January 2019 SMF Challenge - DOTS Entry Thread

[SaltedFig]

Time for some DOTS!

Welcome to the SMF January 2019 challenge DOTS Entry Thread

This months challenge is visual, so the minimum entry is one photo of your soap, however we love a good soap story here, so please include a description of your idea and how you created your challenge soap (recipes are optional)!

If you would like to join in the discussion (compliments for the participants entries are always welcome ), please head to the: DOT Challenge Thread

Entrants, don't worry if you aren't ready yet, because you can enter your soap up until 11:59pm, January 28th 2019 (GMT). You can also change or add to your entry photo's until the cut-off date (if you do this, please indicate which photo you would like to use for voting).

Voting information will be added to this thread the day after entries close.

Thank you all for taking part in this month's challenge!

 

[KiwiMoose]

I've always been bit dotty, and so this challenge was right up my alley! I posted a photo in 'My Other Hobbies' thread a while back of the mandalas that I paint on rocks - I've been doing that for about a year and a half.

At one point around the middle of last year, I thought I might branch out a bit and create some heart shapes out of plaster of paris and paint them too.

In doing so, I bought a heart shape mould, and noticed when doing a you tube search on making and curing plaster of paris, that people use similar moulds for soaps. Next thing, I'm watching soaping videos....and well. Here I am addicted to soap making.

When I posted my mandala rocks on SMF some people suggested I should try doing it to soap. So I have! I made my usual base recipe, and halved it into black and white. The first batch moved far too quickly due to naughty FO's ( Anjou Pear and Jasmine - they smell great but look terrible!) and so I had to remake the base soaps using citrus EOs to slow trace. This batch still moved quite quickly so the soaps are not as perfect as I would like, but I wasn't about to make a third batch! Then I made some 'paint' by using just soft oil mixed with lye solution, and then splitting into 6 lots and adding mica colours. So here are the results. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you: Mandala Painted Soap!

 

[Misschief]

I'm not sure I want to follow you, @KiwiMoose but here goes. The plan was to make a slab of black soap and cut out dots. Panels were laid into the mold and then the white soap poured to fill in the holes, creating white dots on a black background. It mostly worked but I didn't have little circular cookie cutters and the panels cracked. Ah well, it was a fun two-day project.

It's scented with Lavender Basil fragrance oil.

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I've always been bit dotty, and so this challenge was right up my alley! I posted a photo in 'My Other Hobbies' thread a while back of the mandalas that I paint on rocks - I've been doing that for about a year and a half.
View attachment 35295
At one point around the middle of last year, I thought I might branch out a bit and create some heart shapes out of plaster of paris and paint them too.
View attachment 35296
In doing so, I bought a heart shape mould, and noticed when doing a you tube search on making and curing plaster of paris, that people use similar moulds for soaps. Next thing, I'm watching soaping videos....and well. Here I am addicted to soap making.

When I posted my mandala rocks on SMF some people suggested I should try doing it to soap. So I have! I made my usual base recipe, and halved it into black and white. The first batch moved far too quickly due to naughty FO's ( Anjou Pear and Jasmine - they smell great but look terrible!) and so I had to remake the base soaps using citrus EOs to slow trace. This batch still moved quite quickly so the soaps are not as perfect as I would like, but I wasn't about to make a third batch! Then I made some 'paint' by using just soft oil mixed with lye solution, and then splitting into 6 lots and adding mica colours. So here are the results. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you: Mandala Painted Soap!
View attachment 35297 View attachment 35298 View attachment 35299
View attachment 35300

 

[SaltedFig]

This is the photo Entry Thread, for this month's challenge entrants to upload their soapy photo's and information about their DOT soap entry.

If you would like to join in the discussion (compliments for the participants entries are always welcome ), please head to the: DOT Challenge Thread

 

[Marilyn Norgart]

I'm not sure I want to follow you, @KiwiMoose but here goes. The plan was to make a slab of black soap and cut out dots. Panels were laid into the mold and then the white soap poured to fill in the holes, creating white dots on a black background. It mostly worked but I didn't have little circular cookie cutters and the panels cracked. Ah well, it was a fun two-day project.

It's scented with Lavender Basil fragrance oil.

View attachment 35319 View attachment 35320 View attachment 35321 View attachment 35322

wow amazing job!! I think we need a "love" button

 

[artemis]

I had too many ideas. Realistically, though, the only one I thought I could do in the remaining time was the old soap clay ball embeds. I love how the size of the dot depends on where the ball is cut in the loaf. I have done this before without incident. No biggie, right? I wanted two shades of green in the bar, which meant my old nemesis, TD, returned. I added a faint mica line and lightly (so lightly) dusted the balls with mica.

The TD went easy on me this time, but the mica! Even with the light hand, the mica prevented my layers and my soap balls from sticking together. They came apart as I cut the soap. So, I pressed them all together and got some good pics for you, but it is really all a lie! I will post the behind-the-scenes blooper pics in the other thread.

