Thinking of Suds

So I have been doing research into soap and soap making... It seems that the Vikings may have been one of the first groups of people to make and use soap consistently for cleaning themselves and their clothing. There is some speculative evidence suggesting that they did both in the same time, and that this fact may have been due in small part the the presence of hot springs in a majority of the locations where these people settled. If you didn't have to spend half the day waiting to prep the bath water, you were more likely to bath. Which makes sense actually...
So, to this end, the AoA circlet project has been abandon due to lack of funding... and I am moving on to soap making. In the next day or two I intend to start with the extraction of lye from wood ash. I will be posting pictures of my progress as soon as I start; and I will try an chronicle the whole process as much as I can. The chemistry of this process is somewhat shaky and involves things like tasting the solution, floating eggs, and melting feathers... it feels so much like alchemy it is spine tingling.

All Projects on Hold

For the momement, all projects and research are on hold until further notice.