Soap making!

Yesterday I was able to go to a friend's house to make lye soap with her. We did it the old-fashioned way over a fire, with just lye, water, and lard. Neither of us had ever made it before, so we are very excited to see how it turns out!  

First, we melted the lard over the fire.



Once it was melted, we took it off the fire to cool to about body temperature

Then we mixed lye with water and let it cool to body temperature as well.

This is my "soap box" all ready to go

Once the lye and lard were cool enough, we mixed them together.

Stirring it as it cooled and thickened

Finally done cooling and being stirred. Ready to pour into the soap box.

My beautiful creamy soap! (We'll see how it turns out in the end.)

It will be ready to cut into bars later on tonight, then it has to cure for 4-6 weeks. I'll post more pictures and the general opinion of how it turns out when it's done!