Soaper gets sweet! Part 1...

Soaping is a huge passion of mine because I love chemistry and I love essential oils.  I also love baking which is chemistry and flavors.  Other than the fact that soap isn't edible, the two hobbies are very similar because they involve precise measurements, patience, and they please your senses.

Last week, I was lucky enough to take a class in sugar artistry.  It's not quite like baking but it involves precision and patience.  Chef Chris Malham at Lake Washinton Technical College in Kirkland, WA was the teacher.  He has many years of pastry experience and learned sugar artistry from Ewald Notter, who is widely regarded as one of the best sugar artists in the world.

In class, we learned to color sugar and to create bubble sugar, sugar ribbons, pulled sugar, and how to blow sugar. It was both fun and frustrating.  Chris and my classmates were fun.  But, the sugar was frustrating - it's hot, it's temperamental and when cool, it's fragile.

On day one, we learned a few techniques and made a flower.  Mine is rose-like.  It's in a sugar cage.

On day 2 & 3, we made clowns.  Techniques used: Coloring sugar, making sugar ropes (the base is a coiled rope), blowing sugar, sugar ribbons and hiding errors with sugar.  Chris made the stand of straw sugar for the clown and the elf (and, other bits and pieces).

Note bubble sugar in the bottom right corner:

On the final day, we cast sugar and colored it with powders, then made blown sugar elf creatures.  They were inspired by Ewald Notter's snowman (see below).  The cast sugar is the base, with a straw sugar stand and then, Mr. Elf.

Sugar base and straw sugar:

The four day class was amazing.  It was topped off by a visit from the Ewald Notter.  He was at LWTC to teach a class and did a wonderful demo.

Blown sugar swan, ribbon, bubble sugar, pastillage and wonderful dessert by Andrew Logan:

Pulled sugar flower, ribbon and airbrushed pastillage base:

Snowman that inspired the blue elf:

If you have a chance to learn about making things from sugar, I recommend you take it.  It was fun and I learned skills I can use to impress you when you come over for dinner.  :) 

Clean the world!

As you know, there was a terrible earthquake in Haiti on January 12. People from all over the world have rallied to help the people of that nation.  A charity called Clean the World started taking donations specifically to be diverted to the people of Haiti.  Clean The World's mission is to recycle soap, shampoo, and lotion discarded by hotels and to distribute the recycled products worldwide to people who cannot afford these essential items. 

The Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild has partnered with Clean The World (CTW) and so I decided to send donations to CTW and to help you do so, too.  For every $15 you spend (before shipping & taxes), I'll donate a bar of soap to CTW on your behalf.  Then, I'll match it.  So, for every $15 you spend, 2 bars will go to someone in need.

The first box is ready to go.  Thirteen pounds of soap!  Thanks, everyone who's purchased so far this year.  I plan on doing this through the end of March, 2010.  So, get some great Pepo Park products for you and help someone in need!

Back on the blog...

Well, the blog has been ignored for a while.  But, that doesn't mean Pepo Park has been at rest.
After the hectic holiday craft fair season, I took several naps.  We had a fabulous holiday sales season and even sold out of beer soap at Black Raven Brewing (restocked now...).

Once the naps were over, it was time for state sales tax.  Not fun, but it forced me to get things in order.
Then, stock taking, beer soap making, organizing the "factory" and quite a few Internet sales.

I also bought some new equipment and will unveil it here soon so that you can ooooh and aaaah.  :)

Today was the first fair of 2010.  It was a really fun one in downtown Kirkland at the Lake St. Bar & Grill.  Hosted by I Heart Indie Crafts, it was the first of many for Seattle's Eastside.  The turn out was good, the quality of the crafts was good and the mimosas we're cheap!

All-natural, hand crafted salve, lip balm, and bath salts:

Soaps await new owners:

Through the end of March, we're donating one bar of soap for every $15 you spend on Pepo Park products.  So, place your order today on our site.  The donated soap will be sent to Clean the World, a charity that "gets soap to people who really need it".  Sounds like a good cause to us!  At this time, a majority of the donations are going to Haiti.

Buyers learn about our sudsy offer:

We have plenty of fun stuff coming up, including the annual Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild Conference.
You can read all about it here!

