Soap wraps

[daisy8]

Could anyone tell me if it will make a difference to the curing of the soap if I wrap it in a paper cigarband a few days after it's come out of the mould provided that it has hardened? The cigarband is not tight and it does not cover the entire bar, it's about half the size of the bar.

With thanks.

 

[pamielynn]

As the bar shrinks, the band will no longer fit. Also, it's possible that you will notice a slight color difference where the band was. But shouldn't interfere in the curing process itself.

 

[daisy8]

Actually Pamielynn, that's something which will be really useful to me. It will help me see just how much the bars shrink. The reason why I want to do it is simply a labour saving issue. I have to label them and wrap them and I do small quantities of each recipe, so once I start the label process, it's time effective to complete it.

If they do shrink too much, it is not going to be worth doing it early.

 

[Nightlilly]

I'm wondering if the moisture that's still in the bar will warp or effect the wrap in some way. It would be a shame to wrap them all too soon and have to redo all of that work.

 

[sistrum]

Like Pamielynn said, your bars will shrink and the bands will slip after awhile. The weight will change too so if that is printed on your bands you might have to change that. You could just get your lables printed and cut and store with your soap to be put on just before needed then just hand write the weight. That may save you some time?

 

[DeeAnna]

Plan on 5 to 10% shrinkage in all dimensions. For example, if a fresh bar is 3 inches wide, it may shrink as much as 0.25 inches after several weeks.

 

[pamielynn]

I wrap mine as they are ready to go to market, but any leftover bars have to be re-taped every two weeks because they still shrink, even after 6-8 weeks of cure. Not much shrinkage, mind you, but *just* enough so that bands start to slip Which is why I went to taping the bands closed, instead of gluing them. Some day I may go back to boxes, but sometimes I think that's a waste of materials.

 

[daisy8]

Thanks, all, for the input. What I think I'll do is cut the cigarwrap to size and stick the label on it in the right place. Then it'll only be a case of putting the wraps on the soap just before the next sale.

The first craft sale we went to, we used a make-on-the spot gift bags. They were all ready folded using an A4 card - no cutting. We then had some stick-on decorations so that if it was wanted, people could decorate their own bag (children were really in mind over this). May try it again. What we found though was that the soap needed to have clear labels on the display stand for people to pick up and read the ingredients, thus the cigarband now.