Dryer Balls

I recently learned about dryer balls.  The first time I used them I fell in love with them.  Of course that led to me wondering how hard they were to make.  Well after reading a bunch of different blogs on how to make them I decided to give it a go.  I’ve tried two different methods and then kind of combined the two.

Before I get into them let me explain what they are and why they’re so awesome!

1. They are an Eco-friendly alternative to the conventional dryer sheet.

2. They do more than a dryer sheet by pulling the moisture out of your clothes so you don’t have to run your dryer as long, saving you time and money.

3. They reduce static just like dryer sheets do.

4. They soften your clothes like liquid fabric softener when they’re bouncing around your dryer, but unlike fabric softener they don’t have harsh chemicals.

I first tried wool yarn.  They gave me nice round balls, but it took me 6 hours to wrap the eight balls you see here!  I have to tie off the ends and then these are ready to go into the wash.

Then I tried just using wool roving to make the entire ball (much less time consuming)!  I actually think I like this method better.  My first balls were pretty bad (they’re going to my mom – She doesn’t care that they’re a little to small and misshaped.)  Once I got a hang of how to wrap it it went went pretty smoothly.

Then I used the wool string to start a small ball to act as the base.  And used wool roving to be the outside.

I don’t think I’ll continue this.  I ended up having a hard time making the ball round. I know it seems like it’d be easier but it was harder to get the roving wool wrapped around the yarn in a nice round shape.

I meant to take a picture before these went in the wash, but I forgot.  So here they are after the wash. The roving wool balls have shrunk considerably.  The yarn ones not at all.  It really doesn’t look like the yarn balls felted.  They did a little (and I used 100% wool that’s not machine washable so I know that’s not the problem).  I’ll try a set out in the dryer and see how they hold up…

Here they are removed from nylon after two washes.  The top three sets (which were the later ones I made) came out really well.  I know it doesn’t quite look like it in the photo but they’re pretty round and the size I was going for and they felted really nicely!

The maroon and brown are the yarn. They seem pretty sturdy, but just not very felted so we’ll see how they hold up.  Then the bottom are my rejects.  Not round…too small…but hey you’ve gotta have a learning curve.  Good thing I don’t mind using my rejects

Wool Roving

As you know I’ve recently ventured into making dryer balls…I actually really like making them.  I’ve been experimenting with different wools and colors and I’ve discovered I really like wool roving (instead of wool yarn)!  I’m getting some really nice dryer balls!

I bought my first batch of wool roving on ETSY a while back (when I was going to try felting my soap) so I decided do go back there to do a search for more. I was looking for some nice colored wool.  I finally settled on IndigoCrane because I loved the bold colors she offered.  Check her out here: https://www.etsy.com/people/indigocranefiber

Oh my word! Her wool is GORGEOUS.  I almost don’t want to felt it it’s so silky smooth and just delightful to touch.  But even more than that the colors are AMAZING!  So bold and just down right beautiful.

Mouse Cupcakes

I saw some cupcakes made to look like mouse cupcakes and I fell in love.  I decided right then I needed to replicated them in soap!  I think they came out pretty darn cute

Soap Photos

My friend has been doing soap photos for me of my products and they’re SOOOO GORGEOUS! I have to share them!

Cupcakes:

Wake Up Rosemary:

Oatmeal Milk & Honey:

Sundae Soaps

I made another round of Sundae Soaps.  Mainly because I had the ice cream scoops made.  I’m not sure if I’m going to continue them.  They’re such a novelty product. I do sell them, but not as much as I’d like to make it worth continuing them.  We’ll see.  For now enjoy some pictures of the newest batch!

Embedded Heart Tutorial

This really isn’t a hard soap to make.  It just takes two days to do.  I love embeds.  I have a patience for them that not everyone does.  I plan out my soaps in advance and then make the “parts” I’ll need to create the whole.

STEP 1: The first step in this soap is making the heart embeds.  I use this heart mold from Wholesale Supplies Plus: Heart Mold.

If you fill all 8 of the small hearts it takes about 12-14 ounces.  This mold can be a pain to unmold.  I have a recipe I love to use for embeds because the bulk of the rcipe are solid oils/butters and so it makes for harder embeds, which in turn makes it easier to unmold.  I usually leave the hearts in the mold for a full 24 hours and then before I try unmolding them I stick them in the freezer for about an hour or so.

