new soap supplies

I am going to make new soap this weekend. I finally received my orders in the mail this week. I bought Fench green clay from Portugal, and I also bought French pink clay, which is supposed to be the mildest clay.
The green clay I will use for the prickly pear soap, and the pink clay for the pomegranate shaving soap. I hope it will color the soap accordingly. That would look very nice. I am still debating if I should get the yellow clay for the dandelion root soap!?
I will have to make lots of soap before April 13th, so I have a lot in stock. I am going to have major surgery on my right arm, and will basically be out of commission for a few months. The doctor gave me a recovery time of 3-4 months, with NO use of my arm during that entire time. Not good!! That means no new jewelry, no mosaics, no painting. That is going to drive me crazy. What am I going to do with myself for that time period? I guess I will have to do a lot of thrifting, that is if I can drive myself. Looks like I better start making a list of activities I can do while laid up.
I am also trying to decide if I should close my Etsy shop for a while, but I think with the help of my family and friends, I can still run it and just have them package the orders for me. We shall see how that works out!
Oh, and I messed up one of the circuit board pendants shown in the previous post. As usual the resin ended up with a big air bubble in one of them, even though I followed directions to the t. I HAVE to find another resin besides the Magic-Glos. I tried to use the torch as suggested to get the bubble out, and all it did was mess up the pendant even further.
Well, nothing I can do about it now. On to making soap! Pictures will follow.

New jewelry

I made 4 new pendants out of circuit board. The green circuit board is from my old laptop, the purple board I found at a thrift store. I added Swarovski crystals and polymer clay to the circuit board to make the pendant less boring. The two square small pendants still need to be covered with UV resin, but it has not been sunny enough and too windy to finish them. The resin dome will enhance the single Swarovski crystal on it and make it sparkle even more. Once all the pendants are finished and I have had a chance to take pictures, they will be listed in my Etsy store

Past Artist in Residence Project

So I decided it is time to post someting other than soap stuff again.
A few years ago, when I was artist in residence at a local elementary school, I did some paintings on the walls in the media center. The paintings are in the shape of books. The books are curiculum based themes, as in "the rainforest, fractured fairy tales and the desert". To make them more interesting for the students, the books are "I Spy- books" with objects hidden in them for the students to find. I wrote a poem for each book which listed the things to find.
So how about it, can you find everything?

New Shampoo Bars

I made new shampoo bars today. This time, I made a bigger 4+ pound batch, because I spent yesterday morning building a mold out of leftover wood we had laying around the house. I adapted the recipe to fit the new mold perfectly.
The soap is a Pomegranate, Vanilla, Lavender shampoo bar and it smells so good.
It should be ready in about 3 to 4 weeks.
I am going to make Honey Mint soap tomorrow, as soon as I have unmolded this batch, so I can use the new mold again.

New Soap

I also made two batches of soap this weekend. Both batches are shampoo bars. One is a tea tree oil bar and the other a pomegranate, vanilla, lavender bar.
Both shampoos will be cured and listed in my Etsy store in about 3-5 weeks.

Exciting New Finds

I went thrifting on Saturday and found some very nice items.
A jar made by the Hermann Ohme Porcelain Factory. The pottery mark indicates that it was made in the period from 1895-1910. The Ohme factory was located in a town called Niedersalzbrunn, in Silesia. The area now belongs to Western Poland and the town is called Walbrzych. It is quite the find, because Silesia/Ohme pottery is a highly sought after collectible :)
The next find, a Noritake cup and saucer, are similar to the saucer I blogged about a while ago. This set is also white with the yellow band that is covered by an ornate hand painted heavy gold floral design. The set was made during the deco period from 1918-1921. By the way, the other saucer is even older and was made in 1908.
Of course I am thinking about keeping the cup and saucer for myself.
It seems the box with items I intend to keep is getting fuller and fuller.

oh so pretty!!

I found this pink glass tidbit today. I am certain it is vintage depression glass, even though I have not been able to find one like it anywhere online to see what it is worth.
Lately I have become obsessed with the pink glass items. I just love them, even though I am really not a big fan of pink in general. I think my daughters have infected me :)
Well, here is the picture. Isn't it oh so pretty?

Past mosaic art pieces

This mosaic piece is called "Celebrate Kids". The students of Palm Valley Elementary School each drew a picture of a child performing a task or having fun etc. Each class chose one drawing, which was then turned into a mosaic and mounted onto the center "fountain" in the school courtyard. Above you can see the entire fountain and a couple close ups of individual fields. This was my first major mosaic public art piece, which I completed with the assistance of the PVES art teacher.

Latest Favorite Finds

Here are some pictures of my latest favorite finds.
I love the little cactus salt and pepper shakers. They are so fitting for Arizona, even though they are vintage and made in Japan.
The cigar boxes are wonderful, too. I will put shaving soap, a shaving brush, and if the size allows, even a shaving mug in them. That will make a great gift.
The beautiful saucer is made by Noritake. The ornate gold decoration is dimensional and the photos do not do the vividness of the shine justice.
I also found 2 Salem Streamline art deco sugar bowls without a lid. I will post pictures as soon as I get around to taking them.

Doug Wiley Dolphin Mugs

Here are 2 beautiful Doug Wiley dolphin mugs, that won't end up on Etsy, because they are made in 1999 and do not qualify for the vintage category. That does not really upset me though, because I was thinking about keeping them for myself anyway.
My wonderful neighbor and friend, Judy, found them while thrifting in California and brought them back for me.