When a crystal is born

I recently finally got around to casting a mold of a new soap a friend had found me, and I was telling someone how much like having a baby it is.

You're told there's THE perfect crystal for soap (a very rare thing, for many reasons), you wait patiently to purchase it and then realise you'll need a good $100 worth of silicone to cast it. You finally allow for that in the budget, after ensuring your mica and FO addictions are being catered for, and then it sits on the bench for the next six months because you know if you mess it up you've just wasted $100.

And then, one day, you woman up and get your lab coat and goggles and mask on, and you just do it. And pushing out the original crystal can only be compared to the birthing process; painful, lengthy and nerve-wracking. With the possibility of stretch marks.