December 1, 2008 at 9:04 am · Filed under Shop
After the Husband was off for a week of vacation, even I am a bit bummed about this Monday.
But cheer up! I’m having a sale!
From now until December 5, US customers can get free shipping on all orders over $25 by using the coupon code twitter at checkout.
International folks, I have not forgotten you either! You can use the coupon code 2twitter to receive 20% off your order! (US residents can use it too, so be sure to check out which one saves you more money!)
These coupon codes can only be used at our main Martinsville Emporium website, and not Etsy or ArtFire.
November 18, 2008 at 1:31 pm · Filed under Connect
Life sometimes gets in the way here in Martinsville, and blogging isn’t always at the top of my list of things to do. So, then, how to keep track of what we’re doing here?
Twitter is my new favorite toy - I keep it up most of the time in my side bar.
You can also follow me over on Flickr.
And of course, if you ever have a question about any of our products, our contact form is right here!
November 18, 2008 at 11:33 am · Filed under Connect
I just haven’t been happy with the way the blog looks lately, so today I’m trying out a few new templates. So please pardon the dust. ^_^
October 31, 2008 at 7:03 am · Filed under Life
Happy Halloween, everyone! ^_^
October 17, 2008 at 6:46 am · Filed under Life
The garage and barn, originally uploaded by Martinsville.
I didn’t start out on the second floor of that two story barn. Like most home-based businesses in my area, I started out in the kitchen, making soap by day, and dinner by night.
Until the (in)famous Rose Flavored Mashed Potato Incident. It was the fall of 2002, and it seems I must have been making rose soap that fateful day, and spilled some of the fragrance oil on the only real work surface I have in my tiny 10′ x 10′ kitchen, a little 3′ wide wooden microwave cart.
Wood is really porous, you know. Tends to soak up just about any oil that falls on it, and then transfer it to whatever you put on it.
So there we are, happily eating dinner, and the Husband takes a bite of his mashed potatoes, puts his fork down, and says, “Maybe it’s time to clean out the garage and move your soapmaking things out there”.
Oops?
I outgrew the garage in about a year. And actually, the plans for the barn were already in the works for his woodworking shop - I just handily noted that adding a second story would add very little cost to the barn itself, and I could work with the sloped ceilings whereas he could not.
So now the garage is used for storing finished products (except in the winter, when the lotions and sprays have to come inside so they don’t freeze) and I have a lovely but very disorganized workshop dedicated to things that one really shouldn’t eat. ^_^
October 9, 2008 at 8:22 am · Filed under Shop
We are pleased as punch to announce that Martinsville Emporium is opening a candle shop on LolliShops!
Quoting from their main page:
LolliShops is a juried, online selling venue for talented artists, collectors of vintage and art supply vendors. LolliShops will appeal to those who love…
- Elegant Whimsy
- Romantic Inspirations
- Fanciful Creations
… artists will enjoy setting up their own, customizable store fronts while LolliShops patrons enjoy feeling like a kid in a Candy Store!
At this time, they are planning to open at the end of November. So far, from the previews I’ve seen, the site looks very clean and elegant.
Being that I am a huge fan of the Japanese Lolita style, applying for LolliShops was a given. Beneath this crayon-drawn exterior is a girl with a serious sweet tooth! ^_^ We hope you’ll visit us there!
July 17, 2008 at 1:19 pm · Filed under Create
Well, not really, but the fall fragrances are starting to arrive, and I can’t wait to soap them tonight!
The first one is Apple Jack and Peel, a duplicate of the Claire Burke fragrance. It’s not a new fragrance in the soapmaking world, but new to Martinsville, and now that I have it I’m really not sure why I waited so long! This fragrance just screams fall, and reminds me of one of my favorite fall activities - apple picking. Crisp, tart apples are the main note of Apple Jack and Peel, with supporting notes of orange peel, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. It’s very different from our Cinnamon Apples and Peaches, so it will be a great compliment to that. (Now I need to find it for candles!)
The second fragrance is Iced Oatmeal Cookie, and I haven’t quite added it to my coffee just yet, but I am sitting here sniffing it! ^_^ Spice fragrances are always hard to find because they can be irritants, but this one should be great. Top notes of oatmeal, cinnamon and clove are balanced with middle citrus zest notes, on a background of vanilla cream and amaretto. Very sweet and spicy! We’ll see how it does in soap, which is well known for smoothing out the sweet notes. And, it’s an instant crossover to candles, so expect this one to be very popular this fall!
I also finally get to mix up a new batch of Ginger Lime tonight (I was out of fragrance oil), and two other sweeter, new fragrances - Caribbean Dream and Vanilla Cupcake.
New batches of Lilac, Damascus Rose, and Lime Sugar are curing. I used a new colorant for the Lime Sugar, and it faded from green to yellow, so expect to see new pictures of that soon.
And sadly, two full batches of soap have gone bad. :^( So Mangos & Oranges and Green Tea are currently unavaliable, until new batches are ready.
July 3, 2008 at 11:07 am · Filed under Create
We are currently out of stock on Lilac and Fresh Ginger Lime soaps.
I try really hard to make sure everything is in stock, especially since the soaps need a cure time. However, I’ve been having a lot of problems with my back and knees this summer, so I haven’t been spending as much time out in the shop as I would like.
Added 18 November 2008: These are back in stock, of course. ^_^
May 14, 2008 at 6:43 pm · Filed under Shop
Here in Martinsville, we are pleased to announce that we are now accepting payments through Revolution Money Exchange, the newest alternative to PayPal that is starting to sweep the Internet.
March 14, 2008 at 1:29 pm · Filed under Create
There’s no pie here in Martinsville today - but soaps curing out in the shop. A new batch of Sandalwood, and two of our out-of-stock fragrances, Peppermint Stick and Lilac. And two of our new fragrances for spring - Niagara Falls and Beau Brummel.
Being that Niagara Falls is just a stone’s throw away from us here, we first introduced this fragrance in candles about two years ago, and now it’s available in our cold process soap as well! We like to refer to it as an “artistic representation” of the mighty Niagara, with top notes of white lillies, mandarin, grapefruit and clementine, middle notes of jasmine, orchid and rose, all on a base of white musk and sandalwood. Much better than the real thing, which I hate to say on a bad day smells more like dead fish and the nearby DuPont plant. O_o
Beau Brummel is our newest men’s fragrance, a rich scent that evokes visions of the gentlemen’s clubs of the 18th century. Dominant notes of tobacco and black tea are supported by hints of fruit and spice. It’s a beautiful bar, too, with swirls of brown and blue on a cream background.
Yes, after spending the past 6 years trying to avoid brown soaps, my new favorite colorant is brown oxide. Oxides are some of my favorite colorants, and I’ve been using them since I started making soap.
So what is an oxide? Oxides are pigments that are used to color many things, from everything from food to paint. Oxides are found in nature, but since the 1970s they have been lab-created because mined oxides are often contaminated with dangerous heavy metals like mercury and antimony. The FDA doesn’t consider oxides “natural” because they are not plant-based; they are considered “inorganic” colorants. They are great for soapmaking because they are stable in the alkaline environment that is uncured soap, and just a small amount will give a wonderful, rich color. An average 10 pound, 30 bar batch has about a 1/2 teaspoon of oxide per color swirl in it.
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