SMF April 2020 Challenge Entry Thread - Strainer Pour/Pull Through Technique

[dibbles]

This is the Entry Thread for the April 2020 challenge: strainer pour/pull through technique. This thread is limited to challenge entries only. Post all comments in the original challenge thread here: SMF April 2020 Challenge - Strainer Pour/Pull Through Technique

Please post your entry soap photos here. You may post as many photos of your entry as you like. If you post more than one photo, please put the one you would like to be used for the voting survey first. You are welcome and encouraged to include any details you would like to share regarding the creation of your entry, such as technique, design inspiration, fragrance, recipe notes, etc.

The entry thread and challenge sign up will remain open until April 26 at 11:59 pm GMT. 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 April 27, 2020 until April 29, 2020 and the winner will be announced on April 30, 2020. There is no prize attached to this challenge.

Good luck everyone!

 

[glendam]

For the first time I made the soap early enough to post it when this thread opened. I made the screen with polymer clay and a small hexagon cutter. Originally I was going for a honeycomb design. For the colors I was inspired on the fabric of a skirt I saw at goodwill once, and decided to try Lemongrass Mint from Crafter's choice as I had read it behaved well. (And it smells very similar to Eucalyptus Mint, but softer). I used a loaf mold and then cut the bars horizontally to be able to see the pattern.
I had first tried this method in the soap challenge club on a slab mold, about a year ago and I had every intention to try again but had not, I like that this challenge motivated me to do try again.

 

[jcandleattic]

PFFT whatever. The strainer I thought was going to work didn't work at all, (will post those pics in the signup thread later) but here is my entry - '
Colors are pink/purple/white.

 

[MarnieSoapien]

I've been waiting for this challenge! I was super excited to try it but time was against me. I only made one attempt and it turned out alright. My soap was still softer than I wanted when I cut it this morning and I have only cleaned it up minimally. Anyway, I used a FO called Fairy Dust, TD, Yellow and Terracotta micas. I modified a little plastic basket that had tomatoes in it to use as my pull through device.

 

[SoapSisters]

I improvised on a pull-through tool to make do with what I already had at home (lock-down blues ). I used a plastic spiral notebook cover that I punched and cut holes in. I'll post a picture in the challenge thread. The soap I chose for my entry is cut horizontally, although I also got interesting vertical cuts. I'll post those as well. Scented with lavender-litsea EO blend.

 

[Sonya-m]

I’m attempting one more today but I suspect it won’t be ready to cut before the deadline so this 2nd attempt is my entry (unless I do have time to cut attempt 3 and like it more).
I think this is pretty though; looks like a bunch of roses

Just to add, this is scented with Almond Marzipan.

 

[Misschief]

Here's my entry and a picture of my pull through tool, from a gherkin (pickle) jar. It fit perfectly in the 3" tube, which is the core from a roll of blueprint paper. I used three colours, blue, green, and white. For some reason, the TD in the white didn't disperse as well as I thought it had and speckles of white are all through the soap. I scented it with Caribbean Escape, which I know plays nicely but does discolour slightly. It's not obvious in this picture but in some of the bars, I can already see the white turning a pale tan.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Here's my entry and a picture of my pull through tool, from a gherkin (pickle) jar. It fit perfectly in the 3" tube, which is the core from a roll of blueprint paper. I used three colours, blue, green, and white. For some reason, the TD in the white didn't disperse as well as I thought it had and speckles of white are all through the soap. I scented it with Caribbean Escape, which I know plays nicely but does discolour slightly. It's not obvious in this picture but in some of the bars, I can already see the white turning a pale tan.

View attachment 45428View attachment 45429

That is very cool! I have never seen anything like that in a pickle jar! Perfect tool!

 

[dibbles]

Just a reminder, this thread is for entries only. Please make comments in the main challenge thread.

 

[szaza]

So, since there's a tiny bit of color difference visible in the white portion of the soap, my first try is actually following the guidelines of the challenge -contrary to what I initially thought- so I'll enter that one as it's a lot better looking than my second attempt.

These were the colorants I wanted to use:

Indigo, spirulina infusion and uncolored soap.

A little while back I found a big jar of almond oil that had gone bad because I was saving it for some special soap (that never happened), so I've recently been soaping with a few luxury oils to protect them from the same fate. In this batch I used argan at 15% in this recipe. Unfortunately I had forgotten how dark argan is and in my panic I dumped a whole lot of white clay into my oils, in the hopes of saving my colors.

The clay made the base color of my soap quite nice looking, but it also significantly diminished the green from my spirulina infusion. If you look very closely there's a small color gradient within the white of the soap.. not really green, but it's a third color (I blame the easter bunny for hiding it too well! )


So that's my entry, scented with salient from eocalc. The mold was an old isostar powder box, pull through tool was made from wire spirals as per @Sonya-m

 

[Mobjack Bay]

After making more than a few batches for this challenge, my first attempt is still my favorite. I used a loaf mold and cut the bars horizontally. The pull through screen was made from the side of a plastic basket I had in the house. The colors were first layered in a funnel pitcher and then poured down the long side of the mold. I tried adding gold mica layers to create a bit of sparkle throughout the soap, but they were mostly pushed off to one side as I added batter. You can see a bit of the gold in the middle soap, where it maybe looks like dragonflies, but most of it ended up along one side of the loaf.

