January SMF Challenge -Hidden Heart Swirl

[earlene]

Yes, dibbles, I found the cut to be a bit of guesswork in one of mine, as well. I thought it was halfway down and it ended up being a bit lower to actually find the hidden heart. So I think a solution might be to put a different colored ring around the outer edge only before adding the final top layer. Then you'd have a cutting guide. It could always be planed off or left on as one desired.

 

[amd]

Here's what I did...
I split my batter pretty evenly into thirds, poured a thin layer (about 1/3 of it) of base color then poured my columns inside of my marks - every few pours I built up the sides and in between the columns with my base color. I was left with just enough base color completely over the columns and then did one long pull through the center of my mold along the length. Because of the way I setup my pour (keeping the base color a thin layer), I was able to simply cut my loaf into sections, and then cut the bars from the sections, without any guess work on where the column is. The first section I cut into thirds, and each bar has part of the column (heart) in it. The other 3 sections I only cut into 2 bars (that's when I switched from my clumsy hand cutting to the multi-cutter). So I think my whole point is: Don't be afraid to pour a thin base layer and a lot of color for the columns. Remember when you first start pouring the columns to get as close to the surface as possible to prevent breaking through the base layer. My first column has just a hint of color from when I didn't remember this little ditty, and the color barely broke through the base layer. I realized my mistake and corrected it for the other columns, so that is the only one that happened to.

 

[Kittish]

I used disposable piping bags for building my columns, and thought about using it for the base color as well (and it would have made things easier). It's super easy to control flow rate, and to keep even fairly thin batter from breaking through with the bags, plus you're pouring from a narrower opening, so it's also easier to control drawing shapes with the soap (like circles- round, round, round, round, I get around...). It's also slower, because of those narrower openings, so if your batter is thickening up fast it may not work well. I split and colored my batter when it was just BARELY at thin trace, then used the SB to bring my main color to med-thick trace so it would help corral the thinner batter I made the columns with.

 

[toxikon]

I used toilet paper tubes to make my columns... it seemed to work pretty well. I'll know tonight when I attempt the cut!

 

[Kittish]

I used toilet paper tubes to make my columns... it seemed to work pretty well. I'll know tonight when I attempt the cut!

Huh, that's an interesting idea. I may have to try that in another batch at some point. Should make for nice, neat columns that don't drift to one side or another.

 

[DeeAnna]

...I split and colored my batter...

Oh, dear. I read this as "I spit..." and my eyes goggled out, thinking of you spitting soap batter into your mold. And then my brain finally caught up with my eyes.

That was a good chuckle!

 

[Kittish]

Oh, dear. I read this as "I spit..." and my eyes goggled out, thinking of you spitting soap batter into your mold. And then my brain finally caught up with my eyes.

That was a good chuckle!

Glad to give you a laugh. I had a sort of similar conversation with the MIL while I was making the soap, she made some comment about it smelled good enough to eat. My response was "you'd only try it ONCE" which made her laugh. Used a combination of petitgrain, bergamot, litsea cubeba, neroli and just a touch of elemi essential oils, so it smells really nice (and I hope the scent sticks).

So it's cut, and looks pretty good. I'm thinking of taking one more shot at it though, using toxikon's idea of toilet paper tubes to keep the columns nice and neat, see if I can't get hearts in ALL the bars, not just some of them.

 

[earlene]

I have used TP tubes before. I found they can drift in the mold as I poured into them, so I had to hold them in place. It was difficult when there were several in a long log mold.

 

[Primrose]

Huh, that's an interesting idea. I may have to try that in another batch at some point. Should make for nice, neat columns that don't drift to one side or another.

Me too, totally going to try this!

 

[DeeAnna]

One of the things I found using a longer tube to temporarily hold the batter for the heart -- the diameter of the heart at the bottom end was quite a bit smaller than the diameter of the heart at the top. I think when you pull the tube, the soap inside the tube travels along with the tube as you pull it upward. It ends up being more of an upside down cone shape, rather than a cylinder. It's not necessarily a bad thing really -- just unexpected.

One possibility to minimize this is to pull the tube reallllllyyyyy slllllowwwly and see if that helps the soap stay put. Or some kind of plunger inside the tube to hold the soap in place as the tube is pulled.

 

[Primrose]

Mine is out of the mould, but not cut yet, still a bit soft. My batter was a bit fluid and even though I tried to hide the hearts with a top and bottom layer, they seem to have broken through. One end has quite a nice wispy heart going on, which is very cool. Cant wait to see what they look like inside.

 

[SunRiseArts]

I used a column too.. was it cheating? I thought we were to do it in diffent ways and figure out which method works best for the design.. m confused now!

is not a cheat, I was just joking. Otherwise I would not done it.

I actually did another one, just as in the video too, and now I like both. Not sure which one to pick. :think:

 

[Soapprentice]

is not a cheat, I was just joking. Otherwise I would not done it.

I actually did another one, just as in the video too, and now I like both. Not sure which one to pick. :think:

Oh ok.. got it... that is a good dilemma to have

 

[SunRiseArts]

I used toilet paper tubes to make my columns... it seemed to work pretty well. I'll know tonight when I attempt the cut!

Great idea. I did not want to buy a column mold, so I made a batch of MP, and used a cookie cutter to go through it. It was so hard!!!!! It totally destroyed the cookie cutter, but that is ok. My hands are still hurting.

 

[Soapprentice]

I used toilet paper tubes to make my columns... it seemed to work pretty well. I'll know tonight when I attempt the cut!

I used the kitchen napkins tubes for the columns... well, we got to do what we got to do..

 

[toxikon]

Well I got some interesting results! I think they would've turned out much better if I'd been a bit more patient with my low-tracing batter - definitely poured it while it was too liquid.

I think one bar has a nice heart, the rest have some interesting patterns. One has a butt.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Quoting this so it doesn't get missed in the thread. Thoughts?

Yes, the cut you mentioned is perfectly fine!

I have what I think is attempt number 2 in a nice, cozy oven along with several extra molds worth.



Question for galaxyMLP: Is it acceptable to build the soap up to the point just before the solid color covers the design, do the swipe through the colors, then hide the design with the base color?

Yes, this is more than acceptable as some other wonderful members pointed out!



Thank you everyone for all of your hard work on this. Love the toilet paper roll idea. Can’t wait to see the entries.

Sorry about the piles of muddled “peach” soaps piling up as you trouble shoot the method!

 

[earlene]

I am considering using my thinly cut bars from the rejected batch and building a layered tile type soap. Sort of like we did for the mosaic soap challenge, but more as individual soaps to build them up into normal sized bath soap. Even though I rejected them as entries, I still like them and think they'd make a pretty soap sandwiched together. They're too pretty to shred and I already have so many travel soaps, I may never run out.

 

[Primrose]

My first attempt made the same as the video has turned out well, though still too soft to properly cut, I did cut one side of the loaf to see inside, I definitely have some Picasso-ish hearts. I'm trying to be patient and wait a bit longer for the other side as I think it might be better. I have an idea to hopefully improve the shape of the hearts so might give it another go if I get time before the entry closes. Still need to make my soap dough batter for feb. eek!

 

[SunRiseArts]

The one I made like the video, turned out ok. But the colors not as I expected


:headbanging: