Naughty Soap 3

Today the naughty soap has cured and set, at least partially. It was de-moulded.

Sæben i dag, parat til at blive skåret

First the outer wooden mould was taken apart - it is built for this purpose.

Træformen kan skrues fra hinanden

Then the inner liner was removed, revealing a still layered soap in spite of my stirrings.
I made it bi-colour by adding spirulina powder to the last half of the soap mass before pouring. I suppose this might have helped bring on the volcanic activity.

Inderformen fjernes.
Sæben er stadig tofarvet, selvom jeg rørte rundt i den i går

The wooden mould serves a double purpose, it is a cutting box as well. If you embiggen the photo you can see the scored lines, I use for guide when cutting.

Formen er også skærekasse.
Linjerne lader mig skære sæberne lige store.

Cutting happens. Maybe it is a cheese slicer, maybe it was made for truffles. I found it on a flea market and it is perfect for the cutting of soap.

Dimsen, jeg skærer med er måske en ostehøvl - eller måske en trøfelskærer.
Den er i hvert fald perfekt til at skære sæbe med.

Here some of the cut soaps are laid out. The two top right are darker, more sombre. I had to take a break in cutting. They are oxidized. This will eventually happen to all the soaps.

De to øverst til højre har stået lidt og er iltet.
De ender alle sammen med at se sådan ud.

Stamping - I know from earlier years that I just can not remember which soap was what later on. W means Waldmeister, the German word for Sweet woodruffs, as the Danish letter B (for bukkar) is used for birch soaps.
The letters are parts of a BBQ meat branding iron I bought on clearance just because I liked it.

Man kan bare ikke huske hvilken sæbe, der er hvad.
W er for Waldmeister, det tyske ord for bukkar, eftersom B betyder birk.

The first and last slice of the soap bar are trial soaps, I have to try out the amount of pressure necessary for a clear imprint.
Sometimes I just feel like fooling around with other stamps, or maybe one of the Owlets wants to try his hand at stamping ;)
No soap leaves my house as a gift or in any other way before I have been bathing with one of these end slices and approved it.

Endeskiverne er til forsøg. Her er det en Ugleunge, der har fået lov at lege.
De kommer med i bad til godkendelse før sæberne forlader huset.

The soap here is still somewhat harsh. It'll have to cure for four to six weeks before I'll start using it. And during these weeks the sweet woodruff will do its magic trick. Right now the soap smells from nothing except lye, that is a smell most people associate with "clean". But some times during the coming weeks, I'll enter the room where the soaps are curing on racks and the sweet smell of spring will reach me.
How or why this happens, I have no idea. Woodruff is the only plant I have found so far giving a natural scent to soaps.
When the soaps are cured they will have a clean up. I'll bevel the edges, cut off any protruding corners and remove the burrs from the W's.
Then they're ready for use.

-- 🌿 --

Sæben her er stadig skrap mod  hænderne. Den skal stå i 4 til 6 uger og modne. I det tidrum vil bukkaren også udøve sin magi. Lige nu lugter sæberne kun af lud - en lugt de fleste siger bare lugter rent - men pluselig en dag kommer jeg ind i uglehulen, hvor sæberne ligger, og så dufter der grønt, af forår. Hvordan det sker, aner jeg ikke og bukkar er også den eneste plante, der kan få sæber til at dufte helt af sig selv.