It's kind of odd to see something that I made in my home in Ireland, in his home in Canada ... odd but VERY good indeed. This made me so proud and me, Malky and Titch watched it all together and we were grinning from ear to ear. Mike is so funny and so lovely and we gave him a big cheer at the end.
My style has changed somewhat since these and the labels have definitely changed since I got my new logo but the soaps are just as good (if not better!).
Oh and you'll see why the Castille soap, Fiore Rustico, is called Rustic ... it's very rustic looking in the video. And, when you get to it, he means Water Lily... you'll see!
I thought you might like to see his video.
Make sure to check out his Facebook page and his You Tube channel too - he'll be opening his own store very soon and I'm dying to have a look see!!
A while back, Jo from Product Body, ran a competition to win some of her bath steeps and soaps of your choice ... well I joined in (of course, I've always wanted to try out Jo's soaps) and she ran the competition and, oh no, someone else won. Oh well.
But...!!! They never contacted Jo (silly creature!) and Jo ran the entrants again and I won!! Yay! I was SO happy, I had had a terrible day and, honestly, winning the competition was just perfect. Jo sent on the prizes as soon as she could (there was a delay for which she apologised profusely [no need as I kept telling her] and often) and I received it the other day. I opened it greedily and Oh. My. God! Divine!!!
I managed to do the video report today ... Jo, I hope you like it. I'm a HUGE fan and what soaps, what bath steep, what amazing products. Check out the video (Titch was videoing).
Michelle and Caron of Two Blooms Design Studio (with whom I recently did a swap from Canada to Ireland and back) wrote a post on their blog about the swap plus added images and, best of all, a video they made ... singing!!! It's SO good, I loved it, you have to check this out!!
The ever lovely Julia from Soap Artists blog is organizing an international soap swap. Spanish soapers will be swapping with other soapers from around the world.
If you'd like to be involved, all you have to do is:
1) Go on over to the Soap Artists blog and sign up with a comment
2) Wait until 3 March when the swap list will be published and you will know with whom you'll be swapping
3) Blog about the soap you receive, show photos.. a video maybe?
I'm all signed up and I hope we see some more international soapers on there too!
I am SO very lucky to have my very own soapographer in house! Soapographer? That's a soap photographer, see?! Titch took over taking photos of my soaps last Summer and I'm so glad she did, one less job for me and what a joy to find a talent so close to home (well, at home in fact!).
So I've noticed that I've posted a lot of videos of cut soaps but not the final images so here is a catch up of soaps I've made recently. Not all are on the site yet as they're still curing but I'll note where they are on site as we go along. Ready??? Let's go.....
Lime Basil Mandarin
(available from 27 February)
Asian Pear & Lily
(available from 5 March)
Paradise Found
(available from 12 March)
Intrigue
(available from 19 March)
Buttered Maple Pecan
(available from 26 March)
Perfect Storm
(available from 26 March)
Seduction
(available from 26 March)
That's all for now... but, of course, I'm planning more... hope you enjoy everything! Make sure to check them out online at www.iamhandmade.com and check out the curing dates above.
I was delighted a while back to receive an email from Michelle from Two Blooms Design Studio who asked if I'd be interested in doing a swap with her. I've been reading her blog and following her on Facebook for a while now so I said YES PLEASE!!! So we agreed to swap two soaps, some soap samples, a body butter and a lip balm. She went one better and added in some of her foaming bath salts too.
I got them in the post last Friday I think but was only able to make the video about them last night and then ran out of time to put the video together fully. But it was the first thing I did after I got home from work this evening and here it is!
Love everything you make Michelle, a very high quality product and I was so honoured to swap with you. I can only hope you're as happy with my soaps and other things as I was with yours. Thank you SO much again xx
You might have read on some soaping blogs about a Friendship Soap Party that's being held - 9 of us, from Ireland, Spain, the US and Canada, got together and decided to make soap for each other. We found out a lot about each other by telling our stories .. most especially what we liked most about soaps, what our preferences were etc.
So, my hubby (you know, the movie star) and Titch and I made a video of hubs picking out the names of who makes soap for who (yeah, I know, that should be whom but that makes me sound like an English school marm!). Here's the video if you'd like to see ... as ever, hubs is nuts!
So, I got to make soap for Emily Shieh of Shieh Design Studio who set me a challenge:
1 - make a soap with one additional natural ingredient, over and above my usual silk
2 - use a combination of colours that I've not used together before
3 - use a new technique
Well, that's a challenge and a half, for sure!
So I decided to:
1 - out challenge Emily and use both goatsmilk AND aloe vera juice
2 - use purple and gold together .. colours I've used seperately but not at the same time
3 - try out a hanger swirl, no idea what I was doing but hey ho, I'll always meet a challenge
4 - I fragranced the soap with my own blend of Geranium, Lavender & Patchouli and decided to call it Intrigue
And here are the final photos ... Emily, this is for you!! xx
Still Photography courtesy of Ger Holland, www.facebook.com/takenbytitch
Hope you've enjoyed the Friendship Soap Party and hope you love Intrigue. If you would like to order, these will be available online (8 bars only) from early March.
