SMF April 2020 Challenge - Strainer Pour/Pull Through Technique

[Jersey Girl]

These are the batches I made that I didn’t choose as my entry. First and third ones used hair dryer diffuser. Middle

one used dishwasher basket part.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Here’s my third attempt at a round pull through soap. I just cut the soaps and they not cleaned up at all. I used a Pringle’s can and made a pull through device using a piece of plastic, heavy weight thread I bought to use for sashiko embroidery, and clear packing tape. String art soap! Using a short cylinder of plastic let me get around the issue of a strainer or other tool tipping in the mold. I used natural colorants - plant indigo in olive oil (Baphicacanthus from Nurture), which turned green, activated charcoal in OO for the black, rose clay in water for the pink, and uncolored base for the white. The emulsion was too thin for my two previous attempts with natural colorants and the colors came out very blurry. I ended up spending an entire evening trying to decide what trace to use for string this thin. In the end I settled on bringing the batter to what I hoped was just before trace using a recipe that I know behaves pretty well.

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[bookreader451]

So many creative gadgets for this challenge. I don't have those kinds of things laying around the house. When I can cruise the dollar store again I am going to look for stuff to try this again. I would like something for a loaf mold. I don’t even have a plastic notebook cover here.

 

[Veggiebin]

@Mobjack Bay this is an addicting technique for sure! I’ve tried it three times in the past, once for the Soap Challenge Club, and my results have varied greatly. So many variables that play into getting a good result! My mind is always thinking about items and whether it would work for this technique...

 

[Veggiebin]

@Mobjack Bay Wow! I’m impressed with your creativity! And I personally think those soaps are amazing!!! Better than some of my attempts

 

[Jersey Girl]

I love the ingenuity everyone exhibited. I went to the dollar store two days ago. I had resisted going anywhere for weeks but I just had to get out. There were so many things there that I could have used for this technique! All kinds of plastic baskets that could have been cut up to fit molds. I bought A couple things but decided I wasn’t going to make any more for the challenge as I was happy enough with what I ended up making. Here are some of the things I found though. It’s amazing how I look at things so differently since I started soaping. I also bought these refrigerator storage bins that I’m going to try as molds.

 

[SoapSisters]

@Mobjack Bay I LOVE your round soaps! Love the natural colors! They look organic, in the sense of looking at something under a microscope. Very cool!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

One more set of soaps for the record. When my batter for the first batch started to thicken I switched to Plan B, a line/plop pour in a little slab mold that finished up with a swirled top (techniques I learned for an SMF line pour challenge last fall ). I used a faux funnel pour for the second batch, concentrating the pours over the largest flowers. I like it, but will aim for more contrast in the flowers if I make this soap again. The pull through is made from the side of another plastic basket I had In the house.

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[Jersey Girl]

One more set of soaps for the record. When my batter for the first batch started to thicken I switched to Plan B, a line/plop pour in a little slab mold that finished up with a swirled top (techniques I learned for an SMF line pour challenge last fall ). I used a faux funnel pour for the second batch, concentrating the pours over the largest flowers. I like it, but will aim for more contrast in the flowers if I make this soap again. The pull through is made from the side of another plastic basket I had In the house.

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That is an awesome pull through tool! Love the design. It really is tricky getting the color contrast and the consistency just right. They are very cool looking. I really love the swirly one especially!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@Mobjack Bay I LOVE your round soaps! Love the natural colors! They look organic, in the sense of looking at something under a microscope. Very cool!

Haha, I spent about 1/4 of my adult life looking through a microscope!

 

[Primrose]

Hopefully my conversion is correct and we still have about 8 hrs to go. I have another attempt in the mould and an alarm set for the morning to cut and photograph it. I think it's the best of my attempts thus far, but if not I do have an alternative entry too. Good luck to everyone still working last minute like I am!

 

[Jersey Girl]

Here’s my third attempt at a round pull through soap. I just cut the soaps and they not cleaned up at all. I used a Pringle’s can and made a pull through device using a piece of plastic, heavy weight thread I bought to use for sashiko embroidery, and clear packing tape. String art soap! Using a short cylinder of plastic let me get around the issue of a strainer or other tool tipping in the mold. I used natural colorants - plant indigo in olive oil (Baphicacanthus from Nurture), which turned green, activated charcoal in OO for the black, rose clay in water for the pink, and uncolored base for the white. The emulsion was too thin for my two previous attempts with natural colorants and the colors came out very blurry. I ended up spending an entire evening trying to decide what trace to use for string this thin. In the end I settled on bringing the batter to what I hoped was just before trace using a recipe that I know behaves pretty well.

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I love how these are all so different in their design, and I really love the creativity designing your tool! Very cool!

