No, not that goop. The real stuff. As every needlesmith and other handcrafter knows, hand care is extremely important. You can’t have rough bits of skin snagging expensive materials and so forth. So, goop. When your skin reaches a too rough to work point, spoon a bit of sugar (couple tablespoons) and the oil of your choice, whisk it up, and have a good, long hand scrub. Most artists have their own formula, some prefer specific sugars, or coarse salt, and the oil choice varies quite a bit. I usually go with olive oil. I don’t use coarse salt, because I can always be counted on to have small nicks on my hand somewhere.
Nice one! I, of course, use udder balm… what the heck, I have it here for the goats but if you take good care of them they won’t need it, so there it is… I paid for it, may as well use it… :-)
Oh, udder balm works a treat, too. Goop is good for smoothing out your calluses, without losing them altogether.
I will have to try the Goop. My normal issue is incredibly rough skin from scrubbing out dairy equipment day and night. But I do work with super fine silk thread etc. and this would probably help out.
Urrrrgh….
I make weirdass skin lotions all the time. I just made a couple tubs of frankincense/ylang coconut/camelia/almond/beeswax body lotion for Anna. And I just shipped out a bunch of soap to various suspects about an hour ago. I coulda whipped up some lotion. Oh, well, next time.
Oh, lotions. When I’m working with textiles, I only use lotions specific to embroiderers, which are non-greasy, unscented, and have absolutely no staining or other residue on your threads or fabric. With goop, as soon as my hands are dry, I’m good to go.
I wash my hands constantly. Back when I wore a necktie to work every day, my hands could destroy a silk tie. I favor Neutrogena’s Norwegian formula hand spackle. It’s hypoallergenic and fragrance free for the delicate creature that I am.
Yep, silk requires very smooth skin. I always have to test out a new lotion, sacrificing a bit of thread and fabric, so it’s just easier to stick to what I know works and won’t screw up my work.