# Swirls in pvc pipe



## Martin (Jun 15, 2008)

This was second attempt.





The purple and white was the first attempt.

Sonja


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2008)

Looks great!!! ITP?


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## Laurie (Jun 15, 2008)

You've got some really cool bars there.  Your pink ones look like they have the yin/yang symbol.  Very, very nice.

Laurie


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## cdwinsby (Jun 15, 2008)

Great Job!  They look like great big peppermint lolly pops! Keep it up.


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## ghengis151 (Jun 15, 2008)

Beautiful job Sonja.  I'm very envious right now.


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## Martin (Jun 15, 2008)

Thanks for the great replies.  

Greg, no I did this in the mold, with a little twirler thing DH made for me.

Sonja


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## IanT (Jun 15, 2008)

Those look SOOOOO awesome I love the pink ones swirl style!!! Howd you do that!?!?!?!


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2008)

Martin said:
			
		

> Greg, no I did this in the mold, with a little twirler thing DH made for me.


Good idea! Could you describe it in sufficient detail to copy? I'm planning on trying a pipe swirl too!


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## Martin (Jun 15, 2008)

He took a 1/2" dowel rod and put a slot on the bottom and put a large pop cycle stick through it.

Sonja


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## Guest (Jun 15, 2008)

Thanks Sonja! The method behind your artistic madness.  I'll give it a try and post pics of my own pipe swirl hopefully soon!


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## Lucy (Jun 16, 2008)

Another clever idea. He should sell that tool.


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## bettycrackpot (Jun 16, 2008)

that is so pretty!!!! great job!!


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## sunflwrgrl7 (Jun 16, 2008)

Oooooooh, I like those!! Nice job!


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## mandolyn (Jun 20, 2008)

I honestly think this is the first in the pipe swirl I've ever seen. Congrats on figuring out how to do that!!!


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## Simply Divine Soap (Jun 20, 2008)

Thats looks GREAT!
Congrats!


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## IanT (Jun 20, 2008)

mandolyn said:
			
		

> I honestly think this is the first in the pipe swirl I've ever seen. Congrats on figuring out how to do that!!!




now that i think of it me too!


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## coral (Jun 21, 2008)

They look lovely.  Great job.


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## zajanatural (Jun 26, 2008)

Gorgeous soap! Nizzy, an awesome soapmaker, has a tutorial here to do the same thing, for those looking for a pictorial:

http://nizzymoulds.com/BLue%20&%20Yellow.htm


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## SoapyGal (Jun 26, 2008)

Sonja, beautiful soap!!

The rest of them in your cute soap closet are gorgeous, too!! 

How did you use the swirly tool?  Did you start swirling at the top of the pipe & keep swirling  as you pushed it down into the soap batter?


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## SoapyGal (Jun 26, 2008)

zajanatural said:
			
		

> Gorgeous soap! Nizzy, an awesome soapmaker, has a tutorial here to do the same thing, for those looking for a pictorial:
> 
> http://nizzymoulds.com/BLue%20&%20Yellow.htm



Thanks for this link zaja....

wow....

that guy is awesome..... so talented!!

I'm on my way to check out his site thoroughly!!

Thank you so much!!!


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## zajanatural (Jun 28, 2008)

Don't you just love his site!! I could spend hours on there, Nizzy is awesome   FCS has an upright mold like that, but you don't have to line it. They also have one with 4 compartments to make 4 loafs at once.  I see one of those in my future cause I love this look!


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## Guest (Jun 28, 2008)

SoapyGal said:
			
		

> How did you use the swirly tool?  Did you start swirling at the top of the pipe & keep swirling  as you pushed it down into the soap batter?


Good question!!! I've been pondering that myself. 


Also, that vertical log mold has got my imagination going. In fact I might build one this weekend. I think I need some garage and table saw time!  (Picture me being played by Tim Allen.) 

The great thing about that vertical log mold is that you have only one small exposed surface, so all your soap edges will be even and flat, not textured. Textured is sometimes good but flat is sometimes good too. I don't want all my bars to be perfectly rectangular, but the rectangular look is very professional looking. Sometimes professional looks good and sometimes the irregularities can give a good feeling of hand craftedness and make the soap look rustic. Both looks are good but rectangular bars take a fair amount of effort to avoid the rough edge. For me at least.


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## Sudsy (Jun 29, 2008)

That looks amazing! I've never tried swirling in a pipe. I'm impressed!


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2008)

Great job on the soaps! That is hard to do and yours look fantastic!

Thanks for the link Zaja. The problem I had with pvc molds was getting the bottom half of the soap swirl to look as good as the top. The tutorial you posted has a great idea to help fix that.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2008)

Marr said:
			
		

> The tutorial you posted has a great idea to help fix that.


I've been giving swirling a great deal of thought over the last month. It looks deceptively easy. It's not even obvious until you have tried it a few times that there are important differences between techniques used in slab molds, log molds or tank molds. (I may have the wrong word, by 'tank' I mean the vertical rectangular molds.) And different in pipes too although pipes and tanks may be related if I have the right word.

With slab molds what you see is what you get. Try that in a log mold and you get pretty edges but uninspiring faces.

I've been imagining and working on ideas to improve my own decorations. One tool I made is two pieces of wood dowel with holes drilled at each end. The dowels are the length of the log mold and they are joined by about 6" pieces of cut paper hanger so that they stay parallel. You hold on to one dowel as a handle and the rectangular nature of the tool allows you to visualize where the submerged dowel is. The idea is that you keep the dowel parallel to the length of the mold so that everything you do is symmetrical along the full length. So far I've created some really nice marbling with this tool but all my pours have been too thick to get good swirls. I think I will eventually succeed.


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