Holiday update

It's been a while. Here's what's been happening with Pepo Park.
We're in 2 stores in Kirkland (Herban Wellness and uBRDO) and 1 brewery (Black Raven Brewing). At uBRDO and Black Raven, we're selling custom products: Lips Extreme lip balm and beer-inspired soaps, respectively.

We've been in 6 shows so far, with 2 to go. They've all been great.
There were 2 trunk/house shows, the first Holiday EtsyRAIN show, Shoreline Holiday Show, Phinney Ridge Winter Fair and the Kirkland Holiday show.
The EtsyRAIN show led to Pepo Park being carried in a 3rd store! Black Door Studio is carrying dog soap and salve. You can read all about it, and see a lovely photo, here.

What's left:
Dec. 11 - Christmas Brewtique, 5 pm, Naked City Taphouse
Dec. 19 - Holiday Sale on Queen Anne, 10-2
Check out the Pepo Park site for maps, etc.

If you can't make it to a show, you can order online. I can get stuff to you by Christmas if you order by Dec. 16.

Thanks to everyone for your support so far this holiday season. It's been a great one!

Three weeks down...

Three weeks down. In that time, I've made over 14 batches of soap. That is a lot of soap and storage is becoming an issue. :) But, the house smells so good!

Still to do to prep for the holiday sales:

• make lip balm
• make bath salts
• make bath bombs
• make salve
• package and label all of it

I think it's doable. And, it's fun!

While I manufacture products, Defined By Eye is working on our new Web site. It's a vast improvement over the current site - really attractive design. It should launch in early December. Stay in the know and get special offers by becoming our fan on Facebook.

Taste it!

People often smell my soap and say, "It smells good enough to eat." Others see it from a distance and wonder if it's cheese. I say, "Smells better, tastes worse." But, I've never tasted my own soap. I'm just going on my childhood experience(s) of having my mouth washed out with soap when I say it tastes worse.

This week, I was presented with a bar of my soap that had a wet film on it. There are many reasons this could happen and my mind jumped to the worst: Failed batch! Leaking essential oil! Leaking lye!!! Poison!!!!!

If I'd been calm, I would have rememberd that the rest of the batch is fine so this must have been a storage issue. But, I could easily test to see if it was essential oil. Just wipe off the wet film and smell it. It didn't smell. Phew. But, did that mean it was lye?!?!?!

In soapmaking, there is a thing called "the zap test". It is used to test if your soap is lye heavy or leaking lye. You touch your tongue to the soap and if you get a "zap" it's lye and that's bad. Ew. I had never tried this. I have never licked a battery, why would I voluntarily lick soap? But, on this day, I had to figure out what was going on, so I licked the film that was on my hand. Ew. Very soap. No lye. The film was plain water from the air, regular old condensation. The soap was being stored in a cold place and it's been raining a lot.

Phew! And, ew!!! Pass the gum!

I made chocolate soap once. It was really nice soap - very rich, made with cocoa butter, cocoa powder and chocolate. It looked like a brownie. Didn't taste like one, just ask my friend's son. :)

6 weeks!

Wow! Six weeks since my last post.
Six weeks can be a long time or a short time.
It's been a long time since my last post. But, it's only a short time until I'm in the middle of the holiday selling season!

The past six weeks:
Pepo Park finished up the summer season at the Juanita Farmer's Market on Oct. 9. It was a great summer. It only sort of rained once! Absolutely incredible. Thanks to everyone who made it down to Juanita Beach Park this year.
Pepo Park soap is now available in downtown Kirkland at Herban Wellness!
And, our Black Raven Brewing IPA soap was sold at the Enumclaw Oktoberfest by Sweet As Can Bee Honey. We really appreciate them taking our soap down to Enumclaw for us.

The upcoming six weeks:
Soaping and concocting in preparation for the 5 (!!!!) sales I'll be at this holiday season. In addition, we'll have orders from friends, our Etsy site, the Web site. I made a big list of everything that needs to be made and a schedule for getting it done. As always, Shawn is a big help. And, my mom - she's coming from Costa Rica to help with the sales.

Will you be visiting one of the shows? Is there an all-natural product you're interested in seeing us make? Or, a scent combo that you'd like to see? Leave a comment and let us know.