Westside Art Hop

Visit me in Ann Arbor May 13 at the
Westside Art Hop.
westsidearthop.com
“Artists supporting artists by holding a twice-yearly art walk rooted in the local community.
We present high quality art and hand-made crafts for sale to the public in a festive atmosphere.”

Art Fair Invitation

A collaboration of artists showing
 & selling their art
Saturday, May 20
9am - 5pm
9885 Ann Arbor Rd W.
Plymouth, MI
(across from plymouth nursery)

Ceramic Artist Janice Wilkiemeyer

Sculptor & ceramic artist Jimmy Neal

Ceramic artist Lynlee Sky

Wood carver Ed Wilkiemeyer

All About the Bunny

Bunny Shadows, foretell the future....

Spring Fever

This is the soap I entered into February's
Great Cakes Soapworks challenge.
https://soapchallengeclub.com
It is a combination of both melt and pour (MP) soap and
cold process (CP) soap. CP is which is what I usually make.
The bunny and heart embeds are MP, the rest is CP. 

These flowers are showing up in all my creations this month!
A sign of spring fever, I'd say.

Two Artists Soap

This luxury soap was made with the help of my husband, Jimmy.

We blended his sculpting skills with my special recipe of

Dandelion infused Almond Oil, Sunflower Oil, Castor Oil, Coconut Oil,

Palm Oil, and Olive Oil. It is lighted scented with the essential oils of 

May Chang, Lavender, and Patchouli for a deep rich note.

Kaolin Clay and a few micas add extra interest! 

Jimmy in his sculpting workshop working on my "special order" for
a clay model in preparation for making a silicone mold
in which to pour soap batter.

Here is the silicone mold he made, with a plaster
support and rubber bands to hold it together.

Jimmy agreed to help me make this special soap for
the Soap Challenge Club's January contest in which the
idea is to collaborate a soap design and recipe with a partner.

Jimmy has been somewhat interested in my soap making passion,
in fact he did ask for a sandalwood soap for his use.
He seemed to enjoy helping me make soap for this project.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of soap making is the cutting of the soap,
in this case, however,
what a joy to un-mold this soap!! It worked!

Two Artists are better than one.
Especially if one has a pencil behind his ear.
Thank You Jimmy!

Delight

The planning, designing, creating, cutting and
the using of soap is a continuing source of delight to me!
This will batch will be ready to use around Valentine's Day.

Cinnamon Tiger SwirL Soap

My entry into this month's soap challenge
(http://soapchallengeclub.com) is a soap made with
Homemade Craft Beer by a local beer makin' guy,
Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Shea Butter, & Rice Bran Oil.

The Soap Challenge Club has a monthly soaping
challenge in which a tutorial is given to learn a new soap technique.
This month's challenge is called a "tiger swirl". For the tiger's stripes
I used Activated Charcoal, Sandalwood Powder, Cinnamon Powder,
and a combination of Madder Root and Annato seeds
infused into Olive Oil. 

The soap is scented with the Essential Oils of
Bergamot, Cedarwood, and Patchouli.
Yeah, smells woodsy, outdoorsy, like a tiger...kinda....
Ok, Ok, smells grrrreat!

Soap Date & Gift Wrapping Soap

I made a large "master" batch of soap.,
divided it into 2 parts,
my friend Chantel, who also makes soap,
 added Lavender essential oil, pink clay and
Lavender buds (she collected) to her half.
I added orange peel,Cedarwood essential oil,
and Calendula petals from my garden.
Then we combined them, with an activated charcoal
pencil line between the 2 layers.
Smells wonderful, y'all!

A generous friend brought over wax/candy
molds- oh boy, getting fancy on designing
decorative wraps for my soaps.
Wax snow flake with wax snowman smushed on top.
This soap is Irish Seaweed Soap.
Smells like the ocean.

Out Door Shower

I am so Happy I get to continue using my out door shower-
in November! In Michigan!
Sure, kinda chilly if you step out of the spray,
but watching migrating birds and falling leaves while taking a shower
is THE BEST!

Super-Natural Soap Making

Assembling materials for a batch of Paw Paw Soap.

Our Paw Paw trees did remarkably well this fall!

I love the heart embedded soap design!
Some ceramic soap dishes I have recently made.