Ribbon Pour

[newbie]

I've been having a lot of fun with this pour so I thought I'd make a video and post it, if people are interested in it. Of course, it is one of the time it didn't go as well as hoped for, since I was pouring in a round mold for the first time and I used an accelerating FO that got kind of ricey. I was using Really Red so I gelled, which was a mistake I should have known to avoid. Ah well. It's not terrible to see the good with the bad.

Sorry I'm kind of choppy but I was tired.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xVa7xxQIQk[/ame]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbmjK5UYeXA[/ame]

And some pics of some different pours.

 

[CTAnton]

Newbie, many thanks for putting this all together. Great technique with some interesting effects. I'm partial to green so I'm a partial judge but I LOVE the green soap!

 

[shunt2011]

Those are awesome looking. Thanks for sharing the process!

 

[Rowan]

Thanks so much for sharing this, it's a really interesting technique and I love the different patterns you achieved. I love the effect on your top brown soap and the colours on your green soap! You have a little creature poking it's head out, on the bottom left of the bottom green soap!!

 

[Cindy2428]

Awesome!

 

[mzimm]

Oh my! I can't wait to try. Thank you so much for doing the videos and sharing your observations. They're beautiful, and present so many possibilities for color and effect.

 

[BattleGnome]

I had a thought about a wood grain soap. Thank you for sharing a technique before I could ask

 

[HowieRoll]

Thank you so much for sharing! My husband came in and saw the picture of soap on the cutting video and said, whoa, that is so cool!

 

[cmzaha]

WOW!!! Those are fantastic

 

[Susie]

Did you grease that bottle before pouring that soap in? I think your using the lye bottle is sheer genius. I do not like Pringles enough to eat them to use for a mold. Is this is also reusable?

 

[Steve85569]

Awesome!!
Now I'm gonna have to try it. I know it won't go as smoothly for me but still...

Did you grease that bottle before pouring that soap in? I think your using the lye bottle is sheer genius. I do not like Pringles enough to eat them to use for a mold. Is this is also reusable?

A piece of 2" PVC or ABS pipe lined with freezer paper ( butcher paper) works very well too. PVC is the white stuff and ABS is the black stuff at the hardware store.

 

[Guspuppy]

Wonderful!

And here I was thinking I could get by without buying one of those funnel spout mixing things!! I was so wrong....

 

[newbie]

I hope some people give it a go. The looks you can get are practically endless and it can also be a good technique to get lots of fine lines, if you pour straight, that can then be your set-up for a swirl.

Susie, you can make a lye bottle reusable but it takes a bit more effort to get the soap out. It can be worth it though because you don't have to do anything to the plastic, like grease it. I cut the very top off with the neck to use them as rounds. When you go to unmold, the soap has to be very firm and you do have to be careful that the part you cut doesn't have any burrs or bends or it will leave marks on the soap as it slides out. I use the tip of a knife on the bottom, twisting it around until I've drilled a small hole in the bottom to prevent a vacuum and then kind of knead the bottle so I can see that it is away from the soap around the periphery. The next part can take a bit of work but you have to shake it a bunch of times, open side down, to get the soap to start sliding out. Once enough of it is out, you can get a hold of it and pull it out slowly. To reuse, I just take a small piece of soap from that batch and use it to plug the hole. It's easy to use the knife again to scrape it out.

It is definitely not as easy as peeling a Pringles can off a soap, nor as easy as being able to use a tool to push a soap out of a PVC. The sizes/heights I used in the video were super easy to unmold but if you use a whole bottle, getting it out requires all the shaking and cajoling. Still, I always have a lye bottle around so even if I get frustrated and decide to slice it lengthwise to make it easy and ruin the bottle as a mold, I'll have another coming along sometime soon.

 

[Arimara]

I want to try this for Christmas. Now I have a plan for my birthday.

 

[earlene]

Newbie, I have been trying to master the ribbon pour and am having more difficulty than I expected. Considering how many times I had to do Auntie Clara's Ghost Swirl technique before I felt comfortable with my results, I am not surprised. But so far it's just not coming together as well as I'd like.

The first time, my batter was too thin so the lines were not distinctive. The second time, my batter was too thick by the time I started pouring, so the lines were not lines so much as blobs of color. The third time, I think my batter was at the right consistency, but I had problems with my pouring container (I overfilled it & had to dump some batter into one mold really fast before it spilled over) and I have not yet cut the second mold yet because the soap is still a bit soft. So I don't know if the lines are going to be as distinct as I want.

Are there any pointers you can share to help find that 'sweet spot' of batter thickness that will provide the clearly distinct ribbon lines?

I have watched you video a couple of times, and will watch it again before my next attempt, of course. I really want to get that wood-grain look that you have in your soaps in the 3rd picture down. It is beautiful!

 

[newbie]

I've had the exact same things happen. My last one was too thin and let me tell you, if you have the wrong combo of colors in the pouring pot, it can look rather dreadful. I have to remember to use only colors that if blended a little, come out to another acceptable color.

It's so hard to describe texture and thickness in words. I pour the colors in order into the pouring container when they are at light trace or just a bit thicker. By that, I mean that when I drizzle some soap on top, it has just started to leave slightly raised marks. If it's sitting fully on top of the rest or it can mound up, it might be too late. My best pours have been when I pour the first amount in that fills the bottom and then as I pour the rest, it starts to sit on top of the first amount. If it's too thin, it will just keep pushing the other colors over into thinner streaks. When I pour, I've had the best looks when the batter is pouring like very heavy cream- it should look smooth and pour smoothly, and stay more or less in the shape of the spout end. If it is spreading like mad on the bottom of the mold, it's too thin. It should very softly sit of top of what you already poured and spread/relax a little- no hard edges or distinct edges.

I'm trying to think of something that's the right texture that everyone would know. It should be maybe about the thickness and softness of melted tempered chocolate that you can dip centers in and then drop a little on top to get that nice little squiggly detail. If I think of a better example, I'll post it.

It really pays to use an FO that you are very familiar with and gives you time to stir and wait until the sweet spot.

 

[earlene]

Melted tempered chocolate? So do I need to use a recipe with cocoa butter?

I looked on YouTube for something to show me what melted tempered chocolate should look like and although is looks tasty, I don't find an example of dipped centers with squiggly detail. But I did find some tasty looking chocolatey things!

I think maybe I should try a few more times with one pound batches and no FO until I can get this right. It might help to get the feel of it that way, and after a couple or so successful pours with smaller fragrance-free batches, maybe then I'll start with the FO's again. It's always nice to have a few fragrance-free soaps on hand anyway.

ETA: After cutting the next 18 bars of beautiful soaps, I think I may have a good reference point for how I want the batter to be before pouring next time. I think by looking at the bars I cut that the TD-colored batter was right where I wanted it to be, but the rest had not achieved the right thickness yet. Since TD always thickens the batter faster than any of the other colorants I use, I'll try mixing all the other colors first and when they get to the consistency of heavy cream, then I'll mix the Soap batter into the TD last. I think that might get me to the point where all colors are at the right thickness at the same time. Maybe I will give that a go tomorrow.

 

[maya]

Oh beautiful! Thank you!~

 

[CaraBou]

Some of your soaps do remind me of ribbon candy. But my fav is the green soap. So pretty!

 

[mzimm]

Newbie, would you and the mods consider making this one of the future SMF challenge techniques?