Crafty ideas for making different types of soap

There are many different varieties of home-made soap. There is solid, liquid, and gel to name a few and all are very easy to master. Here are some crafty ideas if you want to make your version.

There are three ingredients main ingredients needed to make soap  and are all readily available.

• Lye: It comes in two types. Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) is sold as dry crystals in many supermarkets and hardware stores. In potash form, lye can be made at home from wood ash. All types of lye are highly caustic substances.
• Oil or Fat: From pure vegetable oil to fat from reclaimed kitchen grease to castor oil can all be used for soap making.
• Soft water: If you are in a hard-water area add 30 or 45 millilitres (a few tablespoons) of borax to soften it. Rainwater can also be used in soap making.

Soap can be altered in consistency and appearance to serve different purposes. These are recipes you can easily make in your own kitchen.

• Gel-like soap for doing the dishes: Slice off shavings of hard soap and boiling them in water until they dissolve; about 125 grams (1/2 cup) of shavings per litre (four cups) of water should be used.
• Soap flakes for laundry: Grate any ordinary hard soap, then adding 30 to 45 millilitres (a few tablespoons) of borax. This will improve its water-softening ability and make it sudsy.
• Liquid soap is more complicated but still doable. It's generally based on vegetable oils rather than animal fats and requires the addition of glycerine and alcohol during the soap making process. You then filter it.
• If you want soap that floats on water, gently whip the warm soap solution with an egg beater just before pouring it into molds; when the soap hardens, the trapped air bubbles will provide the necessary buoyancy.

These are just the most common varieties of soaps but play around with the consistencies and add your own extras to come up with soap that works best for your needs.