A Soap A Day Project: Day 15

 

Soap From Friday! This actually took the weekend to make. The reason: I was making it in between other production so I only had time to pour one color each hour. Making just one soap like this is actually more difficult than making a whole loaf. In a loaf mold this would be a cross section, but because this was the flat top of one soap, I had to pour the color, then cut a strip and pour color next to it, then cut, then pour, then cut, and so on.

So, the whole time I was making this I was thinking about how inefficient it was to create. Efficiency is not the point of this project so I wasn't worried about that, but all weekend I thought about ways to make my processes more efficient so I can produce more with the same or fewer resources, including less man power, simpler but equally as gorgeous design, less time, and less packaging. I especially focused on packaging and resources as they are my little hang up with making soap.


Water: I think I can save 75% - 80%!
Water is a HUGE concern for me. We are so wasteful with potable water! I live in a dessert and people here want to make it look like the UK with all the grass and other water sucking plants that we maintain. My husband and I rent a house and it has a lawn which makes me a little sick. REALLY! There isn't much I can do about it except let it go brown and dormant during the summer, which I do, and which annoys my neighbors. Oh, well, I am not wasting 100 gallons of drinking water a week to maintain a lawn that I don't use and that shouldn't be planted here anyway. When I see hug complexes with rolling emerald patches of lawn it hurts me inside. REALLY!

I currently use too much water to wash soap making dishes. How can I run the water less?
1) Soak, melt and pour melting containers immediately when the soap is still liquid. Run the sponge over them to clean with the soaking water and then rinse quickly! Or, let the soap set up a little then peel it out of the container so there is less to wash.
2) For Cold Process, soak the utensils in soapy water and again, clean off with the soaking water then rinse quickly.
This is all to prevent me running the water as I am scrubbing with the sponge.
3) For the Cold Process pots, let them sit overnight until the soap sets up and then scrape most of it off. They can then be soaked and cleaned with the method above, but I can do it outside over the lawn and ornamental plants. I have done this before when soaping in 5 gallon buckets and the soap doesn't seem to harm the plants so I am just going to to this with ALL of my CP batches. I am going to say this will keep the tap off 75% - 80% more than it currently is!

This will take more time, and I will need more pots and containers as some will have soap setting up in them when I need a pot for a new batch of soap. Saving potable water is worth a little extra time, but I can still be productive while pots and containers are soaking. As with everything it will be more efficient in an assembly line fashion so I will just make washing an assembly line task!

Packaging is the next task to overhaul! I am moving towards all biodegradable and less less less! Stay Tuned!

A Soap A Day Project: Day 14

When I was a kid I thought I was so smart! All of the smart people on TV, and grown ups at my grandparents house knew how to play chess. I was saying some arrogant little kid thing to an adult about how I knew how to play chess and that made me smart, and I forget who had to break it to me that I was actually playing checkers! It was a cruel day!

A Soap A Day Project: Day 7

I am doubling up on soap posts today since the light went down yesterday and I couldn't get my pictures taken! I do all of my photos in natural light so if I don't do it early the light gets lost! This is a visual representation of the all day headache I had yesterday. :) WARNING: Don't stare too long! I definitely got out of my comfort zone with the bright neon colors but I like it!

 I love how the backing pink color creates a neon glow in the white soap dish!

NOTE: I am traveling until Monday but hope to still do my Soap A Day but I may have to post all of them when I get back. I will try and post quick pictures from my phone on my Facebook page!

A Soap A Day Project: Day 6

Monday was more inspiration from home decor!

A Soap A Day Project

{pictures below} 
"Never thinking anything is good enough is a mindset breeding ground for self doubt and failure!"

As a small business owner, some days are good and some are bad. I am at a transition point with my business and I am finding it hard to stay focused. I have spent long hours for the past month of nights trying to develop new products that will "blow up", when I should be happy with what I am doing and focusing on marketing the products that my customers and myself already love. I have no idea what I am doing with the marketing so I have been taking on-line classes and reading books, trying to implement what I learn as I go, but it is a long road and I am moving slowly!

I am trained in art drawing, painting, photography, and graphic design, and have been thinking about why I didn't have the confidence to start a business as a graphic designer then, and how it pertains to my business now. I have set out on A Soap A Day art quest to try and answer some questions and to fill a creative void that I sometimes feel with regular daily production. I had some real talent as an artist studying photography, painting, and graphic design, and I wanted desperately to be some sort of visual artist after school but kind of failed at it. Wanting something isn't enough if you don't take action! Looking at my past failures may help me actively recognize pieces of my personality that are holding me back from taking my business to the next level, thus empowering me to change those pieces of my personality.

My husband recently told me the Japanese concept of Kaizen or continuous improvement, which is just taking baby steps on a daily basis to reach a goal, rather than being overwhelmed with big tasks that are daunting and may not actually help you achieve success. I am going to try and use my art and soap as a medium to visualize those baby steps I want to take in my business, and hopefully it will help open my mind to what is holding me back!

Here is the bar for June 5th 2012. The concept is "beginning" as depicted in cell type shapes. If you think about it the process of creating life is a series of baby steps! My business started with a single bar of soap like my life started with a single cell. I am going to keep going on this theme for a while slowly moving my way to an end.

 This one bar of soap took over 60 minutes to make! 3 inch x 3 inch bar.

The small "cell" shapes were made with a thin sliver of pink soap that I shaved round and centered in an empty pen tube and plugged off with clay. They are very tiny and were difficult to work with! The first couple of tries did not work as soap was hardening before I could pour it, or the soap was hot enough to pour but then melted the thin pink soap!

What I have learned from this bar is that I am fickle. I loved it for a second when I made it and the this morning was already looking for ways to make it better and criticizing the design, rather than just being happy with it as is. This is often my thoughts on products, not that there is anything wrong with wanting to improve, but sometimes you just have to be happy with what you have! Never thinking anything is good enough is a mindset breeding ground for self doubt and failure!