Soapy Treats

I'm really excited to share this post with you. My friend Laura and I have been toying with vegan soap-making. We've made a few batches before--some more successful than others, but our most recent batch turned out far better than the rest. In fact, I think it rivals some of the finer soaps I've purchased from well established soap makers. I'd like to take you through a photo tutorial of how we created our soap. As you'll see in the photos it's a real ugly duckling story. We turned lumps of fats and oils into beautiful, sweet smelling, soapy treats. Here's how it starts:



We measure out the lye using a postal scale. I knew exactly what I was doing asking Laura to be my soap making partner. Laura, thankfully is more scientifically minded than myself. When I want to eyeball the measurements it's Laura who speaks up and says "Let's actually measure it out exactly Mary, so we don't die."



We pour the lye into cold water. We have to do this outside as the chemical reaction heats up the water instantly to well over 120 degrees. We have to let it sit and cool until it's the right temperature to add our oils and fats.



The fumes that come off from the lye and water are really intense. Laura and I will take turns stirring, rotating every 15-20 seconds it's that intense. You can feel a sharp, scary burn in your lungs if you get too close. We always keep a bottle of vinegar close by in case there is a spill. The vinegar will neutralize the lye. If any of you have seen the movie Fight Club you'll remember the vivid demonstration of how dangerous lye can be on the skin.



While we wait for the lye and water to cool down, we measure out our oils and fats. We wanted to make our soaps vegan. The idea of using lard or bacon fat like in the old days really grosses me out. In our most recent batch we used Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter, and Palm Oil. Everything gets measured out exactly and melted down in a large pot.



When the temperature of melted oils is within 10 degrees of our lye it's time to combine the two.



The lye is always poured into the oils rather than the oil into the lye. At this point the danger zone is over as the fats help to neutralize the lye.



Once the two mixtures are combined it's time to mix. Our first batch we used simply a metal whisk and the whole process took well over 3 hours. Thanks to a purchase of this cheap immersion blender the mixing time takes only about 10 minutes.



The soap is ready to pour when tracing occurs. Tracing is when the soap changes from a thick liquid to more like cake batter. It is at trace that we added our spearamint essential oils to give the soap a refreshing scent.



Pour the soap into a wax lined cardboard box. It will sit in this box for a few weeks while the soap hardens and cures.



Laura and I added cosmetic grade French green clay to our soap. French green clay is great for facial masks and is known to draw impurities out of the skin.



A few weeks later the soap has hardened and is ready to cut.





We found this soap to be so fabulous that a tiny amount goes a long way. It lathers quickly and the soapy lather is silky and luxurious. I cut the bars down further into tiny squares and wrapped them in bits of silk that I had previously marbled.



The end result is a precious little bar that smells of delicate spearamint. I think they look lovely dusted with the green clay. A little bit goes a long way so if you're one of the lucky ones to get a bar use it sparingly!

Wedding Ring

My wedding ring is finished! I'm very excited about how it turned out. Wren, the artist-owner of Goldworks in Chapel Hill hand-crafted my ring based on some shaky sketches and a description of my vision. She called me to say she'd worked on an example--she wasn't sure it was exactly what I wanted but she was pleased with the piece. So I went in for a look. I fell in love with it instantly and wouldn't you know it, she made it in my size. It fit perfectly and Wren didn't even know what my ring size was. I picked out this cute elephant ring box. The poor little guy has lost an eye but he's still got the goods.



The ring is made of all recycled metals. Palladium white gold intertwined with rose gold. The effect is meant to be an abstract twist of metal vines intertwined with some textured leaves.
Nick loves it because the two different metals represent the two of us. He's such a romantic.


This last image is of my tree-bark engagement ring made by Etsy artist Beth of bcyjewelry and my wedding ring together. I wasn't planning on wearing both the rings when I got married, but after seeing them together I'm reconsidering. Thank you to both fabulous artists for creating such beautiful, special pieces for me.

Easter Eggs

In honor of the Spring Equinox my future sister-in-law and I marbled some Easter Eggs. The weather was a gorgeous 80 degrees, probably the prettiest day of the year so far. I'll let the pictures tell the story. If you have no idea what I'm referring to when I say "marbeling" check out this post first: http://maryhining.blogspot.com/2009/11/hydro-printing-at-penland.html

Happy Spring everyone!

I started by boiling a few dozen eggs.


I created a large bucket of Methyl Cellulose for my
"slime bath" which is the medium the paint is dropped onto.
It looks and feels just like slime.



The eggs need to be coated in alum, which is what allows
for the paint to bond to the surface of the egg.


Just a quick 5-second dip per egg does the trick.


The fun part is using the eye dropper to add your colors to
the slim bath. I'm a little short on professional tools so I used
a fork and a chopstick to manipulate the paint into various designs.

I tried two approaches to coating the eggs with paint. The first was simply dropping the
eggs into the bowl. But It wasn't working very well and ended up just making a big mess.
So I started rolling the eggs on the surface of the slim.

