds, nothing on top!  Colors were acceptable, but plain Jane - NO toppings. 

They were all stunning, and I just love all of the creativity these people have brewing inside of them.  It consistently amazes me.  Every. SINGLE. Time.

There were many more I wanted to include, but there were issues.  Some needed more light.  Some were not using natural light.  Focus is a big issue in a lot of entries.  Imagine as you are shooting your photo..... that there is nothing else that exists in the world than the screen that you see out of.  Move your position until what you see through the screen MEANS something, tells something, or makes you feel something.  Can a piece of soap make you feel something?  Absolutely.  A sense of peace, or solace....perhaps remind you of a moment in time.  A quiet second that once was.  It is possible to move people with your photos.

So I urge you to take these photo challenges more seriously, because your photos are going to make people want your soap, or at least treasure the look of them.  They become precious commodities, not just a surplus.  Even a chunk of very rustic looking soap can look gorgeous and precious.

Perhaps I will share some of my own series of soaps as an example of different ways to get across different emotions with a hunk of soap someday.  With different lighting, different backgrounds, etc....


Here was a photo I took years ago of a chocolate soap:

Here are some of my favorites from the challenge......

Michael Kitney

Jeannine Jonas

Lina Vilniskyte



Jennifer Jansen

Emma Frost

Kerry Sylvester

Kendra Cote

 

Petrified Wood Soap Challenge

On Soaper's Retreat last week, I asked the group to take a look at a picture of petrified wood from the Petrified Forest National Park, in Arizona.  Something I had never seen before. 

 photo credit: http://www.theactivetimes.com/colorful-natural-wonders

I asked the group to create a soap INSPIRED by this photo. There were very few entries for this challenge as I had suspected there would be.  Everyone is very busy preparing for the upcoming holiday season, so we will stop having soaping challenges until after the first of the year.

Here were some of the soap inspirations created by some in the group.....

Louise Vargas

 

 

 

 

Aissa Ong Babinski

 

 

 

 

Jane Leebeck

 

 

 

 

Janet Schreiner

 

 

 

 

Paige Bowser

 

 

 

 

Robin Duncan Hasty

 

 

Linda Wisniewski Morris

 

 

 

 

Thank you to everyone who participated and gave this a "go".  You all have inspired me as well as others who look at this blog.  Enjoy your colorful soap!!!

 

xoxo JO

 

Macro Art Soap Porn

This week we had another Photo Challenge at Soaper's Retreat (my Facebook group).  What amazing and glorious photos they posted!!  The challenge was MACRO photo:  Get as close as possible to your soap and shoot.  There were more entries, I think, for this challenge than any other.  One thing to keep in mind when posting entries for these challenges:  MAKE SURE YOU HAVE IT IN FOCUS.  There were gorgeous shots that I couldn't include because it just wasn't in perfect focus, so be diligent and keep trying.  The art in this group in mind blowing.

Thanks for playing.  I appreciate all the photos you all posted.

Feast your eyes.....

Tianna Schlabach of Shabby Anna Soap

 

 

Vito Halagic

Marianne Rice

Michelle Rhoades of Mossy Creek Soaps

Tanya Chappell of Titania's Dreamy Delights

Kenna Cote of Amathia Soapworks

Heidi Bott

Chris Erkine of Wax and Soapy Water

Robin C. Herz

Tiggy Fiander of Future Primitive Soap

Andrea Gurlach

Hepzi Amelia Evans of Cleanse With Benefits

Juli 'Apthorpe' Denike of Inspiri Body

Lysa Luna of Sugar & Spite Bathery

Lina Vilniskyte

Merilyn Konnerth