 

[bookreader451]

What was your batter consistency was when you poured? I began to pour at a very light trace on the two that actually looked okay and the sludge puppy was poured too thin. On my third attempt I was still able to pour at the end as my batter stayed pretty fluid throughout. I had a long steel attachment that I poured down on the third try. The others I used a funnel.

 

[SoapSisters]

@Jersey Girl : I'm interested to know what kind of a pour you did for your entry soap. It's stunning!

 

[Jersey Girl]

@Jersey Girl : I'm interested to know what kind of a pour you did for your entry soap. It's stunning!

Thank you! I think for this one I used my little 2lb loaf mold and poured it alternating colors at each end (the short ends) of the mold using squeeze bottles. I’m not sure what that technique is called!

 

[Adri71]

Here’s my third attempt at a round pull through soap. I just cut the soaps and they not cleaned up at all. I used a Pringle’s can and made a pull through device using a piece of plastic, heavy weight thread I bought to use for sashiko embroidery, and clear packing tape. String art soap! Using a short cylinder of plastic let me get around the issue of a strainer or other tool tipping in the mold. I used natural colorants - plant indigo in olive oil (Baphicacanthus from Nurture), which turned green, activated charcoal in OO for the black, rose clay in water for the pink, and uncolored base for the white. The emulsion was too thin for my two previous attempts with natural colorants and the colors came out very blurry. I ended up spending an entire evening trying to decide what trace to use for string this thin. In the end I settled on bringing the batter to what I hoped was just before trace using a recipe that I know behaves pretty well.

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I'm in love with your soap! They look like a MRI of the brain, so cool and understated. Your materials are awesome.

 

[Sonya-m]

@Belindasuds your soap is beautiful! What did you pull through tool look like please?

 

[Belindasuds]

@Belindasuds your soap is beautiful! What did you pull through tool look like please?

Thank you very much, @Sonya-m! I'm so glad you like it. I'll be releasing more details on the tool and design soon

 

[Primrose]

So now I have uploaded my entry, here are the other soaps I ended up with through this process. My entry was attempt #1 funnily enough, done with a mini colander and a faux funnel pour.

Attempt #2 was done with a full size veggie strainer and scented in BB Applejack peel. Also done with a faux funnel pour

Attempt #3 was also using a full size kitchen colander but with round holes instead of verticle slits, I wondered if that would make a difference. Im still not sure to be honest as I did an ITPS for this one which looked amazing but then when poured through the colander it all blended together. scented in BB coastal rain

Attempt #4. Poured through a plastic vegetable slicer, by this time I'm thinking verticle slits work better than holes. I like the pattern better but I I did an ITPS again and again I wasn't happy with the results as they muddled going through the pour through tools. Scented with BB Energy

Attempt # ... ? 5 I think? Was individual round moulds with a variety of sink strainers as pull through tools. Mostly a failure but this one was the best of a bad bunch. Scented in Eroma's Alpine Oak and Vetiver - absolutely devine but discolours. I put the fragrance only in the black and dark blue portions but as you can see some has bled across

Attempt #6 was using an actual silicon sink strainer! Purchased on eBay - in Australia for our Aussie members. I really do think that this one gives the best results and I am going to try it out again later today. For this one I did a faux funnel pour again, having decided by this stage that an ITPS doesn't work as well. Scented with Lavender and patchouli essential oils, and a different recipe to my usual one - this is goat milk soap with goat tallow and jojoba. I like the patterns but not the intensity of the colours. This was my first time experimenting with natural plant colourants so this has indigo, madder root and allanet root infused in olive oil. Quite happy with it as a first play with these colours as I had no idea what to expect

To summarise since I know this is a very long post - my take home lessons were:

- faux funnel pour works better than an ITPS
- the correct tool definitely yields better results

The other things I learned:

- I had to plane A LOT of soap away in order to find a nice pattern, which is probably the main reason I probably won't use this technique regularly. I don't often make confetti soap etc and now I have an absolute mountain of soap scraps.
- I found that at the start of the pour the pattern was beautiful, however as I continued to pour, when my slab mould filled up and the soap started to hit the edges and accumulate, it started to mess with the lovely intricate pattern I previously had
- for that reason, I can see myself using this technique as a very thin layer to decorate the top of a loaf of soap (which I might try a knit later today) rather than using it in a slab mould as the actual bar of soap. I think pouring it as a thin layer would work to the patterns advantage without having to plane away a heap of soap

Thanks again for the challenge and we'll done to everyone who participated!

 

[dibbles]

Great job everybody! I'm so impressed with the creativity and the results are so wonderful. I'll be working on getting the voting survey ready tonight and will email you with the link and password as soon as I can.

Thanks to you all - I hope you had fun!