I think the eggs turned out fabulous. I'm not going to risk
eating them as they are coated in paint and alum, but they
certainly are lovely to look at.

3 Months and Counting

I have a little over 3 months before I get hitched. I haven't done much planning for my wedding and maybe that's the reason I haven't gone into any stress induced panic attacks. Sort of hard to work yourself into a wreck when you aren't doing anything. I'd like to assume that means that I'm just one of those level-headed, super cool chicks who can handle anything. But then I remember it's me--and that I stress about EVERYTHING. So I figure I better get started. As I mentioned before, I want an all Etsy wedding. I've since broadened my range and am including local artists in the mix. But the idea is the same. Every aspect of this party is going to support hard-working artists with more talent and heart than money could buy at generic "wedding-y" places. The fact that they are all one of a kind originals is just icing on the cake. Speaking of cake--I'm doing a trade for mine. A painted mural for a decadent spread of locally baked goodies. But more on that later.

Ironically my journey started at the one place I vowed I would never step foot in. There is this giant multi-chain bridal shop (that shall remain nameless) that makes me feel like I'm in a morgue. Rows and rows of ultra shiny white dresses zipped up in clear plastic garment bags. The place personally gives me the creeps. But I needed a little research. I've never been very interested in wedding dresses. They always looked so uncomfortable and as a girl who wears flip-flops year round the idea of wearing spanks, heels and a corset fits in with my morbid morgue analogy. I tried on a few dresses mostly to find out what I know I don't like. My mom was crucial in helping me with this. We would stifle giggles as I posed in front of the mirror in ridiculous Disney Princess fluff. It took about 30 minutes of trying on various styles of dresses to eliminate what I know I don't like, which turns out to be, wedding dresses. Apparently I still can't stand them. So we walked over to a restaurant, sat down over a drink and designed the perfect dress on a paper napkin. I'd describe it but I don't want to ruin the surprise. The next step was to find someone to make this untraditional dream dress. Her name is Ting and she's fabulous. Her etsy shop is full of her own designs and it's obvious she knows what she's doing. I can't wait to show off her talents.

As for other wedding must-have's I'll quickly summarize and will get down to the details later when I have better images to show. My ring will be made by a local designer, Wren. Her work is incredibly original and unique. The ring will be mixed metal, predominantly rose gold with white gold and look more like a twisting vine of ivy than a traditional band.

My photographer is also a local gal. Annemie Tonkin is a labor and delivery nurse at UNC hospital. You can check out some of her pictures on her blog, Carrboro Clicks.

My florist is very conveniently my best friend. Emily Wootton is a rare talent. She's studied in London under the world's premier florist Paula Pryke. Until just recently she ran a florist in Waco she started with her mom called Rosetree Emily is now living and creating in California. You can see some of her silk floral creations in etsy shop.

The food is going to be provided by friends, family and Nick. Nick has restaurant connections all over town and as a cook himself we are looking forward to sharing our favorite foods with our guests. Top of my list is my very favorite Enchiladas Poblanas. A cheesy enchilada drowned in the most fabulous Mole sauce you'll ever have. Made by Taqueria la Vaquita. A local Mexican restaurant that is so small there isn't even an inside to the restaurant. It's an old dairy stand that's been converted to a restaurant serving Mexican dishes so delicious it's been featured in Gourmet Magazine and The New York Times just to name a few. We want a fresh guacamole bar as well. But it isn't just a Mexican themed dinner. For our meat-eating guests we'll also have grilled chicken, steaks, seafood and there's talk of a whole pig. For my fellow vegetarians, don't worry--I've already requested the pig not be out in the open visible to everyone. I think that is so gross.


The band is still up in the air. Nick and I are both leaning towards a rockin' blues band. Maybe something with a south Louisiana vibe. Fitting as I was born in Baton Rouge. I'm looking forward to the "research" of finding a band. There is an open mic blues night at the local Blue Bayou Club. Some pretty impressive names show up for the fun.

So that's about all I've got so far. I'm planning on doing my own hair and make-up but I've been getting some concerned comments from friends and family about that. So I can't help but wonderful what I must be doing wrong ;-)

Website

I wanted to make an official post announcing the launch of my new website maryelizabetharts.com

As all website are, it will be an on-going labor of love. If anyone has any input on how I can make it better and more user friendly please share your thoughts!

An Exciting 2010

You might have been wondering where I've been for the past few months. It's not that I've been ignoring you, in fact you've been on my mind for quite a while--it's just I needed to take care of a few things before I was able to write again. Namely, snagging a fiancé. It was a wonderful (overdue) surprise. Nick proposed with boarding passes leaving for NY two hours later. It took an hour for the excitement to settle down enough for me to throw some clothes into a carry on and make our flight just in time. It was a perfect weekend. Well, actually everything went wrong--but we didn't see it as wrong. I could have been hit by a taxi and you still couldn't slap that giant smile off my face. I don't normally delve into my personal life in blog posts, but what the heck, it's a great story and I feel like sharing.

