July 2019 SMF Challenge Entry Thread - Landscape/NOT Seascape Soaps

[dibbles]

This is the Entry Thread for the to the July 2019 SMF Soap Challenge – Landscape/NOT Seascape Soap.

Please remember this thread is limited to challenge photos only and post all comments, critiques or compliments in the original challenge thread here:
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/july-2019-smf-challenge-landscape-not-seascape-design.75594/

Post your challenge entry photos here and include any details you would like to share such as technique used, your design inspiration, fragrance or recipe.

You may post multiple photos but only one photo will be submitted in the voting survey. If you are including extra photos, please indicate which photo you would like to be used in the voting survey. In the absence of such indication, one of the photos will be chosen as the entry photo from the selection you have posted.

The entry thread and challenge sign up will remain open until July 26 at 11:59 PM CST. A link and the password for voting at Survey Monkey will then be sent to all members who signed up for the Challenge. Voting will be open from July 27, 2019 through July 29, 2019 and winners will be announced on July 30.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the challenge this month!

 

[KristaY]

I'm calling this soap The Mysteries of Sedona. It's scented with patchouli, lavender and sage to suit the Sedona vibe. The 1st pic is my inspiration photo which I took on a recent visit. I don't have a sun mold and didn't feel like sculpting by hand since that would have been a disaster, lol. It probably would have looked more like an asteroid of doom than a sun so I'm going with the idea it's a solar eclipse!

I poured the bottom which is an ITP swirl of brown with a hint of green. I let that set up a bit then added vertical dividers to pour the layers of the mountains. I didn't let it set up enough since the mountains sunk into the ground a bit. I kept the dividers in place until I spooned in the sky layer to the level of the mountain tops, added the M&P eclipse sun, then finished the sky. Thankfully it's not the complete disaster I predicted after I poured it!

 

[steffamarie]

KristaY and I took a similar approach to this challenge and drew inspiration from the beautiful landscape of the western USA. This soap was designed based on a photo a coworker of mine (also a soapmaker!) took on her recent vacation to Colorado and Utah. Scented in Lime Margarita - because what's better on vacation than a good marg?! I sketched up the design on my phone prior to making it, and I think that's a design technique I'll be applying in the future. I already have a cache of designs for other projects!!



I poured the three browns sequentially down the side of a small pitcher to pour the bottom layer, and used that once it had thickened to sculpt the arch. Then, before putting the top of the arch on, I mixed up a new batch for the sky and poured just enough to fill the inside before topping it off. I textured the sides with a fork to try to achieve a rock-like texture, and I'm super proud of how it came out!!! Here's the entry photo!! Can't wait to see everyone else's <3

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Virginia is a state full of inspiring landscapes. As much as I love the coast, time spent in other areas of Virginia also hold many wonderful memories of vacations and holidays with family and friends. For this challenge, I wanted to evoke the beauty of Virginia’s piedmont, an area that is also very important in the history of the U.S. Nestled between the ancient Blue Ridge Mountains and the coastal plain where I live, these are the rolling hills above the “fall line” of the major rivers that wind their way to the Chesapeake Bay. The “fall line” is where the waterfalls start and is the limit of navigable waters when sailing in from the ocean. Major cities of the mid-Atlantic region, like Washington, DC and Richmond, grew up at the fall line of two of the Chesapeake Bay’s major rivers, the Potomac and the James.

My mind’s eye provided the inspiration, but I found this photograph online to give you a sense of the landscape.

Making this soap posed many challenges, especially given the skill set I had at the beginning of the journey. I love layered soap, but had not yet mastered clean sharp layering. I loved the idea of adding swirled layers for texture, but had no real soap swirling skills at the onset and really hadn’t even mastered the stages of trace. The only colorants in my house were things like matcha tea, indigo, annatto and madder, which are finicky at best. Despite the limitations, I decided on a complicated design. (I blame it on soap mania). I made a soap and learned some lessons. Then I made a half dozen more! I practiced layering, sculpting, piping and a little bit of swirling. I paid a lot more attention to trace and learned to accelerate trace with FOs and EOs (with thanks to Dibbles and szaza for the tips on how to accelerate trace). I decided to eliminate the natural colorant variable and bought some micas. With time growing short, I did not have time to test the micas. I just went for it and here is my soap!

