Clayscapades - Purple Brazilian and Blue Cambrian Clay

[Mobjack Bay]

These are test bars made using clay fractions from ”unprocessed” clays I bought from an Etsy seller. I used 1 tsp ppo in a fairly white base recipe (lard, coconut, HO sunflower, castor). The fraction used is shown below each soap. A description of how I processed the clays is in this thread: Purple Brazilian Clay



Here are the soaps in comparison with soaps made a couple of months ago with the unprocessed clays.



Lighting is always tricky, so here are a few additional photos with different angles.



In the end, about 75% of the original weight was retained after discarding the larger sand fraction. In retrospect, I should have saved the coarse material for closer inspection, but it’s too late now…

This next photo shows all the jars and little bags of clay that are the outcome of my dogged determination to split settled bands of clay into purer color fractions. I’m going to keep them this way for now because I want to compare the color in soap with the color of the dry fraction.

 

[dibbles]

This is an amazing difference in the processed vs unprocessed clays. The soaps you made are gorgeous!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Now the waiting game to see if anything in the blue clay speeds up DOS. I’ve seen blue clay soap for sale on Etsy, so I‘m assuming it will be fine, but I will give it at least a month before I make a full batch.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Well, I broke down and made a small batch using fractions of the blue Cambrian clay. For the tiger stripe type pour I used two blues, two greys, and batter colored with white clay and TD. For the base layer, I used a pale shade that looks light blue when dry but grey-green in the soap.

 

[dibbles]

I missed this! Very pretty @Mobjack Bay!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Thank you @dibbles The colors are enough to send me back to buy more clay. I think I can get through the fractioning process more quickly now that I know what I’m doing!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

The blue D’Argile French clay from a friend who lives in Paris finally made it’s way to me by way of Ireland where it was handed off to some friends who live in Virginia. What soap makers will do in search of the perfect blue! It looks good and I can’t wait to try it. I also have a second batch of the blue Cambrian clay from an Etsy supplier, but it doesn’t seem to have the deep blue fraction that I was able to isolate in the original batch

 

[lsg]

Lovely soap!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Thank you @lsg