Make your own sensational suds

By Susanna Brandon, USA TODAY

Oprah Winfrey was just a little girl when she had a soap epiphany. In a flash, she knew her world was going to reach way beyond rural Mississippi. "My grandmother said, 'Come here, child, and learn to make soap.' And I said, 'No, Grandma, I won't need to know how to make soap. My world is going to be much bigger than that.'"I experienced a soap epiphany last fall, bewitched by The Handmade Soap Book by Melinda Coss. As I studied the stylish photos of rough-cut soap with names like Dream Castile and Buttered Roses, my world, unlike Oprah's, instantly narrowed. Everything from sushi seaweed to pumpkin puree became a potential ingredient. From the trash, empty containers -- Hey, who threw out these soap molds? -- beckoned to me to fish them out.I was hooked. There was just that small problem of . . . lye.Actually, soap is surprisingly easy and safe to make. You just need to be careful.As you may recall from school, soap results from the chemical reaction between fats, which are acids, and lye, a base. Our soapmaking foremothers made a weak lye solution from wood ashes, but, lucky us, we can go to the supermarket and buy a truly scary modern convenience in a can, the aptly named Red Devil lye.The truth about lye: It is not your friend. It is, in fact, the basest of bases - that is, it will hurt you if it can. Leave it unattended and someone will drink it and die. Neglect to use safety glasses just once and it will splash you squarely in the eyes.But properly harnessed, lye will turn ordinary Crisco, lard or vegetable oils into a thing of beauty and utility. The lye disappears, married off molecule by molecule with the fat, leaving a mild and moisturizing bar with a high percentage of natural glycerin.Your homemade soap will be kind, even healing, to troubled skin; creams and lotions will become as redundant as a wood stove in July. Once you try homemade soap, you won't go back.But it's not always an easy sell. When I tried to give my 19-year-old daughter a bar specially formulated for oily skin, she took a step backward. "No way," she declared. "I'll turn into one big zit." Two weeks later, she called home to announce that her face had cleared up. Would I send some tea tree-peppermint soap for her roommates?Older folks tend to be wary of "lye soap," those hard cakes made from lard that Grandma used for scrubbing everything from laundry to babies. Most people will marvel at your handcrafted soap, although it may take a little coaxing to get them to use it. But once they do, they'll be asking for more.Which is a good thing, because I'll let you in on soapmaking's dirty little secret: Once you start, you won't want to stop.

In fact, if Oprah had followed her grandma out to the soap vat and started stirring, she might still be in Mississippi today.

(Entire article available at:  http://millersoap.com/USAToday/SoapArtUSAToday.html)

Last year I became fascinated with making mugs.  I spent lots of time online admiring different potter's mugs (their clay creations, not their faces!  LOL) as well as watching videos on YouTube about how to make them.  It was so exciting to discover that there were quite a few videos specifically on this subject, but one in particular stood out to me.  A potter by the name of Keith Phillips had a very interesting video on how to make square mugs.  Even after watching tons of other videos, I kept being drawn back to that one.  Fast forward a year... A couple of days ago I was sitting in the clay studio at the local community college flipping through the latest issue of Pottery Making Illustrated.  I came across an article on how to create a butter dish and I kept thinking to myself, "I recognize this potter's style - it feels very familiar..."  Lo and behold, it turns out the article was written by the same guy that had made the video about square mugs.    I was VERY excited, lemme tell ya!  It turns out he has a very cool blog, http://blog.mudstuffing.com, and this morning if you log on you can watch him live as he fires his wood kiln throughout the day.  WOOHOO!!! It's a very fascinating process, and if you are a potter or are tinkering with the idea of playing with clay, I really recommend that you take a look at his blog.  To give you a little taste of his work, I decided to share the original video of his that I had found last year - maybe you'll get bitten by the mud bug too! Enjoy! 

Because it's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I wanted to urge everyone to hug their moms, daughters, aunts, nieces, friends, etc., a little harder and reflect on the far-reaching impact that breast cancer has on everyone's life.  I have so many loved ones that have battled or are currently battling breast cancer and I am floored by the strength and courage that each of these beautiful women have displayed.  My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago and being with her every step of the way has taught me so much.  On August 9th of this year I lost a friend and coworker to breast cancer.  Each day, as I sit next her her dark and empty office, I quietly wish that there was more that we could do to help people fight this disease and win.  I urge those of you who have thought about supporting events, such as Race for the Cure, to do so.  The energy at these events is overwhelming and is something that you can't describe but absolutely need to experience.  The video below is just a little taste of what that experience is like.  

Mama, Tia Guadalupe, Tia Julieta, Tia Adelina, Janice, Sharon:  I love you and admire your courage so much! 

I'm so excited about all of the features that ArtFire is adding for their sellers. :D Thanks to them, I'm tinkering with things that I've always wanted to explore but was too skittish to do on my own, such as having a blog and a Facebook Fan Page (http://facebook.com/dsardentgifts).  Woohoo!!!  Lookitmego with all my fancy newfangled high tech stuff! ;) My excitement has inspired me to do a celebratory goofy dance, and what better song to do that to than the Safety Dance?  Come on, people, bust out some cheezy dance moves with me... ready? GO!