November 2018 Challenge (December Inspiration) Entry Thread

[amd]

This is the Official Entry Thread for the November 2018 SMF Challenge - December Inspiration Soap

Please post your entry soap photos here. You may introduce your entry as desired, with a backstory or description of your soap, recipe, fragrance, experience with the technique or process also.

Multiple photo's are welcome, but only one photo can be submitted for the challenge, so if you are including extra photo's, please indicate which photo is your entry photo. In the absence of such indication, one of the photo's will be chosen as the entry photo from the selection you have posted.

This thread is limited to challenge photo's only. All comments, comments, critiques or compliments can be made in the original challenge thread (here) and not in this competitor's Entry Thread. Thank you.

After the closing date (November 27th 11:59 pm GMT) a URL and the password for voting at Survey Monkey will be sent to all members who signed up for the Challenge.

The winner will be announced on November 30th. There is no prize attached to this challenge.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this Month's Soap Challenge!

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

Now for the exciting part - the photo's! ...

 

[msunnerstood]

My December inspiration is my Swedish By Proxy Heritage. Im not Swedish but my Husband, and of course My Children are (My Daughter is fluent). His family is very traditional at Christmas time so Christmas eve if full of Tomte, Dahla Horses, Lingonberries and unfortunately, Lutefisk. I have learned all the traditions and the songs (Yes, there is a Swedish Birthday Song)

My Soap is an HP Swedish Egg White Recipe (If Im gonna go, may as well be all in) it is scented with my own blend to imitate lingonberries and is colored with the colors of the Swedish Flag, Blue and Yellow. (The horse on top is actually red and is a guest soap I also made to go with the regular bars but its night and my lighting stinks)

I stamped the front of the soap with a Dahla Horse cookie cutter dipped in Yellow Mica

I swirled the top in blue and yellow to match the theme.

I plan to give them to his family members this year.

 

[Misschief]

December always makes me think of scrunchy snow and the smell of pine trees. This is a reverse secret feather swirl and the soap is scented with White Christmas FO.

 

[Zing]

My entry cold process soap is Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh, inspired by Christmas and the royal gifts presented to a baby of humble birth. I used prepared coffee (with distilled water) to darken the colorants. It is scented with frankincense, myrrh, orange 10X, and cedarwood essential oils. I used a wall pour. And I learned a little bit of gold mica goes a long way. Happy Holidays!

My entry is the first photo.

 

[earlene]

My December Inspired soap plan changed as the result of my sudden trip to California for my step-mother's funeral service. Because I expected to return home sooner, my first plan depended on the soap I left behind. But plans changed and I stayed longer, therefore I had to start from scratch buying whatever I could find here in the Santa Cruz mountains that would suffice. And having no colorants or fragrances with me, presented a problem that I had to solve as well.

As it turns out, this provided me with the perfect opportunity to make pine tar soap for the first time because it gave me color and a scent that would tie in with the new design concept. Finding pine tar here was harder than I expected, but on my third try and with the help of an employee at the Feed Store, I had the only tin of Pine Tar for several towns around. The oil selections here were even more limited than the pine tar selection, so after a couple of different trips to adjacent counties, I had enough ingredients to make the pine tar soap that is enclosed in the white soapy exterior you see pictured below. I love the fragrance of this pine tar! I must have really lucked out and got the best of the pine tar for making soap, as I've read some smells really horrible. This has a nice smokey fragrance that I am really enjoying more than I ever thought I would considering all I've read.

My goal with the white outer soap and the sparkly glittery mica, I was fortunate enough to find, was to create a snowy surface. I used my finger to rub the surface to give a shine to represent the look of snow as it sparkles in the sun.

My two Intaglio carved December-inspired soaps have a wintery sceen commonly seen around many parts of the world, although not many folks actually have the opportunity to see the cones that fall from Redwood Trees, as they are native only in this part of the world. But they look a lot like tiny Pine Cones, and I believe a lot more people are familiar with that look, as well as the snow-glistening tree on the other soap.

But my favorite is the Redwood Cones Intaglio - Pine Tar Soap. Given that my color palette had to change so much, I think it turned out very nicely and the smokey pine tar scent goes very well with this theme.

I may do more Intaglio carvings on the remaining soaps, but for now, this is my entry.

 

[mommycarlson]

My entry is scented with Festival of Lights from CC. I wanted the look of Christmas lights in the snow. It did not turn out quite like I'd hoped, but since I broke my foot 3 weeks ago, I don't get a re-do! The red is starting to bleed, but that just gives it the look of a light covered in snow right?

 

[dibbles]

One of the things I like best about winter is how the snow will reflect the moonlight at night and being able to see into the wooded areas. In December, I am not yet sick of the snow, and there is something magical about the first few snowfalls. I used an ebru technique to create the horizon and the trees. The sky and ground were in the pot swirls with a wall pour down a center divider. The moon was an embed. And that is the part I will change when I remake this. The embed caused the soap around it to sink. The soap is still too soft to plane, and I am quite sure that to plane enough off to get a smooth surface I will lose the trees. So, since the soap is soft I attempted to fill in the space around the moon with some trimmings, using it like soap dough. Challenges are for learning! And I knocked ebru off my to try list as well. The little round soap was made from left over batter.

 

[amd]

Entries are now closed! I will send out the survey link for voting in a few hours. Please watch your PM.

 

[SaltedFig]

After the closing date (November 27th 11:59 pm GMT) ...

Entries are now closed! I will send out the survey link for voting in a few hours. Please watch your PM.

The time now is 4:19pm GMT ... you are a little early amd.

 

[amd]

@SaltedFig Doh! Thanks! I was panicking that I was running late. I totally converted the time wrong (I was thinking 5am CST, not 5pm) I appreciate keeping me in line.

That said... entries are still open for a few more hours! I will send the link later tonight.

 

[SaltedFig]

@amd Just a little super efficiency kicking in ... now you have plenty of time!

 

[amd]

Here's how the votes tallied up!
@dibbles - 1st place
@Misschief and @mommycarlson tied for 2nd place
@msunnerstood and @earlene tied for 3rd place
@Zing is right behind for 4th place

Seriously close voting for all of the places! Great job ladies and gents! I loved them all.

 

[KimT2au]

Ooohhh, well done ladies. Those are wonderful soaps.

 

[Misschief]

Ooohhh, well done ladies. Those are wonderful soaps.

Psst.... zing is a guy.

 

[Zing]

Psst.... zing is a guy.

LOL

 

[KimT2au]

Psst.... zing is a guy.

Ooops, sorry. Well done Ladies and Gentleman.