The FedEx truck pulled up late this morning and I almost attacked the poor man bringing me in my box. You see, I knew it contained my new
Soap Hutch mold. I simply could not contain my excitement! If you've never heard of these or seen one, they are the Bentley (better than a Rolls Royce) of soap molds. I used to think Uplands were the best. Well, no offense to them intended, but this mold makes wood, silicone and rubber bands seem really old fashioned. And let me tell you, as I unwrapped it and put it together I realized it's even better than I thought it would be. I actually cried as I put it together. I mean really and truly wept tears of joy over this mold. To which my husband commented "Gee honey, you didn't cry over the new sectional sofa I just bought you for Christmas". Poor, dear man. I do love my new couch; it's super comfy. But it lacks one thing. It can't make soap.
Super smooth plastic sides and dividers...absolutely superb craftsmanship and the best thing about it, is that I can configure it a zillion different ways! Okay, well not technically a zillion, but I can use it as a slab mold with or without dividers, as one two or three log molds, smaller slabs, pour individual bars or a really small test batch etc. It all fits together tightly in puzzle pieces -I think they're really called slats and sides, but I liken it to a puzzle as it was admittedly a tad tricky to figure out the more interesting configurations, lol. Rich Bartko, the creator of these molds says to call him with any questions so I know he's there if I ever have a problem, but I did want to figure it out on my own, as it's my favorite new
toy er... I mean professional tool.
Mine was custom made to be able to pour up to three bars deep as a slab, so basically I can make as little as one bar, pour one to three 3 lb logs, or as much as 21 lbs as (divided) slabs of soap in this mold, as well as other smaller combinations of logs or slabs as needed.
A thousand thanks to Tammy Tivis of
Elements Bath And Body!
Also like to say thanks to soapmakers Sindy Anderson of
Sinfully Sweet Soap and Lori Curry of
Magellan's Gift for referring me to Rich in the first place.
I'm definitely going to be buying a couple more of these and I'd recommend them to anyone and everyone who makes soap. My only regret is that these weren't around when I first started making soap or I doubt I'd have ever used anything else. I'll be shouting about these from the rooftops to anyone who'll listen.
WHOO HOOOOO!
I've just finished master batching for my next week or so, so as soon as I am able to unmold the first slabs I certainly will be back here with photos for you to ogle.
For now, you'll have to content yourselves with eyeballing the photos of just the mold alone.
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This will be available very soon! I must get my hands on more as this is just the thing for Spring. Definitely a keeper - this is the first plumeria type floral I've tried that didn't accelerate to the point that I couldn't swirl. I soaped at cool temps and added the FO to my lye water. I added Titanium Dioxide and White Diamond mica to the base part, and the swirls were pretty bright sparkly yellow mica and then a blend of Blush mica with Pink Champagne, which resulted in a golden pink shimmery color. No problem with time to swirl, although it did harden right up soon after I finished. I like my swirls imprecise and a little mixed up for interest.
