Welcome to the September 2024 SMF Soap Challenge: Feathered Mantra Swirl
This month we will be creating soaps using the Feathered Mantra Swirl technique. Very striking designs can be created using a combination of two simple swirl patterns. The specific technique we will follow is by Ramy Sanchez of Jabones Ramy in Spain.
SMF Challenge General Rules
To enter, you must have been an active SMF member for at least one month and have a minimum of 50 posts at the time the Challenge is posted. “Fluff” posts written with the sole intention of boosting post numbers do not apply. The only exception to this rule, is that the time and post requirements are removed for (do not apply to) Supporting Members. All eligible members may sign up and submit an entry at any time after the entry thread opens and before it closes.
Your soap must be made after the monthly challenge has been announced. Your entry must consist of bars made from a single batch of soap poured into one mold. In other words, your entry cannot include bars from different batches.
The sign-up list will be posted in this thread. Please add your name to the sign-up list if you’d like to participate. You don’t have to enter a soap if you don’t feel happy with what you have made, and you will still be able to vote. Still, we hope you will post about your experiences here in the main Challenge thread, along with non-entry photos (be prepared to be encouraged to keep trying).
In the spirit of advancing our soap making skills, all members who sign-up for the SMF Challenge do so with the intent that they will make every attempt to submit an entry. We do understand that life happens, and that you may end up without an entry. However, signing up with no intent to participate and only to vote goes against the spirit of the challenge and is not allowed.
Throughout the month, we encourage you to use this general Challenge thread (not the Entry thread) to ask for advice, discuss techniques with other members, upload pictures of your non-entry challenge attempts, and provide helpful hints you learned along the way. Constructive criticism is welcomed, but please keep your comments polite.
A separate Entry thread will be created towards the end of the month. Please do not post photos anywhere of your entry until the Entry thread is opened. Breaking this rule will disqualify that soap from this Challenge. The Entry thread is for challenge entries only; please don't post any comments there.
Entries must be posted to the Entry thread (not to this general Challenge thread) before the closing time on the closing date. Late entries will not be accepted. If you miss the Challenge deadline, please upload pictures of your soap to the general Challenge thread instead. While it won’t be included in the voting, we always love to see anything you have created!
There is no prize attached to this Challenge. However, this is still a competition.
If your entry is deemed non-compliant, you will be given the opportunity to amend your entry if there is time to do so before the Entry thread closes. Otherwise, your entry will be excluded from voting. The challenge mods have the final say as to whether any given soap, photo, or registrant is eligible for entry and voting.
All eligible registrants who have signed up before the Entry thread closes will be eligible to vote, even if they do not submit an entry. A password-protected voting link and password will be sent to eligible registrants only, by private message via SMF conversations. Please check your SMF messages/conversations when the voting begins.
Note: all times listed below are Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It is your responsibility to convert times to your own time zone. You can use World Time Buddy or a similar converter to assist you with that.
* The entry thread will open on September 21st by 11:59 PM GMT.
* The entry thread will close on September 26th at 11:59 PM GMT.
* Voting information will be emailed to all eligible participants shortly thereafter.
* The voting survey will remain open until September 28th at 11:59 PM GMT, or until all votes are in, whichever is sooner.
* The winner will be announced by September 30th by 11:59 PM GMT.
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Specific Rules for this Challenge:
- Your entry must be made from one batch of CP (cold process) soap in a loaf or slab mold. You may use a heating pad, insulation or oven to keep the soap in the mold warm and to facilitate the gelling process.
- You must use at least three colors of soap batter to create stripes/bands of batter in the mold and one of those can be uncolored soap. You may use more than three colors and any kind of colorants.
- No embeds or embellishments of any kind are allowed in or on the soap. This challenge is about making a soap top that wows due to the swirls.
