Great job, IanT!
I have one of Paul's 1lb TOG molds, too, and I just love it! I've been using mine
a lot lately because I've been testing out a lot of new F/Os, along with trying out sodium lactate, soy lecithin, and titanium dioxide for the first time to see what differences they add to my soap.
If you'd like a swirling tip, here's a technique that I've been using lately that has been working out great for me to get the swirls incorporated nicely all throughout my log molded soap:
I should mention first, though, that this technique only works good on soaps that have well-behaving F/Os in them that give you enough time to swirl with. Ask me how I know!
Well, with that being said, what I've been doing is alternating my different colored soap portions right inside the mold (instead of doing it the ITP way), from the bottom of the mold, all the way to the top. As an example, my last soap was white with blue swirls. I poured some white soap into the mold to just cover the bottom, then I drizzled some of the blue in thin, sguiggly lines on top of that. Then I
very gently added more white with a ladle to just completely cover over the blue, trying not to disturb the blue much. Then I added more squiggly blue lines over the top of that, and so on and so on, alternating in this way all the way to the top.
Next, I took a chopstick and plunged it perpendicularly into the mold in one of the corners and gently tilted it at an angle, pushing on it in such a way that only the bottom part of the chopstick kicked out to travel to the opposite corner of the mold. Then I very gently lifted the whole horizontally angled chopstick completely out of the mold. I gently repeated the chopstick process in other parts of the mold, being careful not to overdo it (less can be more, if you know what I mean). Then I textured the top and put it to bed.
Anyway, that's the technique I've been using, and it's been working out great to give me some nice swirls throughout my entire soap. Just thought I'd share.
Happy soaping!
IrishLass
