Monday, December 5, 2011

Dance Palace Holiday Crafts Fair Report

The Dance Palace 40th Annual Holiday Craft Fair 
was a great success!

Tomales Bay Soaps is grateful for all of the interest in the tradition of cold process soap making.

Memorable highlights from the weekend include:

  • The gathering and celebration of many talented local artisans
  • Indian Peach's Salmon Frittata with fluffy eggs, perfectly cooked potatoes and crispy cheese edges  
  • Blacksmithing Demonstration
  • Wild West's Fermented Moroccan Carrots
  • West Marin School Students' Arts & Crafts
  • Midnight Kitchen's distinctive shortbread cookies
  • Kim's fantastic bird houses and jewel- like magnets
  • Amber's precious and unique flannel lined, boiled cotton toddler coats!
  • Well organized event hosted by the great staff of the DANCE PALACE

Soaps Featured at the Dance Palace Holiday Fair




Large Bars: Bull Frog (Lime), Queen Lavender, Grapefruit & Spearmint, Honey Orange Sunburst

Ovals: Bergamot & Lavender, Grapefruit & Spearmint, Honey Orange Sunburst, 
Bergamot & Lavender, Milk & Honey



Queen Lavender




(Top to Bottom)
Lemongrass & Calendula, Spirulina-Rosemary-Lavender,
 Lavender, Meyer Lemon, Bergamot & Lavender




Cedarwood (white)
Bergamot & Lavender (red)
Rosemary & Peppermint (sage)
Lemongrass & Calendula (tan)






Friday, December 2, 2011

December Greetings from Tomales Bay Soap Company

Tomales Bay Soap Company

Greetings, I hope this newsletter finds you healthy and inspired.  

December is an exciting month because it is like a harvest celebration.  No longer on drying racks in the soap shack or nestled in plastic storing boxes, the soaps become transformed on tablecloths and unique plates.  This stage reveals how beautiful the results are of many months of work.  Soap making is wonderfully addicting and the opportunities for experimentation are endless.

Check out the gallery below:
All Photographs by Gwendolyn Meyer
www.gwendolynmeyer.com


Grapefruit & Spearmint
Large molded bar spread (Left to Right & Top to Bottom):
Honey Orange Sunburst, Cedarwood, Lime,
Mint,  Meyer Lemon,  Lemongrass & Rosemary

Cedarwood,  Spirulina-Rosemary-Lavender, Cedarwood

Pile'O'Soaps:
(From Back to Front)
Lemongrass & Calendula, Spirulina-Rosemary-Lavender (Grape leaf),
 Bergamot (Faith) & Cedarwood (Love)

 About The Ingredients:

These wonderfully nourishing soaps are made with saponified oils of organic olive, organic coconut, organic palm and organic sunflower oil.  Many bars also contain organic shea and cocoa butters.  Botanical colorants such as organic paprika, organic spirulina and organic turmeric are used to give these bars rich colors that simultaneously serve as anti-cancerous and skin nourishing agents.  The distinctive scents are from generous portions of pure essential oils. 

Meadow
Made with pure essential oils of Vanilla, Lemongrass,
Sweet Orange & Spearmint, organic chamomile petals and organic calendula petals

Teardrops: Cedarwood & Spearmint & Grapefruit

Hand-milled Jewels of Blood Orange &  Honey

Cedarwood



About The Process:
Tomales Bay Soaps are made in the old-fashioned Cold-Process tradition that blends a solution of spring water and lye with the blend of oils (fat).  When this mixture begins to trace, herbs and essential oils are blended in right before the soap is poured into a collection of unique molds. 
The batch is then wrapped to retain heat for 24 hours.  The curing “saponification” process continues on for another four weeks.  In this time, a chemical change is slowly taking place where fats and oils are turning into soap and hardening.  Saponification is the name of the chemical process of turning lye and fat into soap.  Once this curing process is complete there is no longer any lye in the soap. 


All Photographs by Gwendolyn Meyer
www.gwendolynmeyer.com