Soap!
We made soap! Good, getting that out of the way. We made 4X batch. That was tricky. First Jon measured the lye incorrectly and added the wrong ration of water. We had to toss the lye/water mix and start over. Then we couldn't find the other box of lye in the cupboard. Ahhhh! But then I reasoned that there was NO WAY we ran out of lye... I mean we bought 10 lbs last year... and you only need 6 ounces per batch, and a batch of soap lasts a looong time (about 10 months usually, in regular use). Then I found the box, phew! So.... out math skills suck because we wasted some lye... and then we had to go downstairs and borrow 1 lb of olive oil from our neighbor, Max. Gotta remember to pay him back. Then he came back up stairs with massive chocolate cravings, so I gave him some bakers chocolate that I keep on hand for my own cravings. (Hey, when you need chocolate, don't fuck around, go for the dark stuff!) That should appease the olive oil gods for a couple days until we buy him some oil. Anyways... of topic.
This is what raw olive oil castile soap looks like one day after it is poured into the primary mold. It is still caustic and needs to be stirred 2-3 times per day until all the oil gets blended in. Castile soap (any purely oil-based soap actually) seperated out until it hardens. Fat-based soap, such as animal tallow is naturally hard unless melted, so when it cools it hardens up with the lye. Thats the difference. I stirred this damn batch for over an hour to try and blend the oil back in! Bahh! The only reason not to make 4 batches of soap at a time: one batch takes about 15 minutes to stir the oil back into the mix. Four batches... four times as long. Gah!!!
We always make olive oil soap for a few reasons: #1: it is vegetable based, which is good if you sell it. Some people don't like to use animal products. #2: Have you ever rendered fat?! It stinks!!! Getting ones hands on tallow or suet is not as easy as getting vegetable oil. Olive oil isn't that cheap, but consider the cost of $24-$30 for a year's worth of extreamly high quality soap, and it makes lots of sense. #3: Castile olive oil soap is very high grade, as mentioned. It dries to a very hard, long lasting bar, suds up nice, very high glycerin content and re-mills (to re-melt: when adding scents and stuff) well at any stage (moist, dry or aged).
Making soap is super easy. I fully recommend it. More pictures at later stages to follow.
In other amusement:
I just took the "Universal Mary-Sue Test" to find out if my original characters are mary-sues or not. It was funny :)
http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm
So apparently Zao is a mary-sue. Well, I can't argue, she is. Honestly I've never liked her much and I was about to give her a makeover anyways. It's not her fault really. She's pretty and in good shape, so what? Why is that "mary-sue-ish" She just takes care of herself. My other character I examined, Dorin is not a mary-sue, he actually recieved an excessivly low score. Funny. I am not sure if the mary-sue test is the end-all solution, but it's damn funny. My problem is that my characters all tend to look like people I know. But of course, I naturally draw people I know because I see them all the time. It's downright embarrassing though. I draw things I like. I like big, scary, furry men... so I draw them. Meh