What Do You Do to Keep the "Spark" Alive?

[shunt2011]

I too have had my ups and downs. I sell and truly enjoy doing my markets/shows. However, sometimes I just don't want to make soap. I have found I can generally make a bunch of soap when I'm excited (50-60 lbs) in a weekend and then go several months without making it. I've been on the soaping marathon the past couple weekends. Now just have to let them cure then when needed wrap and label and they are ready to go. I will be making some holiday soaps for family for the holidays otherwise will probably go some time before making them again

I enjoy making other things and cooking so it allows me to have the best of both worlds. It's the first hobby turned into a business that I've enjoyed for the long run.

If the day ever comes when I just plain don't enjoy it anymore I'll quit and just make soap for my family.

 

[navigator9]

I think it's normal for interest in anything to wax and wane. I've been making soap for about 10 years now, and the spark has died down at times, but it never goes out. I find that if I allow myself periods where I'm not making soap, (like now), that I start to miss it, and when I do get back into it again, I think, "Ahhh yes, this is what I've been missing!"

P.S. I forgot to mention that what often fires me up for soapmaking after some time off, is reading soap blogs, and watching videos on YouTube.

 

[dibbles]

I've never really understood how the monthly challenge "works."

The September challenge is up - see you there?

 

[Steve85569]

The September challenge is up - see you there?

The Monthly challenge has forced me out of my comfort zone more than once and into learning something new. I am in no way as talented as any of the others that enter but I still learn more about making soap.

I probably won't enter this month's challenge just because life is busy.

As for being inspired to make soap frequently - I'm not. When the inspiration does come I try to make something with some color and fragrance now. I have pared down the recipes I use to 4 counting Castille and Salt bars.

I too went in to this hobby with both feet. That does not mean that I am going to stop because I have "extra" soap. I have cut the batch size down to 16 ounces so I am not completely buried in soap. And slowly, ever so slowly people are asking if I have any more soap.

Then again I've only been doing this for a year and I wouldn't wash my neighbors pesky dog with some of the first soaps I made.

 

[Teapot]

Good to know I'm not alone, not being too interested in swirling etc - I'm a new soaper, less than a year and with about 15 batches under my belt, but at first I sort of thought I "had to" do loads of crazy colours and patterns, when actually, I really love a single, even, opaque colour. Or no colour at all!

I did have a go at a tiger stripe, that was fun, and came out quite well, but at the moment I'm more interested in trying different additives. I really want to do an oatmeal soap, and I want to try using clay.

Sorry that's not a lot of help to you George - I know that I too tend to throw myself head first into a new hobby, and then after a while I've had enough and I'm ready to move on. Sometimes it lasts six months, sometimes six years. Sometimes I come back, and sometimes I don't. And I've realised that actually, that's fine. Do what you *want* to do. If that involves soap, great. If it doesn't, that's also great.

 

[Ruthie]

I, too, have had issues with getting some people to actually use my soap. For Christmas, I made my mother and aunt some absolutely beautiful soap flowers. Lavender-scented with a lavender swirl of color and even sparkly glitter. As far as I know, none of those bars have come close to getting the slightest bit damp. "They're too pretty." "I'm saving them." I'm like, Girl, you're 75 years old! When are you saving them for?

It's definitely possible that I'm new enough to the hobby that this is just my first rut. Thanks for the insights, Everyone.

I so understand that. And that is one reason I do not go for all sorts of fancy molds, the latest color swirl techniques, etc. I am very proud of my little collection of recipes and want the people who use my soaps to feel how good they are.

Now, I must add that there is absolutely nothing wrong with beautiful soaps being used for decoration as your mother and aunt are doing. They are lovely and they enjoy looking at them. Accept that and give them some plain Jane bars to actually use.

 

[grumpy_owl]

Brewer, I so much get where you're coming from. I'm a serial dabbler myself, taking up something, whether it's a craft or a reading or active interest, and immersing myself fully. But then I move on to another. Soap, despite some lulls, has stuck for me, though.

It has been really enlightening and heartening to read other people's replies to your question, because sometimes I peruse the forum and think everyone is proficient at making triple salchow ghost swirls with tamanu oil and unicorn tears, while I'm still struggling to get a decent drop swirl half the time and praying my soaps still smell like something after they cure. The fact is, hobbies, and even vocations, will move at different paces for everyone.

I think part of what stalled my progress recently, besides a big move, divorce, house sale, etc, was this pressure--totally invented by myself--to keep with trends and clear higher bars of difficulty. In the end, I realized I just like makin' soap. Yummy soap that smells nice and has a little oomph or wit in the design, bars and bars of the stuff whether anyone wants it or not. And I'm okay with that.

Someday I hope to improve my knitting to the point where I can make something not completely flat, but that, like playing accordion and memorizing the complete ouevre of Gilbert & Sullivan, is a hobby I return to periodically without the pressure to keep up a high level of constant interest. It's the same for soap. For many of us, the impulse will come and go. I say, do what you love when you want to do it. There's no need to regret the lack of "spark."