We've moved over to Wordpress, here's the link so you can pick up where you left off. I think there are some improvements you'll like. You can easily check the Events calendar to see which shows and markets are coming up-by clicking on an event you can even see a small map. Blog, Events and Shop are all integrated as well, aaaaand you can check out my Facebook very easily by clicking on the left column where it says "Find Us On Facebook." See ya there!
New Blog and Shop (www.tierravedesoaps.com
November 5, 2013
We've Moved
October 22, 2013
To Market, To Market...To Buy Some Great Soap, And Jewelry, And Quilts, And Wreaths, And.....
So, I haven't worked a market in a veerrry long time, but I'm planning to start getting in on the action beginning with the Backyard Boutique in November. I'm very excited to be included amongst such great craftspeople and artists, and if you are looking to buy local AND handmade for Christmas-this is a great option.
I will have plenty of soap,but there will be so much more-handmade jewelry, wreaths, hand sewn maxi skirts, childrens items, photography art,refinished furniture AND baked goods ya'll.
October 17, 2013
The Slooowness Of Change
Orange Honey Drizzle with Oats/3.75oz. Round $6.50
In the name of working smarter on my business I have been working on getting my website up and fully functioning. For over a year now my website has merely been forwarding customers over to my Etsy shop and thus not being utilized to it's fullest. As part of the changes that are being put into place I am moving away from Etsy and over to a dedicated website since I've been in essence paying for a domain and not utilizing it to it's fullest extent. The move is going slowly as there is php to wade through, new images to take, copy to "freshen up" and lots of little details to tend to, however in the end I think it will be a wise move. I'm moving over to Wordpress where I can incorporate my website, blog and calendar all under one domain.
I'm working on finding a "feel" for my images that I am happy with for now. I had the Mr. move a heavy piece of furniture into the kitchen so I could make use of the beautiful warm Fall light that filters in each evening-he thinks I'm crazy,but it's all in the name of nice images with that certain feel. I think I'm going in the right direction. The light was a bit past where the "golden hour" here for this image, but still there's something about it.
October 12, 2013
Just A Bit Of This And That
Olive Oil and Goat's Milk new chunky bar with texture...
I've been working for some time on a new bar size and shape. I think I'm getting very close to what I'm after. Soon, these lovely chunky textured bars will come in new colors and scents, and for those of you who prefer the rounds have no fear there will be a variety of "Naturals" that come in rounds.
I've been working very hard on things on the business end. I got lots of good advice from the soaping community in regards to embracing my weak area that is the business side of things. I have taken a close look at my pricing and have re-vamped it accordingly, I am in the midst of re-working my website,blog etc. to show these changes and to be more cost effective, I am doing just as I did when I first started making soap-reading all I can get my hands on, figuring, calculating, learning,changing this and that, all while making soap each day to get ready for two up and coming shows. One will be here in Lubbock and one in the Lamesa area.(more details closer to the time of these events.) I have made some real strides towards getting a handle on the business workings that I thought I wasn't "smart enough" to take on. Admittedly, I don't have all the answers, and expect to fumble and fall on occasion, but I'm making HUGE strides and just want to give it every chance to be a success.
October 10, 2013
Heroes For Horses
Up for auction-2 handcrafted shave soaps with handcrafted (hand turned by us) Black Walnut shave brush featuring a 26mm Silvertip Badger shave knot-other items up for auction include candles, jewelry, beautifully crafted leather cuffs,photography sessions,Texas Tech themed jewelry, a 6 month VIP pass to Freedom Fitness, IPL Facial Treatment from the Facial and Aesthetic Center of Lubbock,Runway Fashion Exchange has donated gift certificates for clothing-looks like this will be the place to be...
If you're local and you have a heart for horses (and our community) there's a way you can make a difference. Friday October 18, 2013 is the First Annual "Heroes for Horses" fundraiser out at Bryan's Rustic Sophistication (141st and Slide Road) The evening will be a festive evening of food,fellowship, and fundraising with a raffle and silent auction. All proceeds go to further the mission of Easy R Equine Rescue to rescue and rehabilitate abused, neglected and displaced horses, and to use the horses to reach out to youth and families in the community.
This is going to be a fun evening that you won't want to miss and a chance to make a real and meaningful difference. Get your tickets now- "Heroes for Horses" by clicking on the link you will also see that there are many ways to help out Easy R Equine-such as donating through Paypal, going to Amazon and purchasing than item from the Easy R Equine wishlist to help "stock the barn" or selling items on Craigslist and Ebay and donating a portion of sales. Also needed are art supplies and craft supplies for the Horseplay groups.
