Soaper Lane!
On Saturday I got together with thorngrove, to learn the mysteries of the soapmaker.
I've been doing some reading linked to my current putter in medieval cosmetics, and soap falls into this category, albeit as a relatively late addition to the range of cosmetic products - and had mentioned I'd love to have a go. Luckily thorngrove proved, as always a terrific resource and teacher, as well as a fine hostess.
Soapmaking is essentially home chemistry, complete with goggles, face mask and gloves, to put caustic soda together with your choice of favourite fats, and then the smellies added at the last stage before pouring into moulds.
With domestic servants on hand (in the form of crock pots, hand-held blender and digital thermometer) to make the fiddly bits easier, the whole process is way simpler than I ever expected, though it requires care and attention. If I had to guess at the temperature of the fats and the soda solution, and then stir the mix by hand for 'til trace', I might not be nearly as keen. Making medieval soap, from soda ash onward, would be just plain hard work.
The key step I learned was thorngrove's careful matching the temperatures of the two mixes (liquid fats and caustic soda solution).
The fat is slow to heat, but slow to lose its heat too. Adding soda to the water for an alkali solution results in instant chemical heat - the solution goes from ambient temperature (11 deg C, sitting outside on the doorstep) to over 70 deg in the time the soda takes to dissolve.
But it's quick to lose its heat as well, so the remaining fiddly step was to get the slowly-warming fat and the quickly-cooling soda solution to the same temperature, then quickly mix them and whisk them with the blender.
I'll go back and re-read the instructions I've seen for making soap - but I didn't remember any mention of carefully matching temperatures of the two mixes, to give you the best chance of a smooth mix, and quick 'trace'.
We ended up trying out 4 different recipes for soap (one hot process, three cold process) most of which were left at her home to cure, while I took one batch home on the train...in a Pringles tin - the handy disposable mould! We'd planned five batches, but four proved a full day's work.
My sweetie, wonderfully, came out to the suburbs for the visit, and spent the afternoon ensconced on L's sofa, sipping wine (no visit is complete chez thorngrove without a bottle of red) and gorging on jewellery books from her excellent specialist library.
I think we're all resolved to Do This More Often (tm). L has so many excellent tools, toys and materials, and all three of us want to make stuff (jewellery, mostly!); it's just a matter of picking the weekend to commit to it.
I've been doing some reading linked to my current putter in medieval cosmetics, and soap falls into this category, albeit as a relatively late addition to the range of cosmetic products - and had mentioned I'd love to have a go. Luckily thorngrove proved, as always a terrific resource and teacher, as well as a fine hostess.
Soapmaking is essentially home chemistry, complete with goggles, face mask and gloves, to put caustic soda together with your choice of favourite fats, and then the smellies added at the last stage before pouring into moulds.
With domestic servants on hand (in the form of crock pots, hand-held blender and digital thermometer) to make the fiddly bits easier, the whole process is way simpler than I ever expected, though it requires care and attention. If I had to guess at the temperature of the fats and the soda solution, and then stir the mix by hand for 'til trace', I might not be nearly as keen. Making medieval soap, from soda ash onward, would be just plain hard work.
The key step I learned was thorngrove's careful matching the temperatures of the two mixes (liquid fats and caustic soda solution).
The fat is slow to heat, but slow to lose its heat too. Adding soda to the water for an alkali solution results in instant chemical heat - the solution goes from ambient temperature (11 deg C, sitting outside on the doorstep) to over 70 deg in the time the soda takes to dissolve.
But it's quick to lose its heat as well, so the remaining fiddly step was to get the slowly-warming fat and the quickly-cooling soda solution to the same temperature, then quickly mix them and whisk them with the blender.
I'll go back and re-read the instructions I've seen for making soap - but I didn't remember any mention of carefully matching temperatures of the two mixes, to give you the best chance of a smooth mix, and quick 'trace'.
We ended up trying out 4 different recipes for soap (one hot process, three cold process) most of which were left at her home to cure, while I took one batch home on the train...in a Pringles tin - the handy disposable mould! We'd planned five batches, but four proved a full day's work.
My sweetie, wonderfully, came out to the suburbs for the visit, and spent the afternoon ensconced on L's sofa, sipping wine (no visit is complete chez thorngrove without a bottle of red) and gorging on jewellery books from her excellent specialist library.
I think we're all resolved to Do This More Often (tm). L has so many excellent tools, toys and materials, and all three of us want to make stuff (jewellery, mostly!); it's just a matter of picking the weekend to commit to it.