​

ETA: the blue is a mixture of Klein Blue and Kashmir with a little ultramarine blue mixed in. The turquoise blue is Peacock Blue and the white is Winter White. All micas are from Nurture. The soap is scented with litsea.

 

[Jersey Girl]

After combing my house for something I could use as a pull through tool I decided I couldn’t find anything appropriate. Then, while making the bed one morning I spied it...my hair dryer diffuser. I had to disassemble it, but it was perfect! I made my first batch with it. I used a paint bucket as the mold as it fit in the bottom perfectly. Because it was a big round mold it was a bit weird to cut. I liked it but I thought I might be able to do better. Then I spied the basket that holds the small items in my dishwasher. After Disassembling that and cutting it to fit a mold I tried again and that result is ultimately my entry. After that I made two more batches one with the diffuser and one more with the dishwasher basket. I’ll put those in the non-entry thread. I like them all but my kids decided this one was the coolest.

I used TD, Tickled Pink and Black Iron Oxide from MM as color. Scented with Peppermint EO. I’m calling it Monster Mash. Lol
Ill post the others in the other thread.

 

[Anstarx]

I made 3D printed pull through tool for the first time! Or I tried 3D printing for the first time in general.
I did 3 attempts and unfortunately my favorite one was distorted when I tried to CPOP. This one is...acceptable. It was a fun experience anyway! I'm still trying to figure out the right timing and trace and will definitely do more of this.
Scented with lemongrass FO.

 

[bookreader451]

Just cut my entry. I used the epic colors from Nurture and it is scented with lemongrass EO. It reminds of the 70’s flower power.

 

[Veggiebin]

Here is my entry. I made it using a paper plate holder I had kicking around. The pour was a column pour because I was concerned there would not be enough movement through to make the side bars interesting. The colors I used were rose clay, charcoal and chlorophyll, left some natural. The scent was a combination of citrus, sandalwood and ylang ylang. I apologize if this is too many pics!

 

[amd]

Coming in just under the wire as every tool I tried failed the pancake batter test - UNTIL hubby came home with "I bought this for you I hope it works". My batter always traces quickly, even using Royalty Soaps recipe (which I did for this challenge). I used M&M turquoise blue, magic yellow, and white satin, and used Crafters Choice Endless Love Type (old formula). My batter was a medium trace, so I had to pull slowly, but it wasn't horrible. I used a PVC pipe that was twice the height (24" for a 16 oz oil recipe) so I think that helped me get the strainer pulled through without removing all the soap. Because I made this at 5pm cst on Saturday, I forced a hard gel with a heating pad on high for 3-4 hours, then left it wrapped in towels overnight. It unmolded and cut beautifully at 11am.

 

[Belindasuds]

This will most likely be my entry, but I have 2 more creations that are still in their molds – so excited to slice them! I may have to be patient and slice them tomorrow though. We shall see.

I created a new Spiral Soap Shaper for this soap. My designs begin as sketches and are then crafted in vector format before being processed digitally for production with my 3D printer.

In terms of recipe, I went with my palm-free vegan blend (coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter, olive oil, avocado oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil, castor oil) with some oat milk added to the mix. Scented with Lilly Lemon Drop from Bramble Berry – it's my first time using this scent and it was perfect for this project – zero acceleration so I had plenty of time for all the pours. Colours: Raspberry Mica (Bramble Berry), Electric Bubble Gum (Bramble Berry), Klein Blue Mica (Nurture Soap), Lemon Drop Mica (Nurture Soap).

My aim with this design and colour scheme was to pour clean, sharp and most importantly, separate colours. It's always a little risky if your trace is too thin, the colours can start mixing together, so I slowly pushed the trace to light medium and thankfully it stayed there for the entire pour.

What I learned:
Parallel cuts on PVC pipes make a difference. My handmade mold was slight off-kilter (i.e. leaning slightly to one side) due to me to cutting by hand (crazy I know lol). Loving the slightly asymmetric finish to the design though and that the matching "faces" are all slightly different.

Thanks for inspiring me to push myself this weekend. So happy to be soaping <3

 

[Primrose]

Here is my entry for this month's challenge. I had four attempts using different tools I found around the house for a pour through..I had one more planned which I think will be good but past the deadline.

For this soap I used a mini colander purchased at Kmart in Australia - I know some of the members said they struggled to find suitable pour through tools in Aus.

Goats milk soap, scented with Eroma's Little Black Dress and coloured with mica. I did a faux funnel pour into the colander for this one.

The back of the bars looks quite different, which was interesting

I think these two are my favourite, mostly the one on the left. They remind me somehow of feathers.

Thank you to Dibbles for the challenge, it was something I hadn't tried before and I had a lot of fun with it

 

[Rogue-Soaper]

For this challenge, I used half of a whiffle ball (yes, I stole it from the dog..err...re-purposed.. re-purposed yeah thats my story) with thread tied through the holes. Without running to the store, my selection of pull through items to use was slim. I used three micas in addition to TD and Activated charcoal and a 3 inch PCV pipe as a mold.
I had the pipe on the counter, it was too high, next time I will place the pipe on a lower surface to hopefully control the wobble. The fronts and back are different. It was really fun. but now I am obsessed with looking for things I can use a pull through tool.

 

[dibbles]

Congratulations to the winners for the April challenge:

First Place - @Belindasuds
Second Place - @Mobjack Bay
Third Place - @Sonya-m

Thank you to everyone who played this month. You all showed so much creativity, and the soaps you made were wonderful!