Feathered ITP Swirl 2

The feathered in-the-pot swirl technique is fun, so I made another soap using it. :) The soap is scented with McIntosh Apple fragrance oil, and is colored with Nurture Soap's yellow mica and Really Red! mica (it really is an amazing red, isn't it?).

 

and one more photo:

 

 

Feathered in-the-pot swirl

I've been experimenting lately with making the Feathered ITP Swirl soap. It's a traditional soaping technique with a little twist, which allows to achieve a feathered look in the final soap. Here are some photos of the process and the results.

The first soap is called Satsuma, I love the smell!
In the pot, after a quick stir:

in the mold:

after being cut:



 

The 2nd soap is called Black Cherry, it's colored with red, black and gold mica.

In the pot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the trace is a bit thicker here - I did that intentionally to see if it makes any difference in the feathered look. Just one stir this time before pouring into mold:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cut bars, all of them. Yes, it was a very small batch. :)

 

And finally the 3rd attempt at this soap technique, it's scented with sandalwood fragrance oil.

The soap has reached medium trace:

 

Just poured into the mold:

 

I should have left it this way, but I decided to make a textured top, as there was still quite a lot of soap batter left in the pot.

 

The cut bars:

 

I am pretty happy to see that there are feathered swirls in each batch, although they look differently.



Soap technique - Wall Pour

I will present some of my soaps which were made some time ago. These two batches of soap were created in November 2014 and were inspired by this beautiful soap by Jabones de Casa. Also, their design would not be possible without the help of Tatsiana steso who provided me with some valuable insights on how to make them. I call this soap technique the wall pour swirl.

The first one is scented with Brambleberry's Cranberry Fig:



 

The second soap is Black Vanilla:

 

Butterfly swirl soap

I've created butterfly swirl soaps previously, for the January Soap Challenge Club. You can see my entry here:
http://soaptechniques.blogspot.com/2015/01/january-soap-challenge-club-butterfly.html

This time I decided to move the hanger in a different motion, based on the pattern suggested by steso. She has created 3 beautiful butterfly swirl soap using this pattern, which she shows in her blog.
A couple of days ago it was her birthday, so I decided to dedicate my new soap to Tatsiana-steso. :) The swirl is colored with a silver mica, so I think I'll call this soap "Silver Butterfly".
Here it is:

Tiger Stripe Soaps

Some time ago I made 2 batches of cold-process soap using a tiger stripe technique. I believe sometimes it's called zebras stripes.

The first one is my Ocean soap, with blue and white stripes. I'm pretty happy how it turned out:

The next soap is multi-colored and it's scented with Pomegranate and black currant from Brambleberry. It looks a bit different but it was made using the same technique.

New soap technique - Mokume Gane

My friend Tatsiana and I have decided to challenge ourselves (we call these soap challenges between us "duels") to adapt any chosen polymer clay technique into soapmaking. Tatsiana has chosen to make her soap using the pixel cane technique. You can see her beautiful result in her blog by steso.

For my soap I decided to use a technique called Mokume Gane. Here are 2 tutorials about this technique in polymer clay.
http://www.sculpey.com/project/premo-mokume-gane-bubble-neckpiece/
http://beadsbylhox.yolasite.com/tutorial---how-to-make-mokume-gane-clay-beads.php

I colored my soap in 4 diferent colors and poured them into the mold at light trace in layers. After that I used different tools (pieces of cardboard, cocktail straws, paper tubes, etc) to push each of them into the poured soap. This makes the colors blend down through one another in layers.

So here is what the soap looks like after being cut into bars:

I found the result quite fascinating :) and plan to make another soap using this technique.

Ebru Soap Challenge - ocean

This month’s challenge was to create a design using the free hand Ebru technique. Ebru is an ancient Turkish art of "painting on water". At first, different patterns are formed on the surface of water, and then those patterns are transferred onto paper or fabric.

These 2 ebru painting were the inspiration for my soap design.

(source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/271412315016767247/ )


(source: https://instagram.com/ )


The photos below show the steps in creating the soap:

And here’s the finished design, the soap is still in the mold:

Thanks for looking! :)

Embedded circles cold process soap

My adventure with cold process soap embeds. :)

This is the soap I used for embeds:

being cut in circles:

My new batch of soap with the embeds:

 

 

And here are the cut bars:

 

 



 

Thanks for watching! :)

 

 

Update:
The soap was submitted to Saponifier's 2015 Design Mania contest and was selected as the winner of the 'Embedded Circle' Soap Design Technique!

 

 



Cold-process Soap Gemstones 3 - agate

Here is another one cold-process soap - purple agate. It was made very similarly to my other gemstone soap - Botswana Agate.

I used squeeze bottles to fill the mold:

 

After that I spun the mold clockwise, using the spinning swirl technique.

 

Here are some pictures of this soap after being cut:

 

 

 

Thank you for watching! :)





Fordite (or Detroit Agate) - handmade soap

This is my cold process soap called Fordite. It was prepared for the April Soap Challenge Club, but I changed my mind and decided to go with another entry (you can see it here). Both of these soaps were made with the spinning swirl technique. I was really amazed at how unique each bar of soap looked!

or this way:

Fordite, also known as Detroit Agate, is not actually a gemstone at all. It was formed from layers of paint over several tens of years, in factories that painted automobiles long ago. Especially in Detroit, and hence its name. :) Recently, Fordite has been recycled as eco-friendly jewelry.

Mini Dessert Soaps - Soap Challenge

Here is my entry for this month's soap challenge. In my 3 out of 4 recipes I used cocoa powder ( I cannot live without chocolate!), and the 4th recipe is made with half and half.

 

Rose cupcakes.
They are made from cold-process soap, not whipped. I am pretty happy how they turned out. :)

Here are some pictures of the process of making two tone CP soap cupcakes.

The 1st layer of soap spread on saran wrap:

The 2nd layer on the top of it:

I rolled the saran wrap into a log:

Then I inserted it into my piping bag. For the rose pattern, I used Wilton 2D decorating tip:

Coffee and Caramel Mousse. The coffee beans are also made from soap. :)

Chocolate butterfly (made from CP soap):

 

I found an image online of a butterfly and printed it out to create a template. Then I placed a piece of parchment paper over each image and creased them down the middle:

 

I could still see the outlines of the butterflies and then I began to pipe my chocolate soap over the outlines:

 

That's where I rested my soap butterflies so that they'd dry in 3D:

 



 

Mandarin slices dipped in chocolate.

My inspiration for this dessert was these simple yet yummy Salted Chocolate Dipped Mandarin Slices, from this blog post. The slices as well as the chocolate are made from M&P soap.