October 2, 2013
Fallness (Is That A Word?)
Orange Clove and Coffee soap-You Betcha!
I've been working on lots of Chef (Coffee Soap) and some Orange Clove too, my house smells amazing. Yum! I love how Coffee soap turns that deep dark brown like a fresh brewed cup of rich dark coffee, and paired with sunny bright orange-oh yeah! I love how the colors not only compliment each other, but the aromas of Orange, Clove and Cinnamon remind me of bountiful
Fallness.
September 10, 2013
"Soapmaking Made Easy" - A Reveiw
Recently, I had the honor of previewing the soon to be released
"Soapmaking Made Easy-A Comprehensive Guide to Making Cold Process
Soap" an eBook written by my friend Erin (of Inner Earth Soaps fame.) I
can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I was to check it out. Erin has long been one of my muses in the soapmaking
world, and is quite known for her beautiful color combinations, gorgeous
textured tops and her clean technique. I can remember when I first started
making soap going to her blog almost daily just to marvel at her work. I guess
I thought I might learn by osmosis or something, but now she is sharing many of
her tried and true techniques with us as well as information on safety, formulas,
oil properties, colorants, additives, suppliers and more.
Erin is known for her beautiful color combinations, gorgeous textured tops and her clean technique.
I found Erin's book to be very thorough and to have great information for both the new soapmaker as well as the more experienced soapmaker. New soapmakers will find important information they should know about before they even pick up a stick blender; such as the three different categories of soap (though the main focus is Cold Process), safety precautions (how to handle lye), oil properties, trusted formulas, how to create your own formulas based on the properties you want in your soap, how to tell when your soap is at trace, what "gel" is, how to rebatch and much more...
The beautiful cover
Erin even takes new soapmakers on a virtual soapmaking session where you will learn step by step what "trace" actually looks like, when to add scent and additives, what gel looks like and even how to cut soap you made only hours before.
Raw soap a few minutes after adding lye solution starting to turn opaque
Pouring the soap
Cutting the bars
Throughout the book, Erin gives tips and reminders that only a seasoned soapmaker would know, but a new soapmaker should take notice to. Her tips and reminders are invaluable morsels of experience. This example is very basic, but among one of the most important.
"Reminder-Only do one thing at a time. Cooking and making soap together do Not make a good combination."
While it seems like a pretty tongue in cheek sort of reminder-it is very important that you have a calm quiet area to work in. Multitasking is not recommended while attempting to use lye.
For the more advanced soapmakers Erin graciously unlocks the secrets behind several of her techniques (this is the moment I've been waiting for-somebody pinch me.) Erin gives step by step tutorials for techniques such as even layering, messy layering, hanger swirls, in the pot swirls, decorative textured tops and more. Woot with me now!
Messy Layering Technique - Spooning on the layers
Messy Layering- finished bars
To sum it all up, I would highly recommend Erin's eBook for beginners, as well as more experienced soapmakers who want to expand their repertoire of techniques and learn something new from someone with a vast knowledge of soapmaking technique. Look for Erin’s eBook "Soapmaking Made Easy-A Comprehensive Guide to Making Cold Process Soap" to go live Thursday September 12, 2013-for free tutorials and to get your hands on her eBook be sure to sign up for her mailing list.
Pick up your "Soapmaking Made Easy" ebook here.
August 13, 2013
I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends....
Paprika infusion after stick blending a bit, this usually tends to modify the color some as the lye is integrated into the batch-excuse the tungsten lighting(ugh!)
Eureka! The color I've been after. I am over the moon to finally get this color-now if there is no bleeding my life will be complete-or close to it. lol! Orange Clove 2.0
I've been on a mission to get a "happy orange" and finally with some help from the very gracious soaping community, I think that I may have found exactly the color I've been looking for. If you've been following along my " quest for orange"it all started here, with a sampling of Annatto seeds that ultimately led me down that path of THE most beautiful yellow. (although since all of this, I have learned a new technique(again thanks to input from one of my soaping buddies) to try that will hopefully result in a perfectly lovely peachy orange-I just haven't tried it yet.)
The willingness to help each other out IS one of the BEST qualities of the soapmaking community. So refreshing, the willingness to share and offer up suggestions. I would like to give a shout out to my friend over at Minis Seifen for her suggestion to try Paprika-Wow! It's just beautifully orange.
