Field Trip to Rocky Corner Soapworks

Hi Folks!!

We recently hosted a group of 15 homeschooled children for a morning soapmaking demonstration!

First, let me begin by saying the kids were terrific...very well behaved and attentive. They ranged in age from 3 to 14 and believe it or not, they ALL participated!

Some ready-made soap was passed around so the kids had an idea of what we were trying to make that day. Then we started talking about the wonderful oils we use for our soaps here at Rocky Corner. The kids were very interested and wanted to know where the oils came from (ie. not the supplier, rather the nut or plant). Then we did our melt down!

While the oils melted, I talked with the kids about the chemical we use to make real soap, sodium hydroxide. With glasses on, I went outside to mix the water and sodium hydroxide so the bulk of the fumes were carried away on the wind. The kids "ooooh 'd and aaaah'd" over the "steam" or fumes coming off the surface. Then they took a temperature of the mixture and were shocked to find it was 205 degrees!

From there we moved onto cooling our oils and water/lye mixture in a water bath.




Meanwhile, Maddy and I demonstrated how we bag and cover our molds in preparation for the final pour of the soap. The kids were full of alot of terrific questions ranging from some of the decorating methods we use to how much soap we make every day.




After putting the raw materials together and blending them with the stick blender, it was time for one final.......SMELL!! I told the kids I don't generally measure the fragrance/essential oils. I stop when the smell is what satisfies my nose!




Then it's time to pour...this first was a 20 lb. batch of Lemongrass Soap :)


In all, we made approx. 40 lbs of soap, including Lilac with Blueberry Seeds and Grapefruit :) Below is a pic or two of our finished products!


We had a terrific day with this particular group of kids. Many thanks to Mrs. Laurie Hipke for organizing this trip with Rocky Corner Soapworks...and for being flexible with dates/times.


We look forward to sharing our love of soapmaking with other school groups in the future!

Best to you all,

Karen

Show Schedule ~ 2011 Season

Can you believe it's already time to look ahead to Fall and our Christmas season of 2011? We've spent the past few weeks reviewing different opportunities for our company to show and think we've come up with a nicely varied list of venues.

With that in mind, here is our tentative 2011 show schedule for Rocky Corner Soapworks:

Feb. 26, 27 ~ Cabin Fever Craft Show, Mariott, 70 Constitution Ave, Concord, NH

Apr. 1, 2, 3 ~ Made In NH Expo, Radisson, 700 Elm St., Manchester

May 7 ~ Andover Crafts in the Park, Chestnut & Bartlett St., Andover

May 28, 29, 30 ~ Castleberry Fairs, Mill Falls Marketplace, Meredith

July 3,4,5 ~ Castleberry Fairs, Gunstock Recreation Area, Gilford, NH

July 31, Aug 1 ~ Bar Harbor Summer Arts/Crafts Festival, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME

Aug. 14, 15 ~ Gloucester Waterfront Festival, Stage Fort Park, Gloucester, MA

Oct. 9, 10, 11~ Lincoln Fall craft Festival, Inn Season Village Shops, Main St., Lincoln, NH

Oct. 29 ~ Tewksbury Applefest, Tewksbury Memorial High, , Tewksbury

Nov. 4, 5, 6~ Boston Christmas Festival, World Trade Center, 200 Seaport Blvd, Boston Ma

Nov, 11, 12, 13 ~ NE Craft/Food Festival, Rockingham Race Track, Exit #1, Salem, NH

Nov. 20 ~ Greenland Pie Festival, Greenland Central School, Post Rd, Greenland, NH

Nov, 25, 26, 27 ~ Shriners Auditorium, 99 Fordham Road, Wilmington, MA

Dec.10,11 Christmas Festival @ Rockingham Racetrack, Salem, NH

Dec. 15, 16 ~ MIT Christmas Fair at MIT, Cambridge, MA

Salem Farmer's Winter Market Jan. 29, Feb. 15, 29, Mar. 5, 19 PleasantSt United Methodist Church, 8 Pleasant St. Salem, NH

Salem Farmer's Market @Lake Street Garden Center, Sundays ~ Juy ~ Oct.

Please Check our Website for times, show additions, etc.

Once again, thank you for your patronage in 2010!

