Westerman - Melt and Mold Soap Crafting

C. Kaila Westerman

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Edited by Deborah Balmuth and Robin Catalano
Cover design by Meredith Maker
Cover and interior photographs by Giles Prett
Additional photos by Jeff Burke and Lorraine Triolo for Artville;
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Art direction, text design and production by Mark Tomasi
Project photo styling by Robin Brickman
Additional photo styling by Mark Tomasi
Indexed by Nan Badgett/Wordability

2000 by C. Kaila Westerman

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Printed in the United States by Versa Press
10 9 8 7 6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Westerman, C. Kaila (Carolyn Kaila), 1959

Melt & mold soap crafting / C. Kaila Westerman.

p. cm.

Includes index

ISBN 978-1-58017-293-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Soap. I. Title: Melt and mold soap crafting. II. Title.

TP991 .W48 2000

668.12dc21

00-039494
CIP

Thank you to Phyllis and Richard Westerman for instilling in me a love of hard work and a spirit of self-confidence, independence, peace, and self-worth. You have been great parents from the first.

Many thanks to my loving and supportive family and soap-crafting friends: my husband, Trung Bui, and business associates Lora Juge, Susan Slovensky, Janie and Dennis Gray, Gail Matsuura, Tom and Glinda Bauer, Senna Antrium, Tu Huynh, Tina Marie, Sandy Maine, and Catherine Failor. And to all the talented soap crafters who have supported my business and my creative efforts through the years, especially Anna-Liese Moran.

Welcome to the world of melt-and-mold soap crafting! All you need to start your adventure is an hour or so of time, a block of premade melt-and-mold soap base, and simple cooking equipment that is easily rummaged from your kitchen cupboards.

At the end of the hour, you will have some lovely bars of soap that can be used right away to the delight of friends and family. And the best part? Since you are working with soap, cleanup will be a breeze!

While melt-and-mold soap crafting is easy, it is also wonderfully creative. The rubber stamps, cake and candy tools, candle equipment in short, all the jumble of creative craft materials that you have tucked away will find fresh uses in your new hobby.

Not only is melt-and-mold soap crafting simple and creative, but the end result is also marvelously practical. Since even the most persnickety Aunt Edna appreciates a fragrant bath, soap is a wonderful gift, as well as a potentially profitable craft to sell at fairs, at bazaars, and to retail stores.

The projects in this book range from the deliciously uncomplicated to the innovative and complex. I hope that they will guide you back into creativity kindergarten, secure in the knowledge that you cant really mess up; whatever your final result, it will be usable soap.

Enjoy!

Melt-and-mold soap crafting is a relatively new hobby thats becoming more popular every year. Its easy to see why! Soap crafting is fun, fast, and readily appreciated by those around you. As a bonus, it makes your home smell delicious and, unlike making soap from scratch using lye, its not hazardous. Simply said, melt-and-mold soap crafting is addictive!

Soap crafting is similar in many ways to candle crafting. In candle crafting you start with a block of premade wax, then melt it down, color and scent it, pour it into molds, and allow it to harden. You follow the same steps with melt-and-mold soap, and the soap is ready to use as soon as it has hardened. But unlike messy candle wax, melt-and-mold soap base is easily washed off your countertops and out of your clothes, and kitchen utensils that you use for your projects can simply be washed up and put back into cooking service.

What is this miracle soap base that is so easy and fun to work with? There is no one single formula for melt-and-mold soap base, any more than there is only one recipe for chocolate cake. For this reason, the melt-and-mold soap base made by one manufacturer can be quite different from that made by another.

Generally, melt-and-mold base is either a pure soap, a blend of detergents, or a combination of the two.

Pure-soap bases are made from scratch the old-fashioned way, by cooking fats and oils over heat in what is called the semiboiled method of soap making. The chemical additives are kept to a minimum in these formulations, and the soap manufacturer relies in large part on glycerin and other sugars to achieve transparency. Because pure-soap bases are high in glycerin, they are also more prone to sweating, which is the appearance of fuzz or beads of moisture on the surface of the bar when exposed to air. On the plus side, the high amount of pure soap in these bases generally means a thicker, creamier, longer-lasting lather.

Detergent bases are made in a completely different manner, by blending various laboratory-controlled detergents, surfactants, foaming agents, and fatty acids. Detergent bases tend to be lower in sugars, and therefore they do not have the problem of sweating. Bars made with detergents are usually quick to lather, but the lather is thinner and less long-lasting than that from pure-soap bars. Some people find detergent bases to be more irritating to their skin.