August 7, 2013
A Change Of Heart
Raspberry, lemon yellow and the palest of greens...
Sea Foam, pale green, violet, lemon yellow with a splash of raspberry...
Violet, Sea Foam and the perfect pale green....a cool soothing palette
For years I've been resistant to color other than clays,herbs or oxides. I really wanted to keep my product as close to natural as possible, and so color has been a bit of a conflict. Upon returning from the Conference in May, I decided to give color a whirl and as you can see I have been having an amazing time with color. Oh my gosh! I am loving micas they are too much fun.
I've also had somewhat of a change of heart in terms of my soapmaking. I think that perhaps I was putting too many parameters on what I thought my soap should be, and I was really squelching the joy that IS soapmaking. I was taking it all way too seriously-I'm so glad I decided to add a little color to my life-what fun! Making soap should be ALL about fun-if it's not... relax and try a little color.
August 3, 2013
Baseline
Yep, I've been playing with color yet again. I had a disappointment that ultimately spurred me to work towards a baseline of all the micas I have. I should have done something like this in the beginning. duh! I'm doing each test with the same amount of mica mixed with a bit of water from my lye water in 16oz. batches to see if I then need to adjust color from there. The next step will be to cut and see if any of them bleed so that I can see if I need to adjust down a bit. I have a mini rainbow of colors that I will show you once I have them all soaped. I am love, love, loving this green.
Micas are a bit tricky because there are no definitive usage rates out there. It seems that learning them is sort of a trial by fire, but if you are persistent you will soon get the hang of them. I've also heard through the grapevine that Amy over at Great Cakes Soapworks is working on a video that addresses the proper use of micas- I can't wait, this is a gal that has lots of experience with micas and is sure to have lots of useful tips to share.
July 6, 2013
Orange?
Annatto Seed Infusion
Annatto Infusion 24 hours later-(after a good shake)much more orangeyb and less translucent
I moved the infusion to a much smaller jar-don't you love this little mason jar-it's perfect!
I did a bit of asking around about the best way to get a nice happy orange. Orange is not an easy color to obtain if you don't use an artificial means. I have used Carrots in the past and gotten a very nice orange only to have it fade into a muddy darkish orange. I feel like most of the natural options will fade to some extent-that's just the nature of the beast I guess. Anyway, one of the examples I saw along my research journey was infused Annatto seed-it was a lovely happy orange, so I decided to give it whirl. Annatto Seed is often used in Mexican and Caribbean food to impart a rich yellow orange color-as a substitute for the pricey Saffron.
From what I understand the Annatto powder will give you speckles, so if you want to avoid those you need to infuse. I had a small sample of Annatto Seed from Bramble Berry so I'm going to check this whole thing out. I just started this infusion not even an hour ago at the time of this photograph and already I'm seeing results. My research turned up a 1% rate of usage if you are wanting to give this a try. Let me know how it works for you if you do, and I'll be reporting my results too.
June 22, 2013
I've Got The Blues
Originally I was shooting for a deep purple, and in the beginning things looked promising
After the gel-while the pic looks very blue-irl there is a tint of purple
but still it's more blue, and still it's very pretty too...
On Thursday, I got some new pigments from Bramble Berry ,and yesterday I had to play. Yay! for new colors. I set out originally to do a deep purple that was suggested on the Bramble Berry website-by mixing Ultramarine Blue with the Ultramarine Violet-at first I thought I might have gotten close,but as the gel progressed I could see there was NOT going to be a deep purple at all however, it is a blue with a tint of purple(the purple is a bit more apparent irl.) I'm guessing I underestimated the potency of Ultramarine Blue. I still love the outcome, but apparently I could use a crash course in remedial color theory 101. Oh well! it was fun trying. ;-))
June 17, 2013
For Today's Momunemtal Mess...
My thrown together practice slab, does the job! If you're new to soapmaking-don't be put off by thinking you need a fancy mold, just throw one together and get after it, and yes, you can line with plastic.
Lavender-Anise
So, the Mister threw me together a rough practice slab. Can you believe I have been soaping since 2008 and have never owned a proper slab, or any slab for that matter? I wanted to see what I could do with one. I have some ideas that require a different shape bar plus lots of texture.
