Great feedback from recent customers.

I wanted to say thank you for the wonderful candles - they were fantastic and went down very well with the family at Christmas time.  I kept one of the lavender ones for myself and have been burning it in the living room - it smells delicious! Thank you also for the fantastic tea light samples.  They have been a great success and have a very good burn time (6-8 hours).
Kate, Edinburgh

I bought a really lovely lemongrass candle from you last Saturday at St Abbs!. I had a girlie get together last night and had your candle burning and everyone LOVED it. I was  so impressed that your candles burn right down until nothing left!!
Pam, Berwickshire.

I really enjoyed visiting you at St Abbs this afternooon.

I would very much like to buy some more cup and saucer candles, if you still have any left for presents. I thought that they were lovely.

Kind regards, Marilyn

More soy candles ready for my customers

I have had a busy week making up two large orders of soy candles for customers - two pictured above.The cup and saucer is Susie Cooper bone china and the scent is green tea which is lovely. I plan to source more interesting ceramics in the New Year to make up interesting soy eco-candles.

Woolflowers and Eco Soy Candles

I am now having a lot of fun making candles from eco-soy wax. This is a renewable wax made from soy beans. These candles are clean burning and don't give off the noxious fumes that candles made from paraffin wax do (ugh). They burn for 8 - 10 hours at least. Most are scented (lavender, green tea, citrus and basil, ho wood and other fragrances tbd!) I am selling them at various craft fairs this winter.

I am also making pretty woolflower brooches that can brighten up a jacket, scarf of hat. Some are made with organic wool from the Isle of Mull, others with a scarce wool from the Bernat Klein studio. I am also decorating some of them with Swarovski Crystals!

I am excited to be taking a table at the Local Producers Market at the new Ebba Centre in St Abbs on Fridays through most of this November and December 2012. This super event features a wide range of stalls and is open from 10am-4pm. I will be selling my own handmade artisan soap and eco-soy candles plus I will have a wide range of lovely hand knitted garmets such as scarfs and children clothes as well as cushions. (knitted by me, my Mum and my friend Helen!) -  I am not selling online just now but plan to be early next year.

Ogston & Tennant - a 19th century Aberdeen-based soap maker.

I spotted this Herb box on my recent trip to Orkney. Colonel James Ogston was a 19th century soap manufacturer from Aberdeen - known as "Soapy Ogston". His factory made soap and candles and was in the Gallowgate area of Aberdeen.  It was founded in 1802 and sometime after 1892, the soap and candle works of Charles Tennant was merged with Ogstons to form Ogston and Tennant Ltd. The combined company later became part of the Lever Group.

Vinolia Otto - the cold cream bath soap of the Titanic!

Vinolia Otto Toilet Soap was provided for First Class passengers on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. It smells old-fashioned and it is made with ingredients I don't approve of such as Paraffinum Liquidum and Sodium Tallowate - but anyhow - it is an interesting piece of soap history.

My Mum gave me this small guest sized bar - but the soap isn't available in the UK as far as I am aware. Unilever make it now - in Cyprus - exported to the Middle East. I read that it was the only product that was advertised ahead of the Titanic's maiden voyage - other goods were to be advertised after its successful arrival in America! 

It's a soap "sign"!

The other week, my lovely husband put up a garden building so that I could have my own dedicated workroom for soap making. This is very exciting. While digging the foundations he discovered an old blue and white enamel advertising sign - like the ones you see in old photos of railway station platforms. The weird coincidence is this is what the sign was advertising...

The complete sign would have read " WATSON'S MATCHLESS CLEANSER IS THE BEST SOAP". Watson's Soap was made in Leeds and was a huge company in the late 19th century. Read the history of the company here  Interestingly, I discovered that the key ingredient of soap making, glycerine, was sold by them to make explosives. When my handmade soap is ready for sale - it will contain all its original glycerine (essential for moisturising your skin) !