Nom de Plume

Harry is beginning to have more wart than face. He’s getting them removed tomorrow.

I can’t seem to scrape off all the glue without digging into the washi. I think I’m done. Let’s face it, these aren’t worth what I paid. Live and learn. I will still enjoy.

The cardboard backing of this one had 2-22-53 scrawled in pencil. This makes sense; according to the Doi publisher’s seal, was printed around the same time.

So those two Koitsu prints I bought off eBay? Stupid. They are completely glued to backing.

I am now performing surgery.

My very first one pound wonder batch lost its scent during the saponification process, so I grated it up, made another pound using the same recipe with 2 TB spirulina and 1 TB each of basil and coriander. It looks very cool.

More bookcase sculpture!

**Update: Not wild about this.

No name yet, but this works for now. It’s a modification of the basic larger batch.

126 sweet almond
126 g oo
52 g jojoba
216 PKO
200 palm

95 g lye
9 oz water

1 cup finely ground oatmeal
1 TB each of lavender, lime, litsea cubeba

**Update: This is really boring scent-wise, and the oatmeal is downright annoying.

Designed with essential oils that are calming to those of us who are plagued with hatred for the world (and especially our partners) once a month.

My basic larger batch recipe, which I’ve found to be a nicely moisturizing and luxuriously lathering soap:

252 g oo
252 palm
216 coil

102 g lye
9 oz water

Then for the additives:
2 tsp clary sage
1.5 tsp frankincense
3 tsp geranium
1.5 tsp rosewood
2.5 ylang ylang
1 tsp cedarwood

1 tablespoon ground marsh mallow root.

**Update: This is a lovely, lovely soap. I only have one bar left, and am jealously guarding it.

I can’t wait to use this one. It smells so fresh and clean.

1 oz castor
12 oz oo
12 oz coil
18 oz crisco

6 oz lye
16 oz water

1.5 tsp spirulina for color
2 TB each tea tree, rosemary, peppermint

As you can see, I’ve been reduced to covering every available surface.

**Update: This was a winner; people love it and so do I.

Salt soap is supposed to create a hard bar with really creamy lather. Sadly, this is so hard that it is difficult to get much lather at all. It smells divine though, and I think I might add it in chunks to a regular soap (blue?) with the same EOs.

Still, for those who want the recipe I used:

5.5 oz PKO
5.5 oz coil
5.5 oz safflower

2.5 oz lye
6 oz water

1 TB litsea cubeba
T TB rosemary

Make sure to cut it as soon as it’s cooled down — about two hours. I think adding some castor oil might make it lather better.

**Update: This was a failure. It’s too hard and scratchy, and its bubbles are stingy. I did, however, make a regular batch and added salt at trace. That’s a nice one.

I was making soap this evening when I realized that my furry little wartbomb wasn’t under my feet as usual. I looked for him inside. No Harry. I looked for him outside. No Harry. I walked the entire neighborhood and alley with a 10-pound flashlight. I even scoured the alley, and his favorite kitty poop buffet sites.

No Harry.

I was frantic. This is, after all, Harry. The one who doesn’t see very well, walk very well, or do without his medication very well. “What if he’s been run over?” I asked Steve tremulously. “What if he’s dead?”

Steve heaved a big sigh, got up, and retrieved the car keys. We drove around the block in second gear, with Steve at the wheel and me hanging out the window calling Harry’s name. Finally, Steve turned down the alley. The back light was on three houses up from ours, illuminating an empty, overturned garbage can. And there he was, just standing there.

“Harry!” I exclaimed. Steve slammed on the breaks and I rushed out. His tail was droopy; he was shivering. He was terrified, but Steve only laughed. “There’s the runaway,” he cracked. “Far, far away from home.”

I’ve been a little out of control lately.

In addition to the Sekiguchi, I’ve also bought two Koitsu prints (either a really smart eBay buy or a really stupid one–I won’t know until I get them), a strange little bijin-ja that I know absolutely nothing about, and a Toshi Yoshida (a lifetime strike, but don’t know whether it’s pencil signed or printed).

And it occurs to me that I haven’t posted everything I’ve had reframed or bought. So here goes.

Reframed the Saito. The picture doesn’t do it justice. (Actually, none of my pictures do justice to the prints. Bear with me.)

Recycled the Saito frame on this Kiyoshi Nagai print.

Reused the existing frame on my beloved hot spring print, but added conservation materials to the inside. It’s on the wall next to my side of the bed, and I love looking at it.

Reframed the Narazaki (Nazaraki? I always mix it up) print. This was a hard, hard print to frame, and I’m still not completely sure I like it. Covering the margins seemed like a good idea at the time — it was very difficult finding a mat color that didn’t make it look weird — but I think I’m regretting it.

This lovely Seiichiro Konishi print has not been reframed at all — though it was probably framed in the seventies and needs its innards replaced with conservation materials.

There isn’t much information available about Seiichiro Konishi. If anyone knows more about him than is available on artelino, or can read the following, please let me know!

**UPDATE July 2009–Found this print on Artelino. It’s called Shinbashi in Kyoto.