Karen, Elizabeth, Kristen and Maddy
Your Soapmaking Team

Show Season is in full swing!

Our first 3-day show took place last weekend...with terrific results. Sooooo many people stopped by to pick up our soaps, handmade with olive, palm and coconut oils! My favorite customer was a lady who arrived at the show Friday and talked about how sensitive and irritable her skin is. It was blotchy, red and dry. I sent her away with our Fresh Face Honey & Almond w/Oatmeal soap. She arrived back at my booth on Sunday for more!!! She'd had a chance to use the soap 3X and said her skin felt amazing. On observation, the red & blotchy areas had eased and her skin looked soft and more smooth. Horray for her!!!

Rocky Corner Soapworks sold over 100 bars of our customer favorite, Cranberry Fig! My hubby will pull one from inventory if there isn't one in the shower...it's a "must have" for him.

Castleberry Fairs and Festivals did a great job of promoting the Specialty Food and Craft Fair in Salem, NH this past weekend. Kudos to them and their team for being organized and on top of things.

If this past weekend is any indication, Rocky Corner Soapworks is looking at a very busy pre-holiday rush. Our next large show is Thanksgiving weekend at the Shriners Auditorium in Wilmington, MA. After that, we move onto the Hartford Expo Center in Hartford, CT for three days. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, put your website orders in early...!

All for now...we're off to make "Great North Woods" today. Tomorrow, Orange & Clove. This weekend, Cranberry Fig. CRAZY!!

Karen

Christmas...less than 8 weeks away!!

Hello to all and sorry for being an "absent" blogging soapmaker.

Hub is laid off again and he's always got a project around the house he wants me for. Then there's homeschooling an 8th grader and a 12th grader. Looking at colleges, visiting open houses, etc. is taking time, as well.

Now onto the good stuff...We joined the Salem, NH Farmer's Market in July. We sell our wares at Hedgehog Park in Salem every Wednesday from 3-7 in summer and 2-6 in the fall. The market closed 2 weeks ago for the season, BUT the great news is we've secured a location for the Salem Winter Market. Beginning


Don't forget to check our website for info on shows we've added in December, 2010. We'll be at Bishop Brady High School the second weekend in December, along with the Castleberry Fairs/Festivals show at the Hartford Expo Center in Hartford, Ct. the first weekend in December. If you need any discount coupons for entrance to our Castleberry Shows, please contact me. Also, we've put several soaps on clearance through our website so check them out for soap savings.

Rocky Corner Soapworks has a new soap friend! Allegra Boverman from the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune stopped by on Oct. 11. She watched and took pictures as we made 125 lbs. of Honey/Almond & Oatmeal Soap. Besides being a sweetheart, Allegra showed a genuine interest in the soapmaking process...she's hooked!
















Jack Frost Handmade Soap New England Christmas Soap


Off to the soap kitchen...Rocky Corner Soapworks is whipping up Cranberry Fig and New England Christmas today! Tomorrow...more Honey/Almond Oatmeal!

Karen
Rocky Corner

A crazy time!

Wow, we've been going nuts lately in the soap kitchen. Rocky Corner Soapworks is humming along at a point where we might actually have to hire help outside the family! Amazing is all I can say!

Rocky Corner has committed to a summer full of Farmer's Markets. The Salem Farmer's Market is held every Wednesday from 3:00 to 7:00 on route 38, Hedgehog Park in Salem, NH. We have some amazing vendors with the most glorious fruits and vegetables...and basil plants that would make my grandfather jealous! Our set-up and break-down time has decreased to the point where we can manage it in a little over an hour. Our first show, ever, we took almost 5 hours to set up ~ LOL.

Here's a link to the Salem Farmer's Market so you can check it out...terrific pics and even a Facebook page! We love the locally grown produce and have made some terrific farmer friends. They're a warm and generous group!

This past week, we've made 200 lbs. of soap...yes, 200! We've got a busy show schedule beginning a month from now, and our wholesale accounts are funneling large orders our way. We've got another 500 lbs to make during the month of August.

