June Challenge Entry Thread

[Saponista]

Please post ONLY your entries on this thread. Any other comments/compliments or discussion should be left on the original challenge thread.

Thank you for participating - Saponista X

 

[BlackDog]

I'll go first! If I need to post the cut bars, let me know - it just looks prettier to me without the cut marks

I made Japanese koi scented with Red Tea & Lychee. Super happy with bottom fish, less so with top fish - as you can probably see it's not as neat up top since my batter was getting very thick and I went into panic. This was a fun design challenge. Thanks, Saponista!

ETA: Apologies for the rubbish photography.

 

[nikkisessence]

Here is my mosaic soap entry

 

[Guspuppy]

My entry: inspiration was a peacock.

 

[earlene]

Dad's Flagstone Patio

My entry is in honor of my father, who is gone. When I was a child, my Dad created a flagstone patio using broken pieces of colored concrete, which he pieced together in a mosaic pattern using concrete as the mortar between the flagstones. Both my Mom & Dad lovingly planted around the patio's edge, which had a wooden border, portrayed in the soap slab with soap I colored with manjistha powder. Planted around the border were various plants, including my Mom's famous Jade Plant, which I really wanted to include in the soap, but I just did not manage the right green, so I decided to focus only on my Dad's Flagstone Patio. My Mom & Dad were married 49 years before she died of lung cancer and he survived her another 13 years, remarrying and living a happy life until his death 7 years ago. But Dad's Flagstone Patio remains. The two hearts in the soap slab represent my parents long lasting love and devotion.

Yes, I was inspired by my Dad's Flagstone Patio both because of its mosaic nature, but also because June is the month of Father's Day. In addition to that, I was also inspired by the December 2015 SMF Ghost Swirl Challenge, and felt that it would lend a very appropriate texture to the Flagstones I wanted to include in this soap. Happily I had ordered some colorants that I felt would lend themselves well to the earthiness of Flagstones so I set about creating several soaps using my newly acquired colorants and withheld posting details or photographs of them because they were going to become part of the Flagstones.

Finally, I felt that the Ghost Swirl would also fit very well into the concrete mortar as well, and when I created the base for this slab of soap, I did a high water & low water swirl before putting in the pieces cut from my various ghost swirl soaps. I CPOP'd it overnight, unmolded this morning and cut it this afternoon.

Here are some of the photos from my 10 inch by 14 inch Mosaic soap entitled Dad's Flagstone Patio:

Before the Cut:

FO's added to some of the tile soaps when I made them:

Black Cherry (CC)* in the Brick Red Oxide colored soap tiles (I love this fragrance!)
Molten Brown (Sweet Cakes)* in the Indigo-colored soap tiles (not enough, an end of bottle & the fragrance was too mild to do it justice)
Indian Sandalwood (Candlepro.com)* in the Matte Yellow Oxide colored soap tiles (again, an end of bottle, but I like this fragrance, too)
Blackberry Sage & Bamboo Lotus (? didn't write down supplier)* in Manjistha Powder colored soap - 'faux wooden' border
Cocoa Butter (Mad Oils)* in multi-colored greens soap tiles
Nag Champa (NS)* in the whitish-looking soap tiles

No added fragrance to the base as I feared adding any more to the amount already present in the tiles would overpower the soap. Besides that, I had just had a couple of bad days with scents because of my ocular migraine, so it seemed best not to tempt fate. Over all the fragrances are pretty mild now after the additional CPOP (the tiles got twice CPOP'd) and personally I prefer the milder fragrance.

* (FO's from snappyllama in her generous pre-move destash)

 

[MySoapyHeart]

I kept it uncut to not ruin the desig so you could see it more clearly, hope that is ok.
The soap smells like a fruity forrest with NG`s Apple, Mango, Tango with a twist of Atlas Ceder to catch the woodsy notes.

This may sound way to deep and it is very personal but it is what it is and a big part of what inspired me, so here goes:

My inspiration was that I love the forrest. I handcarved every single piece of this soap, and while doing it I kept going back to the very thing that kept me sane for so many years.

The forrest was a safe haven for me. In my early years I lived right by it, and I could literally take a few steps outside our house and find myself inside a safe haven of trees, moss, calm air with butterflies that flew from flower to flower, while chasing the glimmers of liquid rays.

It was the early 70`s, cars was something that didn`t pass by our house very often, and since we lived far away from a city, our lifes were outside the more "mainstream" things that everyone was used to. They had their schools, shoppingmalls, their perfumeries and restaurants. We had the trainstaion and the quick-E-Mart on the corner that served as our "Mall". I had no friends, I had not yet started school and I was alone with a mother that was sick and depressed. I was only in her way.

So the forrest to me was a safe haven, and a place where I could breathe and just be myself without being scolded or put in my room for simply breathing a bit to loud. So my childhood was not a very easy one, and for me the woods was a place I could really hide freely without getting anyone on my back for simply being alive. I was 5 years old and escaped to the trees and felt the moss settling under my tiny body as I layed there, staring up at the clouds. I was alone. And the clouds and the forrest formed the inner me that I am today.

If you find me to be somewhat of a strange being, with thoughts that seem a bit foreign, over the top, if you find me a bit tiresome at times and perhaps a bit annoying; just try and remember that I, as we all, are just molded by of our lives, our experiences, losses, victories, and sometimes molded by the lack of love that we should have gotten along the way.

