Tremont Art and Culture Festival is today

And as you are reading this we are busy setting up Big Bertha, our large sturdy tent, and beginning to unpack and lay out the booth for the weekend.  We are excited that the weather is going to be great today, but an eye on the weather for Sunday, with the threat of rain.

There is a buzz in the air as everyone begins the process of setting up their tents.  The artist village is smaller than last year, but there are sheer quality artists

We have been working hard to get our soap, silk and other products ready.  In fact I was processing silk late into the night for this weekend.  We also plotted out a new display option for the silk, involving dowel rods and some heavy gauge wire.  I think the scarves will look awesome displayed this way.

And we have a new business associate in the tent with us Saturday.

Michael’s Soap

Michael is the son of a sweet friend of ours.  He is a sharp and well mannered guy with big dreams.  We are thrilled to encourage this young man who has entrepreneurial spirit, and a desire to raise funds for private school for his high school years.  That said, Steve has been meeting with Michael, and worked with him to create Green Apple soap… a gentle cold processed fornmula that is fresh, and smells like a bushel of green apples.  The color turned out perfect also.  Mike will be in our tent, selling his soap and we hope he sells out.  If he sells out he will have earned $350.00 toward tuition for high school.  I promise photos once we are fully set up.  And i am thinking this will be a great learning opportunity for Michael.  We are asking blessings on his efforts.  He is eager to find a way to afford the dreams of his future, including a good high school that will launch him into college with scholarships.  It is encouraging to be a part of the efforts.  And we have already had 2 people buy a bar, sight unseen, to help.

Happy Silk Dye Accidents

I have been trying to bind my silk in different ways to create new patterns.  That is what i did the other night with a 18″x 72″ thick china silk piece.  The dye i chose was a deep sapphire blue, emerald green, and a small amount of a taupe-bronze.  The field would be the emerald, the flowers in the blue, with wafts of the taupe-bronze to define and differentiate the colors.  I had thoughts of how it would come out.  But this one I allowed to dry bound together.  When that happens there are times when the dye concentrates, creating what look like occlusions, or places where the dye is dense.  This was the beauty of the pattern, creating pansy like markings on the floral shapes.  Loving this, eager to get it finished and put it on the rack for sale.

New Soap for Fall

  Steve has been busy making a few new soaps for the fall season and they all smell amazing.  Ofcourse Pumpkin Spice has begun to sell   well again.  We have a few soap flavors that remain in inventory year round.  But we have been trying a trend of creating seasonal collections of soap, that as the season ends, they go away until the coming year.  As we approach mid autumn the Christmas soaps will be rolling out… those are curing now, awaiting the change in season.  But here are a few new fall soaps that will be available at Tremont.

Cinnamon and Sage – wonderful hints of cinnamon with a woodsy sage, and hints of clove and nutmeg.  Steve added soap lab color to make the bars a sage green…. and I am in love with this one… The benefit of being the wife of a soap maker is that I always have yummy soap!

Apple Spice – We have done other apple soaps, but this is a new one for us… strong apple scent with hints of cinnamon and clove.  It puts me in mind of baking apple pies.

Fall Wreath – is a fragrant oil blend of  fir balsam, cedar, clove and vanilla  in a rich coconut, palm and olive oil soap formula.  This onefills the house with scent.

White Tea – A soft and refreshing scent that is clean, crisp, and has notes of vanilla, musk and amber dancing with the fresh white tea blossoms.  Has a more feminine.

And ofcourse, I have been crocheting that wire – the riders of my bus have grown to look for me, and watch each project transform from a bale of wire and tubes of beads to something amazing.  Here are a few of the fun ones: