Elephant Soap Pics

I made these for a friend who just walked 100 miles in Kenya to raise funds and awareness about the horrible consequences of the illegal trade in elephant ivory. I am so inspired by her! I knew I had to make a special soap for the cause, and sought help here a few months back for ideas and soapspiration. The creativity that came forward from SMF'ers was INCREDIBLE; please visit http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=39636 to see the imagination and genuine support
that gushed forward. I was inspired by you all every bit as much as I was by my friend.

Thank you newbie, Tienne, dixiedragon, lizflowers42, Lindy, and My Mountain Soaps; you made a huge difference in my confidence. And newbie, I especially appreciate all of the behind the scenes support you gave in soaping logistics. Among other things, am I ever glad I didn't solely use A/C for the pencil line, and that I had a straw handy for some of the more intricate carving!

these aren't soaps, these are art. *standing ovation*

Those are Beautiful! You are so creative... Kudos on those!

Excellent design and excellent execution!!

if 2 soaps are pieced together, you'll get an elephant. if only 1 soap it kinda looks like eeyore, ya know winnie the pooh's friend

I really love them and well done! I will probably never make something so cool. They do really look like elephants.
Although from a teenager perspective, they look like lady bits. One of my kids saw it on the screen and brought another one to see (I have two teenagers - sigh!). But don't worry, it just shows the state of their minds.

Wow Cara those are beautiful!

Oy! An honourable mention!! Wow, I really don't deserve that, it's you who did all the work, but thank you so much, CaraBou! Now just make sure you price those soaps ALL that they are worth and you'll bring in bucketloads of money for those elephants!

You did a fantastic job and you should be so proud of yourself. *Applauding* Well done!

Elephants are probably my number one favorite land animal, and those soaps are absolutely amazing! I would never use a bar like that, it is indeed art. Great job!

I can only see lady bits if I blur my eyes and think of a VERY old woman. Otherwise, I can only see an elephant (or a pelvis )

Those are amazing!

Wow. These are amazing.

These soaps are awesome and you're awesome. That thread is awesome. Lot's of awesome in this forum *loves* :clap::clap::clap:

Tienne said:

Oy! An honourable mention!! Wow, I really don't deserve that, it's you who did all the work, but thank you so much, CaraBou! Now just make sure you price those soaps ALL that they are worth and you'll bring in bucketloads of money for those elephants!

You did a fantastic job and you should be so proud of yourself. *Applauding* Well done!

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I agree, i dont know what i did or said to get an honorable mention, but thank you anyway! you did an amazing job, you ABSOLUTELY have to tell us how you did it?

I think I let you know that these are amazing. This post just proves my statement that I can't stop looking at these. Let's see giraffes, whales, and every other beautiful creature. I think you've found your niche.

Tienne said:

Oy! An honourable mention!! Wow, I really don't deserve that

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The reason you deserve it, Tienne, is for the very reason that fuzz-juzz articulated:

fuzz-juzz said:

I will probably never make something so cool.

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Tienne, here was your contribution: I pondered longingly over your ideas, drooled over the examples you showed, and buzzed with your enthusiasm. You demonstrated that the sky was the limit -- and elephants can fly! But my mind repeatedly churned exactly the same words that fuzz-juzz said. I am not an artist; I'm a left-brained scientist who is fascinated by the chemistry and physical mechanics of soap making. So I swirled in the box, literally. And while that was magically liberating in its own way, your ideas still nagged me, always. Every day. And you just kept putting fuel on the fire -- with more ideas and creations like your Pasito groupie soaps! Finally I CRACKED, drew something simple (all I am capable of), put a box around it, and set out to make it into soap. Next thing I knew, I was trampled by elephants!

fuzz-juzz, never say never, I have no doubt you will find your elephant soap when it matters most. Mine was just under the wire, with possibly less than full cure time before they are distributed.

One more thing... I *hate* the spots on my soap. They are worse in the pics than when in my hand, but still... I tried to wipe them down like Tienne suggested in another post, but it just didn't seem to make much of a difference. I even didn't use my wire cutter b/c so many people report that as a problem (hence, the crappy cuts. another bummer). Is there anything I can do to fix the spots now?? I cut the bars 2-3 days ago.

I think your little white spots are stearic spots and you can't get rid of them, I'm afraid. We all know how it is when you dislike something about your soap, but you don't realize that everyone is busy looking at the art of it and they don't see them.

Stearic spots, huh? I guess I need to dig into this. Soap calc gave my overall recipe a stearic rating of 6, which seems low but maybe that's not a good indicator. I didn't use any palm, which is one oil I hear mentioned a lot when it comes to stearic streaks (but soapcalc shows it low in stearic acid - also just a 6 as a single oil). I kept my recipe really simple for this soap: 35% lard, 35% OO, 23% CO, 7% Castor, 2.5:1 water:lye, 7% superfat. The gray is a AC / TD mix. Is there something there that promoted the problem? Maybe I let the batter cool too much between pours?

I was also surprised at how much ash formed on this soap. It was way more than I get using shea (which some people call an ash culprit). But here I did not follow Tienne's lead and embrace it. Instead I cut it off! The trunk was a bit too fat anyway so it worked out all the way around.

Thanks for your kind words, I will keep trying to do something other than few random swirls. I am still amazed at how your elephant turned out so well. I hope they will sell well and I bet they will.
Those spots look to me like air bubbles and quite big ones. I sometimes randomly have an attack of air bubbles and get a spotty soap. You can't really get rid of them, they might get bigger and kind of pop/brake as the soaps dry.

Ladybits and pelvises! Well, my inner goddess had a big hand in this soap; she must have slipped those in!

I must say though, that so far, I prefer Eeyore if they can't be elephants. He was always my favorite when I was a kid!