Featured Artist
Giustiniano Francioso
This month we bring you one of the FEW male soapers in Super Soapers Facebook Group, Giustiniano Francioso. Giustiniano joined us recently & has shared with us some amazing soaps, & now we are featuring him so he can share his creations with everyone else.
Super Soapers: Tell us a
little about yourself.
Giustiniano Francioso: Hi everybody! I’m from Italy.
I live in a seaside town, in the south of Italy. I studied in a city in the
north of the country, Turin, where I had a bachelor's degree in Economics.
After this period in Turin I came back to my hometown. I am the oldest of three
brothers with whom I have a good relationship with. Currently I’m a business consultant
and I deal mainly with personnel management.
SS: How did you get started
in soapmaking?
GF: As things often happen in life, I stumbled into the art of soap making while searching YouTube & coming across a video of a man making handmade soap. It intrigued me; I was really amazed that the union between an oil and a
caustic solution could generate a soap, the subject of one of the daily rituals
of us all. So I began to learn more about the subject: I read books, studied,
seen a lot of videos, then (with so much fear) I made my first experiment. I
still remember the day, It was October 8, 2012. Since then I have not stopped.
SS: Do you CP or MP, &
why?
GF: I CP, never tried MP or HP. I
like to think of chemistry (saponification process) that can give wonderful
results. I like to create soap. The art of the melt something ready is not for
me!
SS: What inspires you most?
GF: I borrow a lot from the
color of my cats collection and the nature that surrounds me. Then I love to
contemplate the creations of all soapmakers. By anyone there is always the
possibility of getting inspiration.
SS: Do you consider yourself
an artist?
GF: It has changed a lot. Surely
the art of soap has changed my life: 1) now I read all the labels of soaps to
understand the ingredients, thing that I did not do before; 2) I got close to a
natural lifestyle by buying second nature; 3) I made a lot of friends on the web; 4) I have found a passion for the art of soap making.
SS: How would you describe
your creative process?
GF: There are different stimuli
that lead me to create a soap, for example it can be a scent that leads me to
imagine how it can be a soap in color and form, or it can be the final utility of
the same soap (a soap suitable for certain types of skin with different
characteristics) or simply looking at the work of other soapmakers I get
inspiration to play something like that.
GF: I think that the greatest
benefit is to be able to share and compare experiences with other people. To belong
to a group as Super Soapers gives you the ability to do this. Comparison with
others enriches you to improve yourself. I think the most important thing as
far as my experience in soapmaking is the encounter with others just because
you fail to address arguments on questions or problems we had during the
production of soap to prevent their occurrence.
SS: Now for a little bit of
fun.
Most soap artists seem to be
all about their FO's & EO's, which of course are an important part of
soapmaking, & everyone knows that scent is the major trigger sensory known
for people. If you could explain which, FO or EO, has triggered the biggest
memory from childhood, or the most important time in your life, which would it
be & why? (this is optional of course).
GF: It is true, all soapmakers
think to FO and EO just because anyone who takes a soap in hand brings it immediately to their nose to smell it.
The scent is memory! The scent I prefer above all is lavender, I associate it
to my childhood when I visited my grandmother: she always had a bag of dried
lavender to scent drawers and closets. Also this perfume gives me the idea of
fresh and clean. My first soap was lavender scented.
You can find more information on Giustiniano Francioso & his soaps by visiting his Facebook page.
This interview was conducted &
edited by Misty Raines Clapp, Super Soapers Creator & Admin.
You can contact Misty @:
thesupersoapersgroup@gmail.com
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