New soaps coming our way are:

Charcoal Soap (excellent at drawing toxins from the skin)
Axe Phoenix Soap (type)....as yet un-named, but we'll decide soon
Pumpkin Spice
New England Christmas
Patchouli Lavender

Please stop by and see our booth at the Gloucester, MA Arts Festival in Gloucester, Massachusetts August 14 & 15 from 9 to 5 each day ~ Stage Fort Park, Oceanside! Just beautiful!! We'll be showcasing our Summer Collection of soaps, including our Moisturizing Skin Care Soap, Sea Island Grapefruit, Pomegranate/Peach, Garden Mint, Cucumber Melon, Fresh Honeydew and our "Storm".

Lastly, I'm looking forward to vacation in Prince Edward Island with the family. We'll be renting Somerset House in Covehead, PEI again. Our mantra: "Relax" before the crazy Fall/Christmas show schedule!

As always, contact me with any questions regarding our products, show schedule or our musings.........................

Karen

New Summer Collection on sale now!!!

Rocky Corner Soapworks has put together a selection of (7) summery soaps to tempt and tantalize your senses! They include the following:

Garden Mint
Pomegranate & Peach
Sea Island Grapefruit
Fresh Floral Honeydew
Cucumber Melon
Moisturizing Skin Care Soap
After the Storm

They're beautiful to look at and a real treat for your skin! On sale on our website for $20 plus flat rate s/h.


Check out our summer collection of soaps at RockyCornerSoapworks.com

How to make Handmade Soap...

Rocky Corner Soapworks
Cold Process Soapmaking
Handmade Orange & Clove Soap

Handmade soap is natural skin care without harsh detergents and unnecessary fillers. Rocky Corner chooses beautiful, high-quality oils as our base, then we add fragrance/essential oils, labcolors, micas, french green clay and/or botanicals for a custom one-of-a-kind soap.

The process is a recipe the soapmaker creates, usually using a computerized calculator. Oils saponify (change from oil to soap during a chemical reaction) using a water/sodium hydroxide mixture. Recipe ingredients should be weighed using a digital scale for better accuracy.

Completely melt the oils together in a large stainless steel or enamel coated pot. Put on your safety gear; eye goggles or safety glasses, rubber gloves and an apron. Weigh your water in a stainless steel or enamel coated pot. Weigh your sodium hydroxide into a large plastic bowl (I use a large tub that I used to store leftovers in). With plenty of ventilation, gently begin to add the sodium hydroxide to the water; NEVER add the water to the sodium hydroxide. Continuously stir until all is dissolved, being careful as mixture will begin to heat very rapidly.

Carefully draw a cold water bath in the sink to cool the lye/water and/or your oils to the same temperature. I like to use a temperature of 130 degrees to cool my oils and my lye mixture to. It allows me extra time if I need to color/fragrance several smaller batches out of the large batch without cooling too much.

Again, with your safety gear on, very gently drizzle the lye/water mixture into the melted oils. As you drizzle, gently stir in a figure 8 pattern. You'll begin to see the beginning of the chemical reaction, as your soap mixture will begin to thicken in the pot.

When all ingredients are combined, it's time to get creative!! Today, we made Sweet Orange & Clove Soap so we began with crushed cloves and dried orange zest we made ourselves.
















Using a stick blender, begin to blend the soap mixture until it is the consistency of thin pudding. At that point, add your fragrance/essential oil(s) and stir well with a stainless steel spoon or stick blender. When you lift the spoon/blender and soap sits on the top of the mixture before it settles back into the pot, that's called "trace" and it's TIME TO POUR !! :)

Carefully pour the soap mixture into pre-lined molds, working quickly and efficiently (remember your safety gear).
































Cover each mold with plastic wrap, making sure there's no air under the wrap because soda ash may be produced. I use 1" thick handmade pine molds that have matching wood covers for extra insulation. Lastly, cover your soap evenly with a pile of cozy blankets and DON'T PEEK for 24 hours.

After 24 hours has passed, carefully unmold your soaps...gloves on your hands as the soap is still a bit caustic. Trim, cut and rack your soap for 4-6 weeks to allow it to dry, harden and so the ph levels out a bit.

You've created something very unique and special...ENJOY!!

As always, if you have any questions about the information posted here, please contact me through our website, RockyCornerSoapworks.com and remember, you're working with a dangerous chemical...SAFETY FIRST!

Until next time.....
Karen