Yeah, that's my entry. It's a hanger swirl. And a failed Luna swirl attempt
And yes, I think it's really pretty
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May 2024 SMF Challenge: Hanger Swirls!
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And yes, I think it's really pretty
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As per rules the first photo is for voting and must show the cut face of 2 bars, yours has only one.Yeah, that's my entry. It's a hanger swirl. And a failed Luna swirl attempt
And yes, I think it's really pretty
Eep. Can I clean up my entry or am I toast?
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You need to change the first photo to include 2 bars.
Attempt 1. Liked the colours but the swirl wasn't as obvious. Looks like some sea worms waving around. This was done with a plastic straw.
This green one wasn't a hanger swirl but looked really close. This was done with a chopstick.
This green one wasn't a hanger swirl but looked really close. This was done with a chopstick.
Thank you!
I made two Luna swirls for the challenge, but wasn’t thrilled with them because I used a white mica with titanium dioxide in it and ended up with teensy spots distributed through the soap. 
The first soap is Lavender Mint with Lemongrass.
The second soap is scented with black raspberry vanilla. I finished by pushing the hanger from the top center to the bottom of the soap and out, which gave it a feather-like appearance.
When I was mixing the colors for the Luna swirl, the Cheshire Cat color portion got a little over blended, too thick, so it didn’t swirl throughout the soap as well as I had hoped. Maybe I’ll get it right next time?
The first soap is Lavender Mint with Lemongrass.
The second soap is scented with black raspberry vanilla. I finished by pushing the hanger from the top center to the bottom of the soap and out, which gave it a feather-like appearance.
When I was mixing the colors for the Luna swirl, the Cheshire Cat color portion got a little over blended, too thick, so it didn’t swirl throughout the soap as well as I had hoped. Maybe I’ll get it right next time?
akseattle
Well-Known Member
I made my third try in the wee hours of Saturday morning. It's been 30+ hours since I poured it but it's still too soft to unmold without getting it all messed up. I added extra fragrance at the last minute. I probably should not have done that...
When making this batch, i knocked my lye water over on the counter. Although I don't think a glass bowl would have broken ( I didn't drop the lye water, only knocked it over), I was really glad i had switched to plastic. Mopping up the lye water, removing all the sopping newspaper I used to cover my counter, etc. was a huge hassle and loss of time. It seems like most videos I watch, the soapmaker works directly on their counter. Do others cover their counters? Or do you work in a space that can get messed up?
@ScentimentallyYours , both of those are beautiful! I especially like the colors in the green, purple, blue and white. But, I like the pattern in the pink and purple soap quite a bit! If these are your cast offs, I can't wait to see your entry. i struggle with getting TD mixed up well enough. I've almost accepted TD specs.
When making this batch, i knocked my lye water over on the counter. Although I don't think a glass bowl would have broken ( I didn't drop the lye water, only knocked it over), I was really glad i had switched to plastic. Mopping up the lye water, removing all the sopping newspaper I used to cover my counter, etc. was a huge hassle and loss of time. It seems like most videos I watch, the soapmaker works directly on their counter. Do others cover their counters? Or do you work in a space that can get messed up?
@ScentimentallyYours , both of those are beautiful! I especially like the colors in the green, purple, blue and white. But, I like the pattern in the pink and purple soap quite a bit! If these are your cast offs, I can't wait to see your entry. i struggle with getting TD mixed up well enough. I've almost accepted TD specs.
These are my other two Luna Swirl attempts. The pink/green/turquoise is Pomegranate & Black Currant (BB-discontinued), and the turquoise/purple/pink is Celestial Sea (Fragrance Buddy).
Here are my first two attempts which are not my entry. I will post my entry later. I have been experimenting with master batching oils and ended up with false trace on both of these. Then the colors came to trace at different rates. Fun challenge and there is always something to learn.
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I LOVE those colors on the left! So pretty.
I am so sorry to hear about your slip and the mess - ugh! Here’s the mat I put on my counter for all my projects. It cleans like a dream and recovers well from spills, even FO/EO.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096SJ4YFR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I know that era, my Moms kitchen, too. I wish I had more, but I do have 1 piece of Tupperware left from then. This was DHs Grandmas. I keep my measuring cups and spoons in it.
I actually do all my soaping outside on the patio on a stainless steel table. I did buy the silicone mat linked above by @dmcgee5034 (thank you for the recommendation!) and use it sometimes. It really can help with cleanup, depends on how messy my soaping day is. Of course planning for mess can be unpredictable.
Sorry you had a lye spill, that sounds awful.
I made one last swirly soap today. I'll cut it tomorrow and then decide which to submit. This one is out of the running. I left the bottom plain and used turmeric for the orange layer, indigo for the top. I poured it with the mold at an angle. My soap got too stiff and I didn't think it would swirl very well. I thought I probably made holes all over the inside, but it turned out much better than I thought. The only holes were along the edge of the mold.
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I’m so glad you weren’t hurt, but it sounds like it was awful to clean up. I think a lot of the YouTubers have a dedicated soaping space. A lot of the ones who don’t are much less messy than I am. I have a soaping space and have a cheap table that isn’t important to protect. I do reuse brown paper from shipments to cover the table, but that is more to help with clean up than to protect the table.
ETA if I cared about the surface I was soaping on, I would definitely protect it.
