More Fabric Marbling with the Regina and Dan St. John

 

 

Happy Earth Day!

Fabric Marbling, Day 1

Scenes From Pioneer Farm at Mount Vernon in the Springtime

It was a treat to work at Mount Vernon for a few hours on Saturday morning.  I had the pleasure of meeting people from all over the country who were thrilled to learn more about our First President.  And, at the farm site, we make sure to tell you about George's Washington's love and gift of agriculture.   This time of year, we always speak about the shad and herring that were farmed from the Potomac River.  My clothes from the day have been washed 3x and still smell like dead fish from handling the fish when I would explain to guests about the shad, usually holding a dead fish by one hand....

The shad above are planked and roasting by the fire, and a catfish stew is cooking in the big kettle.

 

Rides around the farm site,

The reconstructed slave cabin.

Fiona Appreciates My Colonial Clothing

 I am excited to work at Mount Vernon in the next couple of days, so Fiona the cat was thrilled to see the wool cape come down from the attic, along with the rest of my colonial clothing.  While I ironed a petticoat, short gown and apron, she made the most of her opportunity!

This Week's Marbled Soap

I've made a few batches of soap this week: Honeysuckle/Bergamot, Litsea/Lavender and Peppermint/Lavender, all marbled on top.  The Honeysuckle/Bergamot (below) had just been poured, while the others were a day or two old,  I'll cut them all in a few days and let them cure for 6 weeks.

Cherry Blossoms

 

New Labels for Soap

We are very excited to have new packaging and labels for our soap.  Many thanks to Carys of Carys Ink for putting together a lovely design for us.  And, she also helped us with my website and our Black Forest Artworks logo, so we are loyal customers!  We worked very hard to package about 10 batches of our soap for next week's Garden Market at River Farm, the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society.  Some of the lovely new marbled soap is with AHS, as well as our favorites -- lots of spring citrus scents, lavender, honeysuckle, lemongrass.... lots of good things!

 Jeff had some puppy help while cutting the labels:

Savannah Scenes, Part 2

Lafayette Sqaure

Colonial Cemetary

Bonaventure Cemetery

Savannah Scenes

Hand-Marbled Soap with Sweet Orange, Vanilla, and Cinnamon

Just waiting for it to cure enough to cut.  Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

A Stable's Field Trip to Laurel Hill

   

 

Upon a Forecast of More Snow....

For the Sake of the Guinea Pigs, We Moved the Loom

Marbled, Honeysuckle/Lavender Soap

I am getting the hang of marbling color as a bit of "icing" on soap!  This is a batch of honeysuckle and lavender scented soap and I am thrilled with how it turned out.  The colors change the composition of the soap a bit, so it is rather tricky; also, the colors sometimes change in the process (this purple started out as a bright blue!).  Now, the soap will cure for at least 4 weeks....

I have one more batch waiting to cure a few days before cutting, and for this batch, I got out my marbling book and attempted a get gel with the stylus.  I also tried to mix the colors into the entire batch of soap, rather than as an "icing".  We'll see how it turned out soon!