- The Feathered Mantra Swirl technique of Ramy Sanchez is described on the Great Cakes Soapworks website, here: https://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog/index.php/feathered-mantra-swirl-tutorial/ and I copied in the key photos from the tutorial below. A big thank you to Amy Warden for maintaining the GreatCakes website and to Ramy Sanchez for sharing her technique.
- You must use the two swirl patterns shown, in the order shown and you must swirl through the entire soap from the surface to the bottom of the mold.
- The soap will be cut to feature the horizontal planes as the “faces” of the bars. You can pour your soap to a single bar depth in a slab mold, or wide loaf mold, or pour to a 2-bar depth (2.5”) in a wide loaf mold that you will split horizontally. For example, if you have a 10” x 3.5” loaf mold and fill it to make a single layer of soap that is 1.25” thick, you will be able to cut four bars that will be 2.5” x 3.5” x 1.25” each.
- How you get the batter into the mold is up to you. For example, you can use vertical dividers in a loaf mold, use squeeze bottles to create lines of colors in a loaf or slab mold, or pour your colors into a base, the way you would for a drop swirl.
- Your entry must include two photos. Photo #1 will be the entry photo for judging. Put it at the top of your entry post. It must show at least three (3) bars of soap - the face of two bars and the back of a third bar. Photo #2 should show your soap top in all its glory after you've finished the second swirl but before the soap is cut. The photo can be of the soap in the mold or the uncut loaf or slab out of the mold. If you use grid dividers in a slab mold to make individual bars, take the photo before you add the dividers. Based on my own forgetfulness in the past, I suggest that you put a note on the dividers to remind you to take the photo before you put the dividers in the mold.
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Tips:
- A wide loaf mold or a slab mold may make it easier to make the second swirl pattern. If you use a slab mold it may help to plan out the placement of Swirl #2 in advance. For example, how many times will you need to repeat #2 across the mold?
- You have some leeway with batter consistency for this design, but size your swirling tool to the job. For batter at a very light trace, thin and thick swirling tools will produce nice results. If your batter reaches a medium trace, try a thicker swirling tool.
- As always, choosing a well-behaved fragrance or essential oil will make your life easier.
- The July Challenge instructional post shows how to cut a loaf to feature the horizontal plane as the face of the soap bars.
Feathered Swirl Technique from Ramy Sanchez:
Step 1 - Add the batter to the mold. In this case, dividers were used to keep the soap in three sections. You do not have to use dividers and you may have more than three stripes of color (see examples in slab molds, below).
Step 2 - Swirl Pattern #1 - Swirl back and forth across the stripes of color. The spacing is up to you. (Note: In case you're wondering, I think Swirl Pattern #1 looks more like the first step in a Taiwan Swirl and less like a Mantra Swirl, but I did not name this technique.)
Step # - Swirl Pattern #2 - Make the feathers!
A photo collage of the technique by Ramy Sanchez and a soap by one of Ramy's students, from the BlogsofSoap website:
Auntie Clara's soap below is one of the photos that sent me in search of instructions in the first place. I can't be sure that she used the same swirling pattern as Ramy Sanchez, but it's similar enough to give you a sense of what you can do with color combinations. The rainbow-hued Feathered Mantra is by Kenna of Modern Soapmaking.
and then this photo of soap by Backwater Beauty soap (via SoapQueen.com) shows how well the design works with a more subtle color palette.
Technique videos:
Although Swirl #2 is different in both of these videos, both show a general approach that will work for making the Feathered Mantra (à la Ramy) soap design in a slab mold.
Spicy Ginger Soap:
8:30 - pouring base into a slab mold
9:55 - drop pouring stripes of colors into the base
13:15 - swirling perpendicular/across the stripes
15:00 - final swirls differs from required Swirl #2
Misty Springs Bath & Body:
11:18 - pouring base into a slab mold
14:00 - drop pouring stripes of colors into the base
18:00 - swirling perpendicular/across the stripes
19:00 - final swirls differ from required Swirl #2
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I hope you have fun with this technique!
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. I'll have to see if it happens again when I make another batch.