 

[szaza]

Ok this is not a very creative soap at all.. I entered because I really wanted to soap again, but I didn't actually have the time to do much. It made me really happy to soap again, so goal achieved on that part Now here's my unimpressive entry:
I went with soapdough balls just like artemis. All different colors with a white base (zany's no slime castile recipe) and I cut around the edges in different angles with a potato peeler to create different sized dots.
I think I'll call it 'clowning around'

 

[Donee']

OMW these are stunning
I have some catching up to do

 

[penelopejane]

This is a very simple soap.
The balls are soap dough made with activated charcoal. They were about 6 months old before I used them in this soap. The top is an inverted stamp.

 

[penelopejane]

Too late to edit the above post. Here is another photo of the "dots" on top.
It is an inverted soap stamp. Info on how to do it is on Auntie Clara's blog:

https://auntieclaras.com/2014/04/tutorial-inverted-stamp-technique-lattice-tops-more/

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

So I realized yesterday I didn’t have many more days to make my soap and I needed two days for each batch to combine. This is a long post and pic heavy!

For my idea, I thought about projects with dots we use to do in design school in order to make use of negative and positive space...I don’t know where they are but let’s just say they were extreme and could make one go dotty. I drew up a little diagram. This is my first ever soap diagram picture because in my normal soaping, I’m either a solid color or in the pot swirler, maybe layers but I’m not very patient nor do I get much time to make soap without interruption.

I opted out of confetti because I realized the rest of my soap dots would displace too much of the soap with confetti. I used my regular recipe and upped my water because normally I do a pretty deep discount so my soap is pretty hard after unmolding in 24 hours, I knew I needed pliable soap and I unmolded both of my batches within 12. First soap was a layered soap that I made canes and soap balls. The canes were a pain! I sliced some soap off thinly and then rolled it out on some parchment paper then rolled like a jelly roll.

this soap is scented with Nurture Soap’s Blue agave. I don’t care for it - too perfumy and colored with their micas and some TD.
For my second batch, I colored with activated charcoal to set off the light colors of my canes and balls. Scented with NS Day of the Dead - this is a super fun scent! Makes me think of grape Nehi soda. My fave as a kid! I poured a thin layer first and then started laying in my canes and soap balls and poured soap in to fill the space up.

after the pour I thought my top looked too bare so I sliced up more soap and covered with more soap balls and Sprinkled some glitter on top. I poured this at 9 am and just unmolded an hour ago. I couldn’t wait! The two scents together are nice.

overall, I’m pretty happy with the soap. I wish I had a few more smaller balls inside the loaf. I didn’t even plan too much with the cutting but there are some small ones in between the parts we can’t see. I call this soap Galactic! They look like planets floating around

Everyone else’s soap looks great! I love those mandala soaps!! Although I’m crafty/creative, I consider myself a utilitarian soaper. It’s a necessity and I think about what it does for me. Too many people just display the soap and I kinda think it’s wasteful and I have other crafty endeavors lol. But I’m always amazed over everyone’s amazing soapy talent! Thanks for hanging in there!

 

[dibbles]

My dotty entry...such as it is. They are too soft to pretty up, but I have no more time for soapy fun. My black isn't black and my line isn't straight, but I think you can see where I was headed. This was a fun challenge and I had a chance to play with embeds which I don't do very often. Thanks SaltedFig!

 

[SweetBubbleTreat]

Not as good as I’d like but here they are....

 

[SaltedFig]

The Entry thread is now closed and voting messages have been sent to all participants

Thank you to everyone who has made soaps for this DOT challenge - amazing soaps!

If you would like to join in the conversation, please join us over to the DOTS challenge thread: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/smf-january-2019-soap-challenge-dots.73232/

 

[SaltedFig]

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this month's challenge!

The winners (as voted by your peers) are:

In first place: KiwiMoose
Coming a close second, dibbles
And rounding out the top three, artemis

Well done and congratulations!

 

[Meena]

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this month's challenge!

The winners (as voted by your peers) are:

In first place: KiwiMoose
Coming a close second, dibbles
And rounding out the top three, artemis

Well done and congratulations!

YAY, winners!!!!! Congratulations!!

 

[artemis]

Aura (15) says, "those are all stinkin' awesome! Especially that clowning around one!"

 

[Clarice]

these all blew my mind! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the ones from Side Door Soaps - they make me think of the galaxy with planets swirling! Just curious - in use, do the "planets" disengage from the "galaxy"?

Thank you all for such incredibly inspiring work.

The Mandala soap I stared at forever thinking, how on EARTH do you develop talent like that! Go KiwiMouse!

 

[SideDoorSoaps]

these all blew my mind! I LOVE LOVE LOVE the ones from Side Door Soaps - they make me think of the galaxy with planets swirling! Just curious - in use, do the "planets" disengage from the "galaxy"?

Thank you all for such incredibly inspiring work.

The Mandala soap I stared at forever thinking, how on EARTH do you develop talent like that! Go KiwiMouse!

Thanks, @Clarice! I have yet to use the soap yet, it’s so soft yet so I can only hope that after a good cure they won’t come apart. I imagine the top bits might. I’ll let you know in a couple weeks when I try it.

I did the same thing with the mandala soap thinking I will have to have a steady hand and lots of undisturbed time to paint designs.