Soap Making For Beginners – Melt And Pour Process

Written by Dave Cushion


Continued from page 1

If you want soap that is natural, this is a great choice. Typically, goat’s milk glycerin soap is slightly higher thanrepparttar other types of soaps but still very affordable and well worthrepparttar 115946 investment.

MELT AND POUR SOAP MAKING EQUIPMENT AND INGREDIENTS

The great thing about using melt and pour is that you can use equipment you typically have on hand. With this method, you can userepparttar 115947 base of a double boiler or your microwave oven.

Keep in mind that if you chooserepparttar 115948 microwave,repparttar 115949 bowl withrepparttar 115950 soap substance will need to be covered with plastic wrap to keep it from splattering but more importantly, to help keeprepparttar 115951 excess moisture from evaporating. Forrepparttar 115952 microwave method, you would meltrepparttar 115953 base soap on high for about one minute, stirring inrepparttar 115954 remaining pieces not yet melted.

Forrepparttar 115955 double boiler option, bringrepparttar 115956 water to a boil. Then, add your melt and pour soap of choice, cover, and leave on low. This will take quite some time to melt so about every 10 minutes, checkrepparttar 115957 base to see if it is melted. If you like, you can stir occasionally to ensure an even melt.

Fragrance

For both methods of melt and pour, if you want to add in fragrance, oncerepparttar 115958 base soap has melted, then you would addrepparttar 115959 fragrance oil. Be surerepparttar 115960 fragrance is mixed in completely and thatrepparttar 115961 base ofrepparttar 115962 soap does not have a cloudy appearance.

Although you can use more or less fragrance according to personal preference, typically a good rule to follow is to use .25 ounces to every one pound of soap base. In addition to fragrances, you can also use essential oils.

Color

Now forrepparttar 115963 color, if you want to create colored soap, add approximately one-eighth teaspoon to one-quarter teaspoon mica in withrepparttar 115964 melting soap base, making sure to mix in it well.

If any bubbles form on top ofrepparttar 115965 soap, you can leave them for design effect or spray them with rubbing alcohol. If you want to use food coloring, start with just one drop torepparttar 115966 melted base, stirring well. Then, you can add one additional drop until you findrepparttar 115967 color of preference.

Afterrepparttar 115968 fragrance and color have been added torepparttar 115969 soap base, pourrepparttar 115970 melted base intorepparttar 115971 mold of your choice. Again, if you want to remove any bubbles that will settle on top, spray them with rubbing alcohol. Afterrepparttar 115972 soap has hardened, generally a few hours, you can use it and enjoy!

COST

As you can see, to make your own soap at home, you would pay around $40 forrepparttar 115973 slab of base, a few dollars for fragrance, a few dollars for coloring, and that is about it. The process is very cost effective, fun, and you end up with exactlyrepparttar 115974 type of soap you love most.

Most people figure that one bar of homemade soap will average .50, far less than you would pay elsewhere. In addition, you can add in special items or effects to jazz things up.

Making soap usingrepparttar 115975 melt and pour process is easy and fun… and makes for very inexpensive soap. Not only is it great for making your own soap, but it makes for truly unique and creative gifts.

Dave Cushion is the creator of the very popular book "Soap Making Made Simple!" To get additional soap making tips, go to http://www.soap-making-made-simple.com and learn much more about this very fun and useful craft.


Getting the right digital camera for you

Written by Chris Thomas


Continued from page 1

Makingrepparttar Right Selection

There is a fantastic range of digital cameras available onrepparttar 115945 market. Nonetheless manufacturers focus on their customers and target specific models at certain sectors ofrepparttar 115946 market. The table below summarisesrepparttar 115947 information, which we have discussed.

Basic camera

A fixed lens camera priced at less than £50 [Or $90 USD] which takes digital images of up to 1 MegaPixel - will be adequate for computer or television screen display.

Party Camera

A compact design camera with a fixed lens – cost up to £150 [Or $280 USD] - taking images of up to 2 MegaPixel - will generate good quality images suitable for printing up to 4 x 5 inches

Holiday Camera

Another compact design but with a 2 – 1 zoom lens and costing between £200 and £400 [$350 - $800 USD] taking images or between 3 and 5 MegaPixel which will be suitable for printing up to 10 x 8 inches

Serious Camera

A SLR style camera with a 5 – 1 zoom lens costing between £600 and £1000 [$1000 - $2000 USD] and producing images of up to 6 MegaPixel which will produce prints of up to 12 x 16 inches

Professional Camera

An SLR camera with interchangeable lenses and costing upwards of £1,500 [Or around $3000 USD], which will take images of up to 8 MegaPixel, which will print to poster size.

SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex. These are cameras, which do not have a separate viewfinder. Ratherrepparttar 115948 operator looks throughrepparttar 115949 lens ofrepparttar 115950 camera. Momentarily beforerepparttar 115951 shutter is opened a mirror flicks up andrepparttar 115952 light passing throughrepparttar 115953 lens is allowed to hitrepparttar 115954 sensitive surface ofrepparttar 115955 camera. In many casesrepparttar 115956 lens atrepparttar 115957 front ofrepparttar 115958 camera can be changed for another type. A variation on this presentsrepparttar 115959 image as seen byrepparttar 115960 camera in a digital liquid crystal display either onrepparttar 115961 back ofrepparttar 115962 camera or through a viewfinder.

Flash. Many ofrepparttar 115963 inexpensive cameras will have on board flash – remember that these will only work up to about 10 feet, and they might produce red eye. More expensive cameras will expectrepparttar 115964 user to use an independent external flashgun.

Camera Accessories

Most digital cameras come with interface cables and PC software bundled. So if you have a PC at home or work you can ‘download’ images from your camera to your PC, do basic editing such as removing red eye and deleterepparttar 115965 images you do not want! Your valued images you can store for future generations on CD Rom or another recording medium.

Digital Memory Media

Sometimes known as Smart Card, Compact Flash, Multi Media Card, Memory Stick. These arerepparttar 115966 memory chips on which your images are stored – some people refer to them as digital film. The largerrepparttar 115967 capacity ofrepparttar 115968 media,repparttar 115969 more images it can store. So buy one larger then you need – for now. Images can be deleted fromrepparttar 115970 media – but back them up on a CD Rom or DVD before you eraserepparttar 115971 card.

Final Hint – Keep lots of batteries handy. Digital cameras use a lot of power!

Christopher Thomas is a keen photographer and company director of Viewlink Ltd based in Amersham, Uk. The company provides digital photo processing for both amateur and commercial photographers. For more articles by Christopher Thomas please visit the company website at http://www.view-link.com/guides.html


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