Soap Challenge Club - Column Pour 12-13-13

This month's soap challenge offered by Amy Worden of Great Cakes Soapworks is called  "Column Pour", or Column Swirl. 

I have been waiting for a long time to do this technique. I found a star shaped ceramic candle holder at a Goodwill store a while back and thought it would be perfect for a column swirl and couldn't wait to try it. As a soaper  I look at a lot of things differently now, I am constantly looking at things and wonder if I can use it for soaping, or will it make a good soap mold. Some of my finds have worked really well, while others have not. I think this star shaped candle holder worked out perfectly for a column pour and will save it for future soap batches. I don't think it will ever see a candle again, but lots of soap    :)

I used Bramble Berry's "Kumquat" fragrance oil and it is AMAZING! It does not accelerate in the soap and gave me plenty of time to accomplish the column pour. Beside behaving in the soaping process it also smells wonderful. For my colors I used Titanium Dioxide, and the following mica's: Magic Pink, Apple Green, Luster Grey, and Melon Orange.

One day while reading  Otion's Soap Blog they had featured a column swirl created by Kat, it was so beautiful, you can check it out here. She used a circular pattern for the swirl. I love it so much I decided to give it a try also.  Mine did not even come close to being as nice as Kat's, but I sure had fun doing it. 

Here is the picture of Kat's Column Swirled soap,
which was the inspiration for my soap.

Now here are the pictures of my soaps, I hope you will enjoy them also.



My colors are mixed and ready to pour.
Here is the star candle holder I am using for my column.

Here is the first pour of each color of the soap.



All the colors have been poured and I
have removed the star column.



Here I have completed the first part of my swirl.



I have now completed the circular part of the swirl.




A close-up of the center, the middle section reminds me of a snail shell.
 



Cut into bars.



It sure looks different after they are cut into bars of soap.

Soap Challenge Club - Squeeze Bottle Design 11-15-13

This month's soap challenge offered by Amy Worden of Great Cakes Soapworks is called  "Squeeze Bottle Design". 

To make this month's soap we decide on a design or draw a design and use it as a template on the bottom of the soap mold with piece of butcher paper liner over the top of the design, and use squeeze bottles (similar to ketchup or mustard squirt bottle) with our soap colors to create the design on the bottom of the soap mold using the template as our guide. My mold is silicone so I put the design on the bottom of the wood support for my silicone mold and put my silicone mold on top of the design. I found a scroll design online and  made several copies of it to fit across my mold.

Well after I mixed up the colors and added them into the very small squeeze bottles (they were only 4" tall from the bottom to the top of the tip) and started on my pattern. I quickly found out that the lines were too intricate and I could not get my soap lines as fine as I wanted them to be, I also could not add all the lines in the pattern.  Here are a few pictures of the making of my soap. I scented it with Lavender Lemon and used mica's from The Conservatorie and Nurture Soap Supplies.

For me, this challenge was harder than I thought it would be. I plan on making more soap using this technique and try to perfect the process. Thank you Amy for the challenge, I love learning all the new ways to make soap and cannot wait for next month's challenge.



Here is the design I decided on.



The cute little squirt bottles with the colors added.

The design is completed the best I could do.
I would have loved to had the very fine lines over these thick lines

I love the swirl on the bottom of the soap bars.



Here is the soap out of the mold.



The cut bars.



Lavender Lemon Soap.

 

Soap Challenge Club - Dandelion Tiger Swirl

This month's soap challenge offered by Amy Worden of Great CakesSoapworks is called the  "Dandelion Tiger Swirl".  This technique was introduced to soapers by Vinvela Ebony, if you want to see her beautiful soaps please visit her blog dandelion SeiFee.  She is so talented and I love looking at all of her creations.
This technique requires that you have a fluid soap batter that you will color and pour down a platform of some type that you  insert into your soap mold to create the swirl. On my first batch I used Black Raspberry Vanilla fragrance from Natures Garden. My colors for the swirl are black, red & white. On this soap I used a plastic cutting mat to pour the colors into the soap. As I was pouring the colors the soap batter started to thicken which made it harder to do the swirl. I more or less had to sort of glob it on towards the end.

On my second attempt I used a piece of plexiglass cut to fit my soap mold. I liked how easily the soap flowed down the plexiglass to create the swirl. The fragrance oil I used on this batch was Vetyver from Bramble Berry. This is the first time I have soaped using this fragrance and it behaved really well and did not thicken the soap, the colors flowed so much better. For the colors I used Green Oxide, Super Pearly White Mica both from Bramble Berry and Magic Yellow Mica and Cosmo Martini Mica both from The Conservatory.

I enjoyed this challenge and I will be planning some of my future soaps incorporating this technique. I want to thank Amy Worden for putting on each monthly soap challenge,  and especially all her hard work in making the video tutorials for each  challenge. I have learned so much by participating and I love every new technique that I have learned.

 

Here is my first attempt at the Dandelion Zebra Swirl.



 

You can see that my colors are getting thick on me.
They are barely running down the cutting mat.

 



All the soap is in the mold and I have added the 
left over colors on the top to swirl.
 



Swirled Top
 



 

 

Black Raspberry Vanilla

 

 

Here is my second attempt of the Dandelion Swirl

 




You can see here how easily the soaps
 pouring here compared to my first batch.





Here are the cut bars of soap.

Soap Challenge Club - Holly Swirl

This month's soap challenge offered by Amy Worden of Great CakesSoapworks is the  "Holly Swirl". I have admired all the soaps made by Holly from Missouri River Soap and am so excited to try her technique. Please take the time to go visit her web site here, her Facebook page here, along with her YouTube page here where she shows us how she creates her wonderful soaps.  

I had such fun doing the "Holly" swirl that I made 2 different batches of soap. The first batch that I made was the Lavender/Lemon. On this one I used Bramble Berry's Essential Oils, Lavender 40/42 and Lemongrass.  For the colors I used Titanium Dioxide, Magic Violet & Magic Yellow.

On the second batch I used Bramble Berry's Cherry Almond fragrance oil. I love this fragrance and on this batch it soaped very well for me. The colors I used were Titanium Dioxide, Burgundy Oxide, and Cosmic Fluorescent Pink. I also used gold mica for a very faint pencil line.

I can't wait to see everyone else's version of their "Holly Swirl" in this challenge. I know they will all look great. I want to thank Amy for offering this soap challenge along with Holly for being so willing to share her talents with us.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of the 2 soaps and the process of me making them.

 



Fragrance and colors used on Soap #2 Cherry Almond



Colors are mixed for the soap

Soap poured into the mold and the left over
colored soap put on the top for swirling.

Top after swirling.
 

Close-Up on the swirled top.

The Soap Unmolded.

  




Another view of the soap un-molded.
 

Pictures of the cut bars of soaps.

 

 

 

 

Cherry Almond Soap

Here are pictures of my first soap and the process. 

Colors and Essential Oils

Colors mixed

Base color is poured in the mold and started 
pouring the colors for the swirl into the mixing bowl.

Colors swirled into the base color.

Closer picture of the swirled colors.

Here is have added the solid lavender color to the soap.

I have globed on the remaining colors of
soap to swirl the top.

Close-Up before the swirl.

Swirled top with glitter added.

Out of the mold.

Cut bars of soap.

 

 

Lavender Lemon Holly Swirl Soap