Monday, April 1, 2013

Super Soapers April 2013 "Featured Artist"!!

 
 
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: Absolutely not. I consider myself a beginner, and every time I am amazed with my results. And this brings me to fall in love more and more to this beautiful art. I hope one day (before dying) that others may consider me an artist.
 
 
SS: How has soapmaking changed your life?
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.
 
 
 
SS: What do you benefit the most from other artists in your craft?
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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