Yay, we’re all back at work in this brand-new, no-stress, totally awesome wonderful new year! Hahahahahah! Or at least it’s a Wednesday, right? So let’s talk about what’s going on! When I’d originally thought of what I wanted to do this week, it was dye yarn - I’d been out of blanks for the Andre and Tepper bases for a while and wanted to catch up on colorways that needed to be restocked. But I’m also way, way low on soap. Soap is winning out for my focus this week, then… I’ll talk more about that in a sec. Meanwhile….
In ceramics, I’m getting started on a rotating series of mugs for a local coffee shop; a few every month for the few months, each month will be a different mug, and they will only be available at the coffee shop. I’ll keep y’all posted when they start hitting the shelves, though! What else…? I’m working on ceramics for Patrons over on Patreon, as well. I have a few months worth of ideas and I’d love to actually get ahead for a change.
In soap, I’ve got a big update this week, another big update for next week, and… after that? We’re going to have a couple of small changes. Long time HaldeSoap lovers will remember a few years ago when I used to make soaps in about six or seven different designs…? And then like a year or two ago, I went to buy replacement molds of the ones I needed new ones for (you can only use them so many times before the temperature changes really wreak havoc with them)… and they no longer made most of the designs I liked. I had to narrow it down to two - I don’t know why but I just don’t want to make a plain soap? - and used one for the goat’s milk and one for the oatmeal soaps. Well, it’s about time for new molds again, and… hahahahhaha, guess what y’all. No, really. Guess.
Did you guess that both of those molds, the celtic knotwork and the dragonfly, aren’t made any more? YOU WIN A PRIZE! What is this fabulous prize, you ask? The prize is… a single new design, that I’ll use for both soaps — I ordered ten molds, so I can use five for goat’s milk and five for oatmeal, and not cross-contaminate, for my allergy/sensitive folks (I feel ya).
The GOOD news is that these are a newer silicone design, designed to take rapid temperature changes (same thing you may have seen for baking small cakes with wild designs) so they should last a lot longer. HOWEVER (you knew there would be a “but,” right?)… they are smaller than the soaps I make now. It was really difficult, y’all, and I don’t want to bore you with too many details, but to find a mold for a soap that’s the same weight as what I make now, that has a design, but a gender-neutral design, not a cutesy design, that isn’t priced so astronomically out of my range that to buy ten of them means I wouldn’t have to sell a child (or a cat, since I don’t have children)….? It’s slim pickins, y’all. It was coming down to choosing between design over size, and since I have to look at every bar of soap ….? Design won out.
SO. The soap from this week’s update, and the soap from next week’s update, will be the same as usual; same design, same price. After that, and I’m not sure if this will pick up the week after next or if there will be a week in between (depends on how much time I have for wrapping soap)… the new bars will start to populate the shop. To go with the smaller weight, I will also be lowering the price (for the new bars; the old bars will remain at the price they’re at, until sold out), so that’s a good thing! It won’t cost me as much to make each bar, so I can charge a little less for each one. Anything I can do to pass savings on to y’all, I will. Yes, the ten new molds is a price outlay, but y’all have been so supportive of my soap this year, it’s worth it to me to take some of that profit from last year and turn it into new supplies. Especially if it means I can charge you less as the new soaps roll in.
OK! Moving on! (And I’ll try to make a post in a couple of weeks that’s a soap-only post, with pictures of the new bars after the molds come in…)
In yarn… like I said earlier, I was planning on dyeing yarn this week, but all I got dyed was the colorway for the Patreon yarn (I can’t wait to tell you about the folk tale I’m using as inspiration). I do have Andre and Tepper bases back in stock, though, so as soon as I clear a bunch of that soap off my list, I’ll start working on dyeing restocks.
In Seasonal Collections, I’m playing around with a couple of shape ideas for the next Collection, which will be Under the Sea. I’m thinking maybe another dish, maybe a soap dish? And perhaps a yarn bowl. Stay tuned to social media, I’m sure I’ll be posting pictures.
In Patreon, I got a chapter up this last Sunday, with a lot of our main characters. On the 17th, I should have another bonus chapter of the Sage/Dev side-story. I mentioned above that I’m working on both ceramics and yarn for Patron benefits…. And there was one other thing I was going to say, but it’s gone from my head, of course. I’ll remember it at about 3 AM, I’m sure.
In knitting… I’m not actually doing too much knitting right now, although I have that afghan I do want to work on. I’m also jonesing for a new pair of socks…. But am not letting myself start a new pair of socks until I’m closer to done on that afghan.
In other things… my gosh, this is already at a thousand words, how can there still be other things to talk about?!
So that’s about it for me, then - it has to be, at this long a post, right?! Thanks for sticking with the whole thing! Now, tell me about yourself. What are you working on? What’s filling your time this week?