SMF February 2021 Challenge - Circling Taiwan Swirl

[SPowers]

Sign Up List:

1. jcandleattic - hopefully will have time to do this one.
2. Misschief - been wanting to do this again for a while
3. KimW - One I've been wanting to try! Yippeeeee
4. GemstonePony - I love this swirl!
5. DKing - I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with
6. catscankim - been wanting to learn this one!
7. AMD - I've been wanting to get "around" to doing this technique again
8. violets2217 - Gonna face my fears! This Challenge and the swirl! Plus, gives me another reason to make soap I don't need.
9. SideDoorSoaps - I’ve had dividers for awhile; I should try this!
10. Vicki C - never tried this but have watched plenty of videos - mesmerizing!
11. S Powers - this has never been my fave design but I love the extra swirl action.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Keep it simple, especially for your first time. I'll be making mine today.

I‘m quite bad at keeping things simple!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Fixing the list to add @SPowers to the end of the last version of the list before she signed on:

Sign Up List:

1. jcandleattic - hopefully will have time to do this one.
2. Misschief - been wanting to do this again for a while
3. KimW - One I've been wanting to try! Yippeeeee
4. GemstonePony - I love this swirl!
5. DKing - I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with
6. catscankim - been wanting to learn this one!
7. AMD - I've been wanting to get "around" to doing this technique again
8. violets2217 - Gonna face my fears! This Challenge and the swirl! Plus, gives me another reason to make soap I don't need.
9. SideDoorSoaps - I’ve had dividers for awhile; I should try this!
10. Vicki C - never tried this but have watched plenty of videos - mesmerizing!
11. linne1gi - I’ve done this before, but not well! I’d like to be better.
12. The_Emerald_Chicken - Was excited to see this swirl as the monthly challenge!
13. Louise Taylor. Never tried this technique and always wanted to try.
14. Mobjack - I’m in.
15. S Powers - this has never been my fave design but I love the extra swirl action.

 

[SPowers]

sorry... I'm bad at looking a page numbers! Thanks for fixing.

 

[AliOop]

In two years of soap making, I have not attempted to make a taiwan swirl because I’m too lazy to make the dividers. I broke down and bought this little 8” mold. When I opened it, I discovered that I have a choice between 3 or 4 dividers. Now I will have option paralysis!

Where did you find that mold? I like that it is small AND has dividers. Not that I need another mold... I should just go make dividers from some cardboard in the garage. You know, the cardboard from all the OTHER soap deliveries.

 

[linne1gi]

In two years of soap making, I have not attempted to make a taiwan swirl because I’m too lazy to make the dividers. I broke down and bought this little 8” mold. When I opened it, I discovered that I have a choice between 3 or 4 dividers. Now I will have option paralysis!

View attachment 53812

I just picked up this little mold and I'm loving it!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@AliOop it’s this one on Amazon. Interior is 3.5” wide x 2.5” deep by 8” long.

Dada Box 40oz Loaf Soap Silicone Mold Dividers 8" Acrylic Partition Clapboard Rectangular White Mould DIY Handmade Swirl Making Tool
by Dada Box
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087YKS2CS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QJKBBJD3A821DCJZEDX2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I estimated I need 900 g of oil to be on the safe side, which yields 45 oz total batch weight with my recipe. I guess that’s how they got the 40 oz size.

 

[linne1gi]

@AliOop it’s this one on Amazon. Interior is 3.5” wide x 2.5” deep by 8” long.

Dada Box 40oz Loaf Soap Silicone Mold Dividers 8" Acrylic Partition Clapboard Rectangular White Mould DIY Handmade Swirl Making Tool
by Dada Box
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087YKS2CS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QJKBBJD3A821DCJZEDX2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I estimated I need 900 g of oil to be on the safe side, which yields 45 oz total batch weight with my recipe. I guess that’s how they got the 40 oz size.

If you do the math, it comes out to 28 ounces of oils. 8X2.5X3.5X.4=28. When I enter 28 ounces into SoapCalc, with my regular recipe - I get a total of 42 ounces.

 

[AliOop]

@Mobjack Bay thank you! I love how their ad uses pictures from Tree Marie's Taiwan swirl video, along with other soaps that have horizontal layers.

 

[SPowers]

Where did you find that mold? I like that it is small AND has dividers. Not that I need another mold... I should just go make dividers from some cardboard in the garage. You know, the cardboard from all the OTHER soap deliveries.

Same thing here... my mold is a 'Nicole' mold with 3 dividers - I'm quite sure I got it on Amazon and thought it was bigger than it turned out to be. It's abt 9" long but only 2" wide and 2 1/2" tall. I too have the makings for diy dividers, but haven't brought myself to the point of trying to make it - I'm not the least crafty in that sense! But I just finished my Taiwan Swirl and hoping for the best. This looks like it might be good enough for an entry. The only other challenge I entered my batters all morphed together and no real design could be seen. Can't remember the name of that one but it wasn't recognizable as that design.

 

[Misschief]

If it helps any, here's how I made, and use, my dividers. They're made of Sintra, which I got at work (I work in a print/sign shop). It's a type of vinyl. I cut them to the length of my mold and place them using binder clips. This was how I did my 2-colour soaps but I use the same idea with more dividers. (Also shown in the pic is my hanger swirl tool.)



