Pretty In Pink

One fun thing about starting down this creative path is learning new things, things which I never thought I'd try (simply because the thought had never crossed my mind).  But when speaking with my neighbour Sylvia recently, when admiring some deliciously deep read Pfingstrosen, I was introgued by her suggestion that I create my own natural colourant for my soaps with the dried petals.

What the what now?? Me do that?  Well yes, actually that's exactly what I did and am looking forward to experimenting with them.

Now, we don't have that many flowers blooming in our garden yet - the price we're still paying for three years of "no garden" (post renovations).  However, our next door neighbour, Regina, does and was more than happy for us to take some off her hands.  Yippee!

Once again, Google was my friend and I found a fabulous "recipe" for drying the petals. After all, it kind of misses the point if they go all brown.  So, I loaded up the petals on some plates, popped them into microwave (60 seconds, turn, 60 seconds), and the production line began.  After a while, voilà, they were ready!  Here are some photos of the process...

The flowers in their original state

The first batch were neatly spread out...  

... I got a little haphayard after that!

The finished product, right after going into the grinder.

The full tray of petals came down to just a few centimeters of powder in my glass jar, but that poweder is 100% authentically made in Rentzschmühle, so I'm a wee bit proud.  So, next step is to see if it was all worthwhile, and whether Sylvia's prediction that they'd dye nicely comes true.  I'll let you know when the opportunity presents itself.