The day we arrived Nick had dinner reservations at the swanky Italian restaurant Paolas. This is the type of restaurant with an international sommelier always on staff. We were told they had an extensive wine list and would help you choose the perfect wines to pair with your meal. We left the taxi and crossed the street when we saw the Paolas restaurant sign. We had trouble finding the entrance on this strange corner block until we saw a side door. My first impression was, “huh—this isn’t exactly the décor I imagined.” But like I said, nothing was getting the happy grin off my face this evening. The restaurant also acted like they didn’t have our reservation and told us to sit wherever we’d like. I was handed a menu with 5 wines on the list; a shock for a restaurant that was known for it’s wine selection. My blissful grin only started to fade when we were introduced to our waiter. Imagine a failed male model greatly resenting the fact that he was waiting tables rather than posing for a Calvin Klein billboard shoot. Nick tried his best. “Mary enjoys Malbecs, Tempranillos, Grenaches, anything that’s along those lines. Do you have a recommendation?”

“Yeah, we got a Malbec.” He said without actually looking at either of us.

“Okay then, I guess we’ll have a glass of your Malbec.” Nick requested then looked at me for reassurance that he isn’t just imagining how incredible inept our waiter is. It wasn’t until I started reading the menu that I realized something was amiss. For the sake of the restaurant I’m omitting the name, but as you may have guessed, we were at the wrong restaurant. Nick immediately started back peddling. The wine was already poured, he paid cash and after explaining our mistake we sat chagrined in a window seat gulping down the wine as fast as we could.

Walking into Paolas was like walking into a little piece of heaven. We were immediately ushered to our private candle lit table with fresh red roses. A complimentary bottle of champagne appeared and all memory of the bitter male model faded away into dishes like house made warm Mozzarella, twice crisped artichock hearts and asparagus filled ravioli topped with butter, sage and shaved black truffles. I should also mention that an international sommelier spent no less than 5 minutes discussing my wine palette before appearing with the most fabulous bottle of wine I’ve ever had. It was decadent, it was long and it was fabulous. It was over espresso that Nick realized he didn’t have his wallet.

He ran back to the other restaurant hoping it fell out on the window seat while we chugged the bad wine. But it was gone. Fallen out in the taxi no doubt. I was dolled up in a dress with no pockets and didn’t have anything but a very strong wine and champagne buzz. Everything was in the wallet; hotel keys, both our ID’s, which meant we couldn’t get back on the flight. I was going to have to spend my engagement dinner washing dishes. I panicked. Nick left me again to search for the wallet. So hear I sat, alone, drunk, terrified that our waiter would ask me how we would be paying for our elaborate two-hour meal. So I did the only thing I could. I uncorked the bottle of wine and kept on drinking.

It all ended perfectly fine. The restaurant was very gracious--we called in a credit card a few hours later. Getting into the hotel is another story and talking our way past New York TSA without ID’s an even better story. But for another time…

I just wanted to write to let you know there are big things on the horizon for 2010. Namely, an Etsy Wedding. The date is set, June 12^th. And everything from the dress down to the wedding bands and flowers are going to be created by Etsy sellers who I’ll have the pleasure of introducing you to in posts to come. I’ll also be launching my new website shortly. So check back soon, I hope to go live later this week.

Here’s to a prosperous and eventful new decade. Cheers!

Hydro-Printing at Penland

The name of my week-long class at Penland, "Hydro-Printing" sounded technical and intense. But really it ended up being one of those instant gratification projects. While the process is fast and simple the set-up is a horrid flash back to chemistry lab. Any task that requires a particulate dust mask and more than one measuring device frightens me, so I'll leave the scientific bit out of this post and get right to the fun stuff. Hydro-printing is just a fancy name for marbling. Having never been exposed to marbling before I had no idea what to expect. My friend Ana described the whole process as magic and I couldn't agree more. You start with a large tray container fill with what is most appropriately called "slime." It's a thick clear liquid made up of mostly water, methyl cellulose and a few other dabs of magical potion. Paint is dropped lightly onto the surface of the slime with an eye dropper. You can see my friend Liz working on a piece:


Add as many colors as you like, then manipulate the floating image with various tools. The design possibilities are endless, as are the color combinations. When you're satisfied with the liquid design carefully lay your fabric, or paper, onto the surface of the slime. (The fabric or paper you're printing on will need to have been pre-treated with alum). The alum allows for the paint to instantly bond with your piece. Rinse, hang to dry, iron and repeat if you wish to over-marble. I did a lot of marbling on hand-dyed fabrics as well.


My favorite pieces to make were the long scarves. Mostly because I'm impatient and like to get straight to the good stuff. The scarf trays were obviously much longer and I plan on utilizing my bath tub for future marbling projects. The week was intense, up at chilly 8am on my feet non stop until around 2am. The whole process is beautiful and photos rather than words document it best. I'm planing on having a "hydro-printing" party soon after Christmas. Any and all are welcome.