Nothing Left To Do But...

...make soap! My greenware shelves are full and I am waiting on the last pots - some jars that will serve as cat urns, for an order - to dry enough for the bisque. I ain't going out into the glaze kitchen in the single digit weather, I promise you that, so any buckets that are low are just gonna have to wait.What better time to get some saponification going?

This loaf has a raspberry lemonade scent. The blue band will hopefully be a translucent star in the finished bars. There are also some pale blue cubes buried under the pink and lemon layers. Tomorrow morning is the big reveal!

Speaking of soap, I spent some time last night designing some labels from an Avery template. You know you can get a pre-made template for any shape of label Avery sells at Avery.com, right?  I've been using Avery 22808, a round, brown kraft label to identify my soaps. The names were hand written, which I'm sure is all very charmingly homemade, but I think people trust products more if they carry some of the polish of commercial goods. Slicker packaging seems to be a way to make people more comfortable with a handmade product, because it mimics the way commercial goods are presented. Oh, this person can't be a clown, or in any way half-assed! Just look at those tidy labels!

Or, as Mr. Business Guy used to say, "Presentation: it's HUGE." This is applicable to pottery as well.

I got some cellophane bags, to replace the tissue and white paper as packaging. They aren't quite what I want, but I don't like those little sleeves (the soap shrinks, and then its pants fall down!), or the fancy papers that hide the soap. I am unwilling to add 50¢ or more to the price of each bar for those cunning boxes with the cut outs, so cello bags will do for now. I also got a label maker ($6 on Ebay!), so I can print up the name of each soap, and put it in the center of the circle. And also because I've always wanted a label maker.

It occurs to me that I really should make another label for the back with the ingredients. I haven't, in part because I make such small batches that I couldn't afford to wholesale them, so anyone who gets a soap is dealing directly with me. But again, it seems more professional, and people do have preferences about animal products or other materials.