Soap!
Well today in our Baronial A&S day, we learned the basics on how to make our own scented & decorated soaps. There were several ladies, and rwfranz there, including one very new young girl, Amber (who has yet to turn 18, and boy was she eager about everything).
Wow, I never knew just how simple and easy it was to create something cool looking, and usable. We made "amethyst crystals" soap which looks like it came from a geode. I learned the quick and dirty modern method with premade soap blocks, not the fully period using wood ashe, water, fat and heat method (which we will learn later this year).
We also learned to make salt bombs, with citric acid crystals (I have some already as it can be used in wool dyeing), and baking soda, with a little bit of coloring and scents, along with a few spritzes of witch hazel. I have two bars waiting for me, and I am thinking of using part of one tonight.
So, now I've got the basics for the soap I want to make, and am reading up on the history of it. I now just need to grow my lavender and other herbs, and wait for my roses to bloom, to start making my own. Yeah, I know I can buy the stuff, but I still want to grow my own for sachets and to make my home smell nicer, and to keep those bugs away.
Which reminds me... must buy cuttings asap! And for Southernwood, too.
Otherwise, I am reading a few places online on how to make soap. I also see that some of the recommended books for modern soaps are in my local library, so I will be checking those out later. And I found out that Castille soap, made from olive oil, is 16th century, so I am going to learn how to make a version of that, so I can enjoy a period soap at events, and turn it in for one of my Pentathalon entries I think (if I can hunt down the "period" recipes Wikipedia mentions). And if it works out well, I may be making hand made soap for Christmas gifts this year.
ETA: Bwahahahaha... I found the original documentation I needed, linked from an example on poor A&S documentation and how it can be improved! Oh, that's too funny.
http://www.greydragon.org/library/soap-example.html
Here's a few more links for future reference:
http://www.elizabethancostume.net/dyes/mappae.html#280
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/scents.html
And from someone else who did this as an A&S project: http://www.adamastorshire.co.za/chronicler/stormtidings/archive/as/soap.html
http://www.geocities.com/bmcellis/CurrentSoap.html (several recipes here).
I also found an abstract on "German soap recipes in the late Middle Ages", but not the recipe itself. Since the article is written in German, I don't know if I want to hunt it down, but maybe others reading this might find it of interest.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4250382
Wow, I never knew just how simple and easy it was to create something cool looking, and usable. We made "amethyst crystals" soap which looks like it came from a geode. I learned the quick and dirty modern method with premade soap blocks, not the fully period using wood ashe, water, fat and heat method (which we will learn later this year).
We also learned to make salt bombs, with citric acid crystals (I have some already as it can be used in wool dyeing), and baking soda, with a little bit of coloring and scents, along with a few spritzes of witch hazel. I have two bars waiting for me, and I am thinking of using part of one tonight.
So, now I've got the basics for the soap I want to make, and am reading up on the history of it. I now just need to grow my lavender and other herbs, and wait for my roses to bloom, to start making my own. Yeah, I know I can buy the stuff, but I still want to grow my own for sachets and to make my home smell nicer, and to keep those bugs away.
Which reminds me... must buy cuttings asap! And for Southernwood, too.
Otherwise, I am reading a few places online on how to make soap. I also see that some of the recommended books for modern soaps are in my local library, so I will be checking those out later. And I found out that Castille soap, made from olive oil, is 16th century, so I am going to learn how to make a version of that, so I can enjoy a period soap at events, and turn it in for one of my Pentathalon entries I think (if I can hunt down the "period" recipes Wikipedia mentions). And if it works out well, I may be making hand made soap for Christmas gifts this year.
ETA: Bwahahahaha... I found the original documentation I needed, linked from an example on poor A&S documentation and how it can be improved! Oh, that's too funny.
http://www.greydragon.org/library/soap-example.html
Here's a few more links for future reference:
http://www.elizabethancostume.net/dyes/mappae.html#280
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/scents.html
And from someone else who did this as an A&S project: http://www.adamastorshire.co.za/chronicler/stormtidings/archive/as/soap.html
http://www.geocities.com/bmcellis/CurrentSoap.html (several recipes here).
I also found an abstract on "German soap recipes in the late Middle Ages", but not the recipe itself. Since the article is written in German, I don't know if I want to hunt it down, but maybe others reading this might find it of interest.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4250382