To build the soap, I started at the bottom, with some layering that I *thought* I chopstick swirled, maybe... I was going for the look of pebbles and rocks with interspersed grass that you see along stream beds. Next came the stream. The white that is barely visible was added to give a sense of small rapids, but next time(!) I will layer it inside the blue rather than on top. My rolling hills come next. Clearly, I needed more contrast in my greens and especially for the top hill, which is barely distinguishable from the one below. I created the hedgerows using the biggest tip on a precision applicator with batter that was plenty firm enough (and I’m still trying to get the last of that soap out of the bottle!). I used my new sculpting skills and coated game cards (like playing cards) to shape the hills and smooth them a bit. The mountains in the distance were hand sculpted. The limited palette of mica colors I bought did not include any yellows, reds or pinks. They would have been nice in the sky. I had a gold that I hoped would look yellowish, and I guess it does to some degree. The cloud was piped in using a small sandwich bag with the corner snipped off as my piping bag. I learned in previous runs that the trace level here makes all the difference. The blues and gold were layered in with a spoon. The soap is scented with Aroma Therapy which helped to accelerate trace of my very, very slow lard based recipe. All the next soap needs is a farmhouse or a barn. When is the next embed challenge?

(Other soaps I made as I learned the techniques I needed for this one are here.)

 

[jcandleattic]

I do not have a pic of what mine is supposed to look like, just the soap. Use your imagination. It's supposed to be a sunset over the Rocky Mountains.

 

[Dawni]

I don't have an inspiration picture either, but it's in my head... And I do hope it'll be in yours when you see the soap lols

Presenting... A hot processed abstract landscape soap!

If by some chance I get time for another try I will edit this, but it's looking like this will be my official entry.

More info here

 

[TAS]

I don't have an inspiration picture either, but it's in my head... And I do hope it'll be in yours when you see the soap lols

Presenting... A hot processed abstract landscape soap!
View attachment 40521
If by some chance I get time for another try I will edit this, but it's looking like this will be my official entry.

 

[scard]

Hi!
Here is my inspiration picture:

Here is my soap, Tequila Sunset. Named (kinda) for one of my old favorite songs "Tequila Sunrise" by the Eagle's:

The soap was poured in layers, the bottom 4 sculptedish with matboard templates. The melt and pour sun was placed and then the six layers of sky were poured the following day. The cactus and birds were carved into the soap with clay tools and filled in with melt and pour (opaque)colored with black mica and charcoal. Each side of the soap is a different picture. The micas used were a combination of Nurture Soaps and Micas and More. The soap is scented with White Tea and Ginger by Fragrance Buddy, it behaved well and smells really nice. The only issue I had was working with the black M&P, it gets pretty messy. I'm going to have lots more fun with this technique!

Sorry there are so many pics, they lined them up together in the preview post!

 

[Mooicle]

Hi!
Here is my inspiration picture:
View attachment 40534
Here is my soap, Tequila Sunset. Named (kinda) for one of my old favorite songs "Tequila Sunrise" by the Eagle's:
View attachment 40535 View attachment 40536 View attachment 40537 View attachment 40538 View attachment 40539 View attachment 40541
The soap was poured in layers, the bottom 4 sculptedish with matboard templates. The melt and pour sun was placed and then the six layers of sky were poured the following day. The cactus and birds were carved into the soap with clay tools and filled in with melt and pour (opaque)colored with black mica and charcoal. Each side of the soap is a different picture. The micas used were a combination of Nurture Soaps and Micas and More. The soap is scented with White Tea and Ginger by Fragrance Buddy, it behaved well and smells really nice. The only issue I had was working with the black M&P, it gets pretty messy. I'm going to have lots more fun with this technique!

 

[dibbles]

@TAS and @Mooicle would you please move your comment to the challenge thread? We like to keep this for entry photos only. Thanks

 

[TAS]

@TAS and @Mooicle would you please move your comment to the challenge thread? We like to keep this for entry photos only. Thanks

I would but I don't know how. Help?

