Saturday's Soap Class

Early last week I received word from Intermountain Nursery that the class had sold out, then on Thursday night I got a call from K at the Nursery that there was a drop-out, so that put the class at nine, which I was completely happy with. But yesterday when I got to the Nursery, I found that there were 11 students! And I had only made ten primers. But it turned out that there was a couple there and they shared a primer, so everyone was able to walk away armed with the basics of cold process soap making. The class, thankfully, didn't last from 9:30 to 3pm as posted, wrapping up some time around 1:30 or so. It was an unusual day for May, the coldest on record for us, from what I heard. We had a fire pit and a propane heater warming us on the patio for the entire day. I taught perfumery formulating techniques to create the scent for the soap and let one group of students create the top notes, another group the heart notes, and another the base notes. The scent turned out beautifully and several students wrote down the formulary to recreate later. It was a great class, the students couldn't have been better; curious, attentive, excited to be there. My assistant, Becca, whom I forgot to introduce to the class, was very helpful -- she was always there to take away a dirty bowl or measuring cup to wash and return clean, moving bottles and buckets around so the students could have better access to the soap pot. I think we made a great team.



We made two soaps, one with salts in the base, and one to practice swirling. Both are quite artistic and beautiful, I think.