SCOTT -- The first thing one learns when making soap is that there is a lot of stirring involved. And trickling. And waiting. And hoping not to blow anything up. But, boy, does it smell good. An eager ...

At first blush, the counter before me has all the makings of a cooking class: kitchen scale, olive oil, Hershey’s cocoa mix, 6-pound tub of Crisco. But the latex gloves and safety goggles suggest I ...

It’s possible to make bar soap at home using ingredients such as lye and oils. Following a recipe and knowing which precautions to take can help make bar soap making a fun and generally safe activity.

Area park guide Ellen Cox, knowing the many merits of lye soap, will be the first to tell you, "It's one of those old heritage crafts that we want to make sure continues." While it may take some ...

Lye soap is made by boiling a mixture of lye (sodium hydroxide) and animal fats. Lye could be purchased, but most Arkansans seem to have made their own from wood ashes. Almost all the sources specify ...

My wife's family is from Piaui, a small, arid state in Brazil's poor northeast region. When Linda was growing up there in the 1970s, new technology arrived only after it was already old news in the ...