Anyway, on to the part about the monumental mess-well, I made one today-a big one. I'm not sure how one can use so many utensils, buckets, colorants, essential oils etc,but I manage to do it. I actually really like order,but you wouldn't know it if you could see my kitchen right now. Yikes!
This batch is a creamy white top with a black underlay (and perhaps some movement in between-unless is was obliterated by the fact I had a hard time wielding a bucket and pouring in a precise manner-this could have helped or hindered the situation-we'll see.)Scented with a blend of Lavender and Anise, and sprinkled with a few crushed lavender buds. A bit of purple would have been nice-but no purple. ( I do have some on the way though-so maybe soon.)
Oh well,I've put off kitchen clean up for as long as I could-for some reason people think they need to eat-off to clean up the monumental mess-stay tuned to see what mess I make tomorrow. lol!
May 24, 2013
Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild Conference 2013-Vendors
*Pardon the yellow in the pics, I wasn't sure how to change the setting to Tungsten obviously.
Every day (several times a day) the vendors were there to allow easy shopping for conference attendees. There were many products and services available to peruse and choose from. Everyone was so friendly and there were lots of samples to be had too. (we love samples!)
Vendors included-
Alimar Labs LLC
Back Porch Soap Co.
Bath Bomb Press
The Chemistry Store
Essential Depot
HSCG Store
Leburmuth
Lovin' Soap
Luck Break Consulting
MyGMPRecords.com
Mossy Creek Soaps
National Shrink Wrap
Propay
Pure Essential Supply Inc.
Sagescript Institute LLC
Silicone Soap Molds
Simply Body
Stephenson Personal Care
Veracity Insurance
Wholesale Supplies Plus
As you can see there were lots of exhibitors that took time out of their schedules to be at the conference-Thank you so much for all your kind hospitality! It was great to see so much product in one place.
May 23, 2013
A Field Trip To The North Carolina State Farmer's Market
Right off you are greeted by glorious fresh bouquets of flowers.
Fresh produce of every kind is abundant at this fabulous market.
Oh my! How beautiful are these tomatoes? Just look at those amazing cucumbers in the background.
Flowers, herbs, veggie plants of all kinds are prolifically displayed at this Farmer's Market
Mmmmm, herbs of all kinds-some I've never heard of.
There's a wide assortment of hanging pots to add beauty to any space.
Even more hanging beauty...
I want one of each...
Love the wee hanging air plants...
LOOK at the Hydrangeas-AMAZING!
And happy colorful Zinnias make me smile.
Thursday was the first full day in North Carolina, and since it was a half day of workshops at the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild 2013 Conference thatI did not attend we(the Mister and I) went to the North Carolina State Farmer's Market.
I wish I could bottle up the sights and wonderful aroma of this glorious farmer's market. The wide array of colors overwhelm you as you make your way through the various aisles, the pleasant aroma of fresh strawberries and juicy ripe apples are soon replaced with the herbal freshness of rosemary and other herbs.
This farmer's market boasts "30,000 square feet for North Carolina farmers to sell fresh produce,
plants, and other specialty items produced on local farms. Plants
are available starting in March and local fruits and vegetables are
sold throughout the growing season. This is where you can find the
freshest and widest variety of produce and plants in the area."
You can find anything from seafood,meats,cheeses,wines,handcrafted soap,crafts,baked goods, plants, and of course fresh produce. The farmer's market grounds also hosts three restaurants-one of which is the mainstay North Carolina Seafood Market-the servings are generous, hot and very tasty (I recommend the popcorn shrimp.) Also, remember this is the South where you will be offered "Sweet Tea" at every stop.
If you're ever in the area I highly recommend a visit to the North Carolina State Farmer's Market.
May 22, 2013
Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Conference 2013-Raleigh North Carolina
The beautiful Midtown Hilton we stayed in...the folks there were so nice and the food was delicious!
For those of you who wonder if the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild Conference is worth it....I would say a resounding "Yes!" Not only were there so many interesting sessions to attend on topics from Marketing to Swirling,SEO to making silicone molds,but there are many, many vendors-some of who may be new to you, and probably the best part are all the new and interesting people you'll meet.
I'll have more information for you over the next few days.I'm waiting for my notes to get shipped home from North Carolina.- Stay tuned!
April 16, 2013
Loving This Treasury...
'Someone's In The Kitchen....' by brandyseher
A beautiful collection of handmade and vintage kitchen items that anyone would be lucky to have in their own home.
Treasury tool supported by the dog house
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