Oil(s) Selected	2lb Batch
Castor Oil	2.25 oz
Shea Butter	9 oz
Coconut Oil (76 Degrees)	6.75 oz
Olive Oil	9 oz
Palm Oil	9 oz
5% Lye Amount	4.90 oz
Water	11.88 oz
Yields	36 oz

This is a 2lb recipe.  You can shrink it to a 1lb batch if you’re just going to do heart embeds.  I am always making embeds so I use the 2lb batch.   I’ll use the leftover soap to create embeds for another project.  It just saves me time in the long run.

I don’t add a fragrance to these hearts and I use titanium dioxide to color them.  Not adding fragrance doesn’t affect the overall batch.  By not adding fragrance it ensures that I don’t get any discoloration in my nice white hearts.  Feel free though to add fragrance if you’d like.

STEP 2: Unmold hearts!

STEP 3: After I’ve made and unmolded these soaps I’m ready to make the actual loaf.  I use a five pound mold and I need four and a half hearts to get them to go the entire length.

I use this recipe for the loaf.  It’s one of my favorite moisturizing recipes, but you can use any recipe you want.  This is for a five pound batch of soap (you’ll need 4 and half hearts to fill the loaf).  In this tutorial just did a 2.5 lb batch (where I only needed two hearts).

Oil(s) Selected	5lb
Avocado Oil	5.4 oz
Meadowfoam Oil	1.35 oz
Coconut Oil (76 Degrees)	10.75 oz
Olive Oil	21.50 oz
Palm Oil	10.75 oz
Shea Butter	5.4 oz
5% Lye Amount	7.5 oz
Water	18.15 oz
Yields	80.65 oz

STEP 4: Once you’ve mixed the oils and lye and the batch has reached a very light trace it’s time to split the batch up.  I split about a quarter of the batter out and set it aside for the top.

TIP: Unless I know I’m working with a slow moving fragrance I do not add it to the soap before I split the batch.  I’ve found by not adding the fragrance to the part I set aside it gives me more time to work with it and it makes for a more fluid soap which in return makes it easier to create nice crisp and clean lines between the two layers.

STEP 5: In the bottom layer (which should be about three-quarters of your soap) mix your color and fragrance together.  Pour it into your mold.

(I did a side view, instead of a top view) so you could see that you’ll fill approximately 3/4 of the mold.)

You can use any color you want.  The first batch I did I used a teal and gray.  I love this soap!  I didn’t have any more blackberry-sage fragrance oil on hand though so the batch you’re seeing pictures of is Orange & Amber.  I went with orange as the base color and black as the top (a little Halloween-y, but hey I like it!)

STEP 6: I let this set up a bit before I add my hearts in (unless it’s setting up fast then I put them in right away).  Next I go back to my top layer and add my fragrance and color.  Once it’s mixed together I go back to the base and add the hearts and then pour the second layer over them.

I used Orange Peel in this batch.  First time I’ve used it.  If you want a slowwwwww moving fragrance this one’s for you.  I had to wait and wait and wait (despite a lot of stick blending) for this soap to set up enough to hold the heart embeds on top!

STEP 7: If you want you can add a mica top.  I love the look of the mica tops with these soaps.  My mica top didn’t quite work out as planned.

TIP: Here’s some free advice from my trial and errors!  Don’t spritz your soap with alcohol right after doing your mica top.  And don’t spritz your top and then try and do your mica top!  The first time I tried the mica top I had a lovely swirl pattern.  Out of habit I spritzed the top and it caused the micas to migrate and mix together.  The second time I made soap with a mica top I did my mica top and then came back about 30 minutes later AFTER the oil had absorbed into the soap and spritzed.  Worked great.  No smudging…but I did get a small amount of ash on one of my tops.

So this time I decided to try spritzing it before I did the mica top in hopes of no ash.  Well, the alcohol kind creates a layer over the soap and while I was able to pour the mica on top (see pic below) when I went to swirl it it did not work!  Moral of all this, if you’re going to spritz do so only after the oil has absorbed into the soap.

Here’s the kind of sort of salvaged top.  It’s not an elegant one, but I think it kind of actually works for the orange/black theme I’ve got going!

STEP 8: I insulate my soaps. I like them to go through gel phase, but you don’t have to.  After 24 hours I unmold and cut and admire the pretty bars!

Embeds…

This is quite the collection of embeds!  About to be used in a variety of different soaps!