.... and mine is in the mold. I gave myself an added challenge by using all hard oils but it's one of my fave recipes. We shall see how it looks tomorrow morning. *keeping my fingers crossed*

 

[SPowers]

Mine is in the mold too. My go-to recipe is mostly hard oils and that's what I used today as well.

 

[dibbles]

@Mobjack Bay thank you! I love how their ad uses pictures from Tree Marie's Taiwan swirl video, along with other soaps that have horizontal layers.

I doubted Teri knew this company was using her photos, so I messaged her (they are from her tutorial on Elements B&B). She did not know, so this company stole her work. I hope she can get the pictures taken off any of their listings at the very least. This kind of thing happens more often than you would think.

 

[AliOop]

@dibbles I didn't even think of messaging Teri - thank you for doing that! It really does bug me when folks rip off other folks' work. I knew right away those were Teri's, not just because I've seen the video, but because her work is so distinctive.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Sign Up List:

1. jcandleattic - hopefully will have time to do this one.
2. Misschief - been wanting to do this again for a while
3. KimW - One I've been wanting to try! Yippeeeee
4. GemstonePony - I love this swirl!
5. DKing - I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with
6. catscankim - been wanting to learn this one!
7. AMD - I've been wanting to get "around" to doing this technique again
8. violets2217 - Gonna face my fears! This Challenge and the swirl! Plus, gives me another reason to make soap I don't need.
9. SideDoorSoaps - I’ve had dividers for awhile; I should try this!
10. Vicki C - never tried this but have watched plenty of videos - mesmerizing!
11. linne1gi - I’ve done this before, but not well! I’d like to be better.
12. The_Emerald_Chicken - Was excited to see this swirl as the monthly challenge!
13. Louise Taylor. Never tried this technique and always wanted to try.
14. Mobjack - I’m in.
15. S Powers - this has never been my fave design but I love the extra swirl action
16. Jersey Girl- Haven’t done one of these in a long time but have been meaning to. Perfect excuse for some experimenting!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Well, that’s crummy about them hijacking Teri’s photos. It’s a nice mold, so I will also put a comment in the reviews if I can figure out how to do it.

I did a practice run today to use up some pre-mixed micas that were leftovers from a previous soap.

Lesson #1 - overfill the sections between the middle dividers, and be prepared to add more to the outside sections. By the time I removed the three dividers and the end pieces, the soap level had dropped by about 1/2” below the top of the mold. I needed it to be level in order to have two 1” layers on the horizontal cut. Adding extra batter along the nice clean lines took time and patience.

Lesson #2 - plan out exactly how far apart the swirl lines should be and mark the mold. Shouldn’t this one be a no-brainer for me by now? Apparently not because I spaced my lines too far apart.I realized it on the second line, but just kept going. My solution to the “this is not a circling Taiwan swirl” issue was to create a new pattern I’m calling a triple circling Taiwan swirl because I did the entire pattern three times at the same wide spacing through the body of the soap, but with a slight offset each time. Or, maybe this already has another name!

Here’s what I ended up with, which is not too bad, I think, for a first attempt. ETA: my recipe stayed fluid enough through all of the swirling to make nice points each time. That’s a definite plus.

 

[Guspuppy]

Sign Up List:

1. jcandleattic - hopefully will have time to do this one.
2. Misschief - been wanting to do this again for a while
3. KimW - One I've been wanting to try! Yippeeeee
4. GemstonePony - I love this swirl!
5. DKing - I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with
6. catscankim - been wanting to learn this one!
7. AMD - I've been wanting to get "around" to doing this technique again
8. violets2217 - Gonna face my fears! This Challenge and the swirl! Plus, gives me another reason to make soap I don't need.
9. SideDoorSoaps - I’ve had dividers for awhile; I should try this!
10. Vicki C - never tried this but have watched plenty of videos - mesmerizing!
11. linne1gi - I’ve done this before, but not well! I’d like to be better.
12. The_Emerald_Chicken - Was excited to see this swirl as the monthly challenge!
13. Louise Taylor. Never tried this technique and always wanted to try.
14. Mobjack - I’m in.
15. S Powers - this has never been my fave design but I love the extra swirl action
16. Jersey Girl- Haven’t done one of these in a long time but have been meaning to. Perfect excuse for some experimenting!
17. Guspuppy - need to make soap to test FOs anyway and have wanted to try this!

 

[KimW]

I did a practice run today to use up some pre-mixed micas that were leftovers from a previous soap.

View attachment 53831

Ohhhhhh, so preeettty. Like blue flames. Maybe you can call this new technique Flaming Taiwan Swirls!

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Ohhhhhh, so preeettty. Like blue flames. Maybe you can call this new technique Flaming Taiwan Swirls!

Yes! On the second round I actually thought to myself “This is a way to make flames” At that point, the pink was a bit more pronounced, which also helped.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Here’s the cut of my Flaming Taiwan Swirl soap (thanks @KimW!). The pattern on the interior cut is quite different from the top, which I think means the batter was getting a bit too thick for a circling Taiwan swirl.