 

[dibbles]

I would but I don't know how. Help?

I think the easiest thing to do is copy/paste your post onto the challenge thread and delete the one here. Or write a new post on the other thread. You might only be able to edit your post here by changing it to read ‘deleted ‘. There should be an edit button for you on your post. If it’s past the time you can edit your post, that’s ok. It will be a good reminder for others to post comments on the challenge thread rather than here. It happens

 

[Primrose]

Wow what an awesome challenge. I'm pleased to say I have an entry for this month.

This is my inspiration photo, no significance to it, just one I found on Google

This really was a challenge for me because I struggle with breaking down images like this to figure out what techniques to use to achieve it. My soaps tend to be on the plain and simple side of things. So first there was several hours mulling over how to plan the soap.

I constructed it upside down, starting with the sky and using the sculpted layer technique which I'd never done before but been wanting to try for ages. I had seven layers in all, and three of those layers (the sky and two layers of mountains) were an ombre pour, which I'd also never done Before. Each layer was a separate batch of soap.

This is a GM Soap using lard, tallow, olive oil, coconut oil and castor. Nice and slow moving. Micas and TD for the colours. I scented it with BB Fresh Snow which is my go-to well behaved FO as it gives me hours of working time. It did mean that I had to wait quite a while for the layers to set up but i didnt want it to get away on me. It took about five hours

I don't mind which photo you use for the entry survey

 

[szaza]

Finally my entry is ready. While I was working on my first attempt I felt like I should try another landscape inspired by the place I grew up. Since Friesland is most known for its 11 cities marathon, this was the theme of my soap. This was my inspiration picture:

I used a slow moving, light colored recipe and an EO blend of peppermint, pine, ginger and clove EO to imitate the freshness of a winter day and to speed up trace to sculpt te layers.
The first layer (frozen grass) was made with uncolored soap and bevellings of the may 2019 tiger stripe challenge (which I colored with cucumber peel, spirulina and activated charcoal).
The second layer (the ice) was colored with white kaolin clay mixed with water. My base recipe turned out te be whiter than the clay, but I did get awesome glycerin rivers that give a sense of structure to the ice portion.
The third layer (horizon) was colored with cocoa powder and a small itp swirl of activated charcoal in oil. After setting up, it was sculpted with a spoon.
The last layer was the sky. I did a sort of semi drop swirl, starting with uncolored batter and increasing the amount of indigo in oil with every pour.
I was planning not to gel, but got partial gel (probably because of the intense heatwave we're having) so forced gel anyway the next day. That made the colors of the horizon and sky a bit intenser than I imagined at first, but I think I'm ok with that.
After cutting I carved out the windmill and the ice skater with a wood carving knife and filled up with some charcoal colored cp batter. I think I need to invest in some clay sculpting tools.. I wanted to add a second, smaller skater, but it was too small to get the details (the skater and windmill were hard enough as it was), so now I'm setting the really bad example of skating alone.. That's dangerous, never do that

And here it is: 'It Giet Oan!' Ice skating soap. I'd like the first picture to be my entry.

(If you're interested in my first attempt, check it out here: https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/african-sunset-annatto-experiment.75867/)

 

[Rahmi]

I almost did not going to submit my entry because the bulk of the soap do not look like a landscape soaps at all. But one end piece does look somewhat like a mountain landscape soap, so that's the one I'm entering. my goal was to have distinct landscape feature aka Meadows and mountain and a tree on the side. Heh, I have so much to learn! I didn't manage them except by chance.

My problem was thin trace. I was afraid of working with thicker trace because I wanted them be somewhat fluid. But of course it was much much too fluid.

I used all the natural colors I had, except wheatgrass. I used turmeric, brown clay, green indigo leaf, madder root, blue indigo, and charcoal.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Xx

 

[dibbles]

And the winner are...
First Place - Mobjack Bay
Second Place - Primrose
Third Place tie - scard and szaza

Congratulations to the winners. Everyone did such a phenomenal job - thank you for being part of the challenge.