What soapy thing have you done today?

[msunnerstood]

Well, that hardened fast. My soap got very hot and I could have cut it by midnight. Luckily I was up pretty early and cut it right away. Im going to have to invest in a camera because my cell just doesnt bring the intensity of the colors out but here it is.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

The post-HP dough soap from the residues of my challenge rice/nori is slowly about to harden up nicely. I now decided to cut the sides open as long as it is still easy, to have a peek how it looks on the inside. Turns out it is more difficult than expected to really knead up soap that had been roughly grated when half-solid. Let's call it confetti marble soap to pretend that this effect was intentional

although tungsten light changes it so doesn’t show well

Im going to have to invest in a camera because my cell just doesnt bring the intensity of the colors out but here it is.

The human eye does a terrific job in its colour perception/adaption to lighting situations. Imitation of this by technical means is an essentially unresolved problem.
The single one thing that should comfort the photographer is that you are the only one to know how it looks in real life.

 

[Angie Gail]

Orange Patchouli soap cut and can’t wait until it’s done curing!! First time using hemp seed oil too. I’m feeling like a hippie with hemp and patchouli ☮

I love the color combo and used the same thing for my soap scented with WSPs Orange Sapphire. I have a Honey & Patchouli scented soap and I feel kinda hippie-ish when I make that one too - ha!

 

[KimW]

This is another attempt at a one pot wonder - using a Honeysuckle FO that behaved perfectly in testing, although I think it may have caused some ricing this time. It smells rather lively OOB but I'm hoping it will settle down in actual use.

The design is inspired by my honeysuckle-covered trellis (and when I say design, I use the word very loosely since I've no idea yet what this will look like when I cut it.) The intention, at least, is to have a gradient from green to blue to white for the 'background', being leaves, sky, clouds; and a central secondary gradient of mostly creamy yellow streaked with red for the actual honeysuckle flowers.

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(I also fretted some about the May challenge not being up yet and the bank holiday weekend half over already )

Beautimus! Can't wait to see the cut!

 

[Tara_H]

Beautimus! Can't wait to see the cut!

Ask and ye shall receive!

It was CPOP'ing since I poured it (super low since I was scared the wood glue would melt) but Husband needed the oven back to make lasagne, so I checked on the soap and it was actually very solid!

Unfortunately it seems I didn't line it quite well enough and it got stuck to the mould in the corners... not only that but when I put my palette knife down the side to try to free it, it mushed up the lining paper into the sides of the soap

A frenzied rescue operation ensued, during which I had to first free the soap, then plane the sides to find and extract the paper shreds, then try to patch up the dodgy parts using shavings á la Tree Marie. It was not helped by the fact it was very very solid and some of the shavings were already too flaky to use for patching.

But.

I got it patched, I got it cut, and I'm actually very pleased with the outcome! Although not entirely what I was aiming for, I think the spirit is there.

 

[KimW]

Ask and ye shall receive!

It was CPOP'ing since I poured it (super low since I was scared the wood glue would melt) but Husband needed the oven back to make lasagne, so I checked on the soap and it was actually very solid!

Unfortunately it seems I didn't line it quite well enough and it got stuck to the mould in the corners... not only that but when I put my palette knife down the side to try to free it, it mushed up the lining paper into the sides of the soap

A frenzied rescue operation ensued, during which I had to first free the soap, then plane the sides to find and extract the paper shreds, then try to patch up the dodgy parts using shavings á la Tree Marie. It was not helped by the fact it was very very solid and some of the shavings were already too flaky to use for patching.

But.

I got it patched, I got it cut, and I'm actually very pleased with the outcome! Although not entirely what I was aiming for, I think the spirit is there.
View attachment 56833

Oh dear. Well, as you say, the outcome sure seems worth the effort. Very, very lovely soap!

 

[Babyshoes]

Finally managed to cut my soap from 2 days ago. It was still a bit soft but not squishy! Pleased with my first drop swirl, though I would have liked the colours to be a little more intense. More mica next time!
The blue ITP swirl came out well too. The new cheapy mould needs a cardboard shim next time, as the wooden container is a fraction too big for the silicone liner, and the bars bowed out a bit. I like the size of it though, plenty of smallish bars to give away, with end bits for home use.

 

[Katie68121]

I love the color combo and used the same thing for my soap scented with WSPs Orange Sapphire. I have a Honey & Patchouli scented soap and I feel kinda hippie-ish when I make that one too - ha!

Thank you!
Oh wow it came out beautifully! I love patchouli!

 

[Tara_H]

Oh dear. Well, as you say, the outcome sure seems worth the effort. Very, very lovely soap!

Thanks! Other than the sky being mostly at the bottom, it's not too far off what I was going for
No idea why there's so much red and so little yellow though, going in there was about 4:1 yellow to red...

