SOAPLINGS
demurely resist uniformity
One batch of my goat milk soap results in three loaves of soap, and each loaf of soap makes between thirty-four & thirty-six bars, depending on how I cut it. To make each bar, I cut the loaf into inch-ish-wide slices using a crinkle cutter, then I cut each slice in half with a straight edged knife.
While the soap recipe itself requires exact measurements, I prefer to “eye” the final cuts of soap, which means the bars vary by a fraction of an inch in one way or another.
After all this time, I still take pleasure in the variation of each slice, how the crinkle cutter bends under pressure; how my knife yields against the various densities of each bar, depending on the humidity in the air and the hours since the make.
I certainly could invest in better knives, build a guide to ensure each bar is the “correct” thickness and a wire cutter to make the straight cut more efficient and unwavering, but I’ve come to love my soaplings in their variety.
I think of them as rebels demurely resisting uniformity. Cute little antidotes to the bigger-is-better instinct. Personality! In a world increasingly run by robots.
I read today that saplings are trees less than four inches in diameter—the same diameter as my soap molds, interestingly enough. I like this handy parallel, imagining my soaps as living creatures in my care, like seeds I’ve planted and tended that will go on to live their full lives in your showers and sinks, intimate companions to your thoughtful rituals of renewal.
I think our world has enough objects built by objects and not enough art made by humans. And I think living as a biological being in a manufactured world can occasionally trick us into thinking that we aren’t perfect enough to create anything.
The truth of course, my saplings, my soap children, is we are all artists—if everything we create is a thoughtful extension of our wavering selves. Take pleasure in each new slice!
IN GOAT / SOAP NEWS:
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