I know it is just a simple piece of soap amongst beautifully handcrafted soaps, in a challenge amongst strangers that have never met, and never will. But to me this piece of soap symbolizes a part of my life. A forrest can burn down to the ground. Nothing is left but charred pieces of trees and stubs. And yet, the next day a small piece of green grass has managed to work itself through the ashes, up and away in search of lifegiving sunlight.

 

[LisaAnne]

Broken dishes mosaic tile.

 

[mzimm]

Soap Dish Soap
Here's my entry.....I so admire everyone's inspirations and artistry with this idea! My original plan called for a quilt block version of a long-tailed barn swallow, which we have an abundance of this year and which provide hours of entertainment and delight to watch. But it never got out of the drafting stage---I couldn't figure out the layout! So I abandoned it in favor of a design I saw on the internet of a pretty mosaic soap dish.

 

[SunWolf]

Plain and simple goldfish...no story. Been doctoring a herd of goaties with the "ickies" so not much time to plan something more fancy. Happy to say the goaties are feeling much better now!

 

[Cindy2428]

Flower Garden

Not at all what was in my head, but I finished.

 

[BattleGnome]

Instead of having awesome inspiration, I wanted a Christmas soap. My inspiration was Christmas wrapping paper.

June SMF challenge

 

[Saponista]

Winners Announced!!!!!

Congratulations to mzimm for first place

Sunwolf for second place

And MySoapyHeart and BlackDog tied for third place

Everyone's entries were fantastic. Thank you to everyone who participated and very well done to the winners!

 

[SunWolf]

No way, really?!? Kewl beans, thank you all and congrats to everybody! That was a fun challenge!

 

[nikkisessence]

Congratulations to the winners! Thank you for the challenge, Saponista!

 

[earlene]

Congratulations mzimm, Sunwolf, MySoapyHeart and BlackDog.

Your soaps are all beautiful.

 

[Cindy2428]

Congrats to all - this was fun!

 

[mzimm]

NO WAY!!! And I was the mosaic soap bad-mouther, too! I did learn a ton, so thankful for the wonderful support on this forum, and an extra special, heartfelt thanks to Saponista.
Congratulations to everyone on your georgous soaps, they're all wonderful.:clap:

 

[snappyllama]

Such well deserved congratulations to the winners and everyone that did the challenge!

 

[earlene]

My entry is in honor of my father, who is gone. When I was a child, my Dad created a flagstone patio using broken pieces of colored concrete, which he pieced together in a mosaic pattern using concrete as the mortar between the flagstones. Both my Mom & Dad lovingly planted around the patio's edge, which had a wooden border, portrayed in the soap slab with soap I colored with manjistha powder. Planted around the border were various plants, including my Mom's famous Jade Plant, which I really wanted to include in the soap, but I just did not manage the right green, so I decided to focus only on my Dad's Flagstone Patio. My Mom & Dad were married 49 years before she died of lung cancer and he survived her another 13 years, remarrying and living a happy life until his death 7 years ago. But Dad's Flagstone Patio remains. The two hearts in the soap slab represent my parents long lasting love and devotion.

Yes, I was inspired by my Dad's Flagstone Patio both because of its mosaic nature, but also because June is the month of Father's Day. In addition to that, I was also inspired by the December 2015 SMF Ghost Swirl Challenge, and felt that it would lend a very appropriate texture to the Flagstones I wanted to include in this soap. Happily I had ordered some colorants that I felt would lend themselves well to the earthiness of Flagstones so I set about creating several soaps using my newly acquired colorants and withheld posting details or photographs of them because they were going to become part of the Flagstones.

Finally, I felt that the Ghost Swirl would also fit very well into the concrete mortar as well, and when I created the base for this slab of soap, I did a high water & low water swirl before putting in the pieces cut from my various ghost swirl soaps. I CPOP'd it overnight, unmolded this morning and cut it this afternoon.

Here are some of the photos from my 10 inch by 14 inch Mosaic soap entitled Dad's Flagstone Patio:

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/...aic Dads Flagstone Patio 2016June19 - 003.jpg
replace by this working link:

http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/...aic Dads Flagstone Patio 2016June19 - 002.jpg
replaced by a new link:

Before the Cut:
http://i293.photobucket.com/albums/...osaic Dads Flagston Patio 2016June19-001a.jpg
replace by this working link:

FO's added to some of the tile soaps when I made them:

Black Cherry (CC)* in the Brick Red Oxide colored soap tiles (I love this fragrance!)
Molten Brown (Sweet Cakes)* in the Indigo-colored soap tiles (not enough, an end of bottle & the fragrance was too mild to do it justice)
Indian Sandalwood (Candlepro.com)* in the Matte Yellow Oxide colored soap tiles (again, an end of bottle, but I like this fragrance, too)
Blackberry Sage & Bamboo Lotus (? didn't write down supplier)* in Manjistha Powder colored soap - 'faux wooden' border
Cocoa Butter (Mad Oils)* in multi-colored greens soap tiles
Nag Champa (NS)* in the whitish-looking soap tiles

No added fragrance to the base as I feared adding any more to the amount already present in the tiles would overpower the soap. Besides that, I had just had a couple of bad days with scents because of my ocular migraine, so it seemed best not to tempt fate. Over all the fragrances are pretty mild now after the additional CPOP (the tiles got twice CPOP'd) and personally I prefer the milder fragrance.

* (FO's from snappyllama in her generous pre-move destash)

Edit to correct links due to Photobucket's policy change.