February SMF Challenge- Soap dough

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Is it wrong that I asked my mother in law to leave a day earlier because I cant wait to get back to soap dough? lol
Send her over here. I need someone to help shape and score my hundreds of tiny 'leaves'. I've moved inside to a table, because I'm getting sore neck and shoulders from the repetitive fiddly task.
 
I guess I got lucky with my CP dough. Seems perfect, and maybe I will try something else tonight. Hopefully I can beat the deadline.
 
dxw,

If anyone is going to New Zealand is going to be me. ha! I am dying to go there. I will visit every single hobbit hole still standing after the LotR movies were filmed.
 
I can’t wait to see what you are making.

Nor can I :)

Disaster has struck. My CP base has failed dismally, partial gel only ... kinda like fine porridge. Ricing by the look of the pictures in the beginners' forums. I cannot remedy right now, no backup and it has all the inserts in it :-(
Trying to do too much, too fast, in an arena that is all new to me I guess.
I'm going to continue, and blithely pretend nothing happened ("la, la, la ... what disaster?), so will hopefully at least be able to display the concept I was trying for. I am very happy with the eyes, the face, and all my squillion little leaves. Hopefully they will still do okay despite the turd-ball bar I have manufactured.
 
I can’t wait to see what you are making.

I have posted it now. The base bar was horrible, so I threw it together rather hastily and have not tidied up much at all. Still have to repair my pushbike and iron my work clothes for tomorrow.

Still, I love him and you'll all understand what I was attempting.

My inspiration ...
4426314241_5600e5d09f_b.jpg common-frog-grass-frog-sitting-in-a-pond-between-common-duckweeds-am11pg.jpg

Process: The fermenting bubbles
IMG_0778.JPG IMG_0783.JPG IMG_0788.JPG IMG_0791.JPG IMG_0817.JPG IMG_0821.JPG
I made a bundle of black soap dough balls. Wrapped them in coloured bands then cut them in half through the centre of the band. I placed them on five faces of a single bar mould configuration, with the cut face facing outwards. The CP, black with iron oxide, was meant to be a thin trace so it'd seep into all the little nooks. That part did not go well, but I still like the idea ... although my wife's comment was "Froggie goes to the Olympics", Hmphhh.
 
Last edited:
Process: The duckweed

IMG_0793.JPG IMG_0800.JPG IMG_0801.JPG
Small canes of differently green soap dough, sliced and squished. Then clustered and a small line gouged along each one. Very fiddly.

Process: The frog
IMG_0789.JPG IMG_0785a.jpg IMG_0794.JPG IMG_0795.JPG IMG_0798.JPG IMG_0797.JPG
Black dough balls, size matched as best I could. Cane failure so red and yellow dough worked to an irregular yellow margin and built-up on printed template, with glad wrap in between, to try get the setup right ... and semi-symmetrical. Head outline built-up with cylinders of dough, eyes inserted on pedestals of black dough ... and ages spent trying to get them level and aligned correctly. Several thinned out cylinders of dough used on each eye to build up the colours and then the orbit ridge.
Cylinders and shaped flat segments of dough layed over and worked in to gradually build-up the head. Nostrils made by poking holes, inserting a little yellow dough, and poking more holes. Poking and scraping to get things shaped kinda-right, and patching with more green when I scraped too hard and black started to show through.
 
I saw the entries n wow !!! Amazing work guys. My intentional dough mix failed.... But surprizingly.. The jan challenge soap turned out to be the dough. It was on the drying rack so far i ended up accidently playing with it n who knew... It was the perfect dough.. Im learning so much from this challenge. I will try few from my learning n post them here
 
Oh SunRise those bunnies are adorable! THANK YOU you've just given me the inspiration I needed for another Easter Soap :D
 
... her creativity and talent is boundless, and I am again in awe.


Wow, she makes it all look so easy ... and her dough behaved very nicely, unlike the hellspawn stuff that I created.
The final result made me think of 11th-12th century tapestries, like Bayeaux ... not that it had much floral work on it.
 
Misschief, process pictures are photos taken of the process you used to make whatever you made, essentially work in progress pics. Part of the reason I asked for them was to assure myself that no one pressed dough into a mold to make their item, but mostly to see how people put things together.

The dough I made was sticky at first but after 10 days or so, it lost most of that. The more I worked with my hands, the softer and somewhat stickier it got. I agree completely with Serene on resting it; it firms up and sets a bit so slicing is much easier and cleaner. It's also essential before trying to reduce something because then the stiffness of the dough is more consistent throughout and I thought I got much less blending of the colors.

No question that this is very labor intensive but for that occasional special soap, it's awfully cool.

Deadline for entries is at midnight CST.
 
If I've figured out the time difference right, I will miss the deadline to add a cut picture of my soap by about an hour and a half, as I wont be home to cut it any earlier than that.

Ah well
 
Everyone's work is beautiful.

I admire Vicky Frost. She is indeed very talented. But EVERYTHING comes with practice. When you have had your hand at making the playdough soap many times, it becomes easier, and the artwork prosper. Is the same for any other craft or skill
 
No wonder my odd little creature is a bit confused ... I looked up the wrong timezone for the deadline. :rolleyes:

(Ps. I posted to where I was up to, leave it out if it doesn't meet the rules)
 
Last edited:
Haha oh dear I saw you post and thought I'd got the timezone thing wrong so posted mine!
 
Back
Top