September Cold Process Class

Lucky me, I got to teach an awesome group of brand new soapers the art of cold process--making soap from scratch using lye. We had a lot of fun and they created beautiful bars with vibrant colors, swirls, and exfoliating additives!

This is our second batch. Everyone left with four bars of custom scented and colored soap.

One of the best parts--adding color and fragrance!

Nancy is pouring the lye into the oils. She brought her own lavender essential oil and ground up lavender buds to experiment with.

Beautiful swirls!!

Well done! Keep an eye on our website for the next class listing. Bring a friend, or surprise someone like one of the students did today. She had no idea she was coming to a soapmaking class! It was a blast-- thanks everyone!

Cold Process Class Soap

Saturday's class was so much fun-- everyone jumped right in and had lots of great questions. Each group is a little different and you can tell by their soaps. There have been many classes where students used bright, vibrant color and crazy swirl patterns, and this class used mostly earth tones and fun natural additives like apricot seed powder, ground loofah and dried calendula.

Well done ladies and good luck on your future soapmaking experiences!

*Reporting Live from the Soap Bar*

On my way to work this morning, our peaceful little Holly Street in Old Town was hiding behind a giant curtain of smoke. While detouring around the back by the waterfront, I got a clear view of what took place overnight. A fire had destroyed three vacant buildings just down the hill from the soap shop and firefighters are still putting it out as I write this. Bay Street Village (Otion's building) is safe and sound, and right in the middle of the news coverage action. I can see Kiro TV set up across the street in front of Rocket Donuts, and swarms of people are making their way into town for a glimpse of the destruction.

It looks like everything is under control and at this point, just a spectacle. So, back to the soap!


We finished up February with a full cold process soap making class over the weekend, and I was impressed as usual by the beautiful soaps that were created. Everyone jumped into swirling and some even tried fun additives like ground loofah and lava sand. We all loved how strong the contrast turned out with black oxide and opalescent green mica. Remember the cow soap from December's class? There's that black oxide again.



Classes are filling up fast! Please visit our website for a schedule and to sign up. Is there a class you wish we offered? Let us know, we'd love to hear from you!

Tentative Otion Soap Weekend Intensive

We are so excited to have our Otion Soap Weekend Intensive class happening for the third year in a row. Packed with information and expert teachers, this is a small, hands on class with practical advice to provide you an excellent base of knowledge for Soapmaking and lotionmaking as well as the inspiration to take your crafting to the next level. LOOK for sign up in early January.

Tentative weekend plans

Friday 3 p.m. Beginning Melt & Pour (optional if you need schooling the basics)

End 5 p.m.

Saturday 9 a.m. Welcome/Get Acquainted time

9:30 Beginning Cold Process

11:30 Lunch/Break

12:30 Advanced Cold Process – swirling, layering

2:30 break

3:00 Liquid Soapmaking

5:30 End

Saturday 9 a.m. Melt and Pour Advanced

10:30 break

10:45 Melt and Pour Advanced

12:30 Lunch

1:30 Lotionmaking 101

3:30 Graduation, wrapping, cupcake celebration

November Cold Process Class

Cheers to another new group of cold process soap makers! Check out these incredible bars made in Saturday's class.

I didn't have to ask twice for volunteers to portion oils or even to make the lye solution-- everyone was eager to learn, full of great questions, and stepped right up to participate. Many had already played with melt-and-pour soap making and were ready to start from scratch.


We went over everything from additives, color, properties of oils, fragrance vs. essential oils, supplies, molds, safety with sodium hydroxide, what soap is and how it works, swirling and layering techniques, you name it.


Congrats on your new skill and let the experimenting and creativity begin!

October 17th Cold Process Class

What a stormy night! Talk about great weather to be inside making soap, not to mention perfect sound effects behind the instruction. It was pretty funny to be saying something like, "... and now we have reached trace!" and have it followed up with thunder and lightening. Made for a very dramatic presentation. I think we all had a lot of fun and the swirls keep getting better and better! There were a lot of very sharp, clean looking swirl patterns as a result of using more of one color than the other in the bar. Maybe it's just me, but the contrast seems to make more of an impact.

A special thanks to those who made the trip from out of town. We had a couple people that came up from Tacoma and one from Los Angeles. Now those are dedicated soapers!

Again, I am super impressed by the beautiful bars that were made in class and can't wait to see what next month's students produce.