Your soaps are beautiful! Maybe I'll learn how to see what you see in the ones that didn't make the cut. I would have been thrilled with either of those!I made two Luna swirls for the challenge, but wasn’t thrilled with them because I used a white mica with titanium dioxide in it and ended up with teensy spots distributed through the soap.
The first soap is Lavender Mint with Lemongrass.
View attachment 77596
View attachment 77597
The second soap is scented with black raspberry vanilla. I finished by pushing the hanger from the top center to the bottom of the soap and out, which gave it a feather-like appearance.
View attachment 77599
View attachment 77600
When I was mixing the colors for the Luna swirl, the Cheshire Cat color portion got a little over blended, too thick, so it didn’t swirl throughout the soap as well as I had hoped. Maybe I’ll get it right next time?
@ScentimentallyYours Thank you so much for including the diagram of the figure 8 swirl in your entry. I kept trying to figure out how people were doing that when they would mention it in their descriptions. I am totally going to have to try that now! 
Thank you @akseattle! I just finished beveling a set of Dragon’s Blood bars, and they have the same teensy white speckles, much smaller than I normally would see before when I used a stick blender regularly. This week I got impatient and used a stick blender again instead of stirring by hand. My bad! Had I figured this out before putting the entry in, maybe I could’ve steamed the bubbles out. My entry was stirred by hand and has no air bubbles. I really couldn’t decide which of the three soaps I liked best so I chose the one without the bubbles, thinking the overall quality of the soap was better. Aside from the air bubbles, I was very happy with all three hanger swirl batches. I will try steaming a few bars to see if the speckles disappear.
Thank you @ackosel! I was happy with all 3 of the hanger swirl designs I did, but didn’t like the teensy white speckles that showed up in the 2 batches that I didn’t enter. If you check the batch I did enter, the overall quality of the soap is better because there are no white speckles. I originally thought the speckles came from titanium dioxide in the Luna swirls, but now I’m thinking they are miniature air bubbles from using the stick blender after adding the lye instead of hand stirring. I have been stick blending my oils together while very warm to get them thoroughly mixed, letting them sit until absolutely crystal clear (no bubbles of any size), then exclusively hand stirring once I add lye. That has been working for me, so from now on I’ll resist SB temptations in the latter 1/2 of the soaping process because I don’t like gambling with the results.
I’m glad that my drawing is helpful for you @McKherring Farm. On a previous challenge, the butterfly swirl, we were required to post the swirl pattern we used. I had been confused by people referring to figure 8s, too. I think of the pattern as a continuous series of cursive Ls. Since I do the pattern up and down, then sideways, I thought it would be helpful to demonstrate with the drawing. When doing the drawing and doing the swirl, the patterns look messy with all the crisscrosses. I think coming out from the bottom corner to the top corner opposite with the hanger at the end of the swirling made a real difference. The Black Raspberry Vanilla that I didn’t enter was just a series of circles moving down through the batter, but it benefited from first pulling the hanger all the way out, then pushing the hanger from the top center to the base and coming out the side to finish. Much more distinctive pattern. I never did a feather swirl, but I think that’s what the pattern is, more or less.@ScentimentallyYours Thank you so much for including the diagram of the figure 8 swirl in your entry. I kept trying to figure out how people were doing that when they would mention it in their descriptions. I am totally going to have to try that now!
The best thing about doing the illustration is that I can put it in my notebook for my own referral in the future.
akseattle
Well-Known Member
Ok, here are my two non-entries.
This first one, to be honest, I may like it better than my actual entry.
But. I was a little traumatized by my experience of trying to gel it in my oven.
Below, I posted the top of the loaf before I cut it. Strangely, at this point, the top has lost its spongy look at looks pretty good, like regular soap. But, this soap also has little tiny pock marks on the sides from when it overheated in my oven.
The first loaf was made with 2 separate batches of batter. The yellow was 15% palm oil and no colorant, the white, blue and grey (supposed to be black) replaced the 15% palm oil with tallow.
For the second effort made last week, I decided use the same recipe that had palm oil. I kept everything the same but I reduced the palm oil to 12%. I knew that the icicle blue mica would turn out green, but thought I'd hang with it. I knew I'd have to use TD to get white.
Its okay, but I didn't like the TD. It just doesn't look right. But, I liked the shape of the swirl on the bottom half of the second loaf. In a way, the bottom part of the design was more successful that the bottom on my entry.
This first one, to be honest, I may like it better than my actual entry.
But. I was a little traumatized by my experience of trying to gel it in my oven.
Below, I posted the top of the loaf before I cut it. Strangely, at this point, the top has lost its spongy look at looks pretty good, like regular soap. But, this soap also has little tiny pock marks on the sides from when it overheated in my oven.
The first loaf was made with 2 separate batches of batter. The yellow was 15% palm oil and no colorant, the white, blue and grey (supposed to be black) replaced the 15% palm oil with tallow.
For the second effort made last week, I decided use the same recipe that had palm oil. I kept everything the same but I reduced the palm oil to 12%. I knew that the icicle blue mica would turn out green, but thought I'd hang with it. I knew I'd have to use TD to get white.
Its okay, but I didn't like the TD. It just doesn't look right. But, I liked the shape of the swirl on the bottom half of the second loaf. In a way, the bottom part of the design was more successful that the bottom on my entry.
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