 

[Juggsy]

View attachment 56831

The post-HP dough soap from the residues of my challenge rice/nori is slowly about to harden up nicely. I now decided to cut the sides open as long as it is still easy, to have a peek how it looks on the inside. Turns out it is more difficult than expected to really knead up soap that had been roughly grated when half-solid. Let's call it confetti marble soap to pretend that this effect was intentional

It looks lovely. I've not used nori in soap. I imagine with a salt soap it would smell awesome.
Best thing about soaping that most of our experiments started out as an unintentional accident.

The human eye does a terrific job in its colour perception/adaption to lighting situations. Imitation of this by technical means is an essentially unresolved problem.
The single one thing that should comfort the photographer is that you are the only one to know how it looks in real life.

Just so you know I shot mine in tungsten light and knew it would affect my photo. I do know about light/colour perception just as I know that my photo conditions should have been better (and normally are). I didn't shoot in raw either which is the worst mistake. I love photography. It was in line with my first/original studies at uni (interior design). I've had a few changes and done a few degrees since then. My parents tell me I'm a professional student as I've spent more half of my adult life at uni. They think it's an insult. I wear it proudly. Education is the best gift.

 

[Catscankim]

This is what happens when you let your “well meaning” husband order something without adult supervision. Lol. Oh well...I think I’ll just draw a hyphen in there and call it a day.
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I LOVE the logo!!

 

[Jersey Girl]

I LOVE the logo!!

Thank you! We have a friend who is a graphic designer and I just told him I wanted something cool and related to the Ocean. He came up with this fractal which I loved as soon as I saw it. I’ve been using the new labels for a couple months but still have product with the old labels too. I keep debating relabeling the old ones, but labels are not cheap and it’s time consuming.

 

[ResolvableOwl]

It looks lovely. I've not used nori in soap. I imagine with a salt soap it would smell awesome.

It's not actual nori, it's the soap dough I used to imitate nori of my sushi soap. But it's not totally wrong to call it nori, since I coloured it with spirulina, and it has an intense seaweed-like smell.

Best thing about soaping that most of our experiments started out as an unintentional accident.

#21,305

 

[Tara_H]

Tried some different soap-adjacent things today.

Of course I had to have a go of @ResolvableOwl's crazy boxes since I have many round flat soaps from the last challenge that are a pain to store! I'm happy to report that the technique worked nicely:

(Yes, there is actually a soap in there!)

And I'm halfway through trying this concept for making silicone inlays for soap moulds. My individual moulds don't get much use since they're kind of boring, so sprucing them up with some plant-based designs.


I'm having a break for lunch now but if all goes as planned I may get to try out the silicone this evening. (Not 100% sure if it will, since that's not actually plaster of Paris but some wall filler that's been knocking around the shed for years, so it may be a bit old, or it may not like being diluted at 2:1 instead of 2.5:1.

Our vibrating table is broken and we haven't got around to making a new one, so I improvised! (Also an excuse to test the video upload feature ) You'll probably want to mute sound before playing it though...

 

[ResolvableOwl]

Tried some different soap-adjacent things today.

Of course I had to have a go of @ResolvableOwl's crazy boxes since I have many round flat soaps from the last challenge that are a pain to store! I'm happy to report that the technique worked nicely:
View attachment 56877
(Yes, there is actually a soap in there!)

My sketch (angles!) was intended for six-fold boxes, and I haven't looked what the templatemaker would do with the angles. Obviously, it did reasonably well.

Don't forget to post some action shots over there too!

You'll probably want to mute sound before playing it though..

The soundtrack was the best part!

 

[KimW]

Tried some different soap-adjacent things today.

Of course I had to have a go of @ResolvableOwl's crazy boxes since I have many round flat soaps from the last challenge that are a pain to store! I'm happy to report that the technique worked nicely:
View attachment 56877
(Yes, there is actually a soap in there!)

And I'm halfway through trying this concept for making silicone inlays for soap moulds. My individual moulds don't get much use since they're kind of boring, so sprucing them up with some plant-based designs.
View attachment 56878 View attachment 56879
View attachment 56880 View attachment 56881
I'm having a break for lunch now but if all goes as planned I may get to try out the silicone this evening. (Not 100% sure if it will, since that's not actually plaster of Paris but some wall filler that's been knocking around the shed for years, so it may be a bit old, or it may not like being diluted at 2:1 instead of 2.5:1.

Our vibrating table is broken and we haven't got around to making a new one, so I improvised! (Also an excuse to test the video upload feature ) You'll probably want to mute sound before playing it though...

A girl after my own heart - you slay me! Love every bit of it!
I must say, you are the gadget maven.

 

[Tara_H]

Well, the patterns are coming out pretty well, but there's no way they'll be dry enough tonight to get properly clean and remove all the clay. I'll have to wait until the morning, I guess. There are plenty of air bubbles messing up the fine detail, but it's not bad for a medium that's not at all intended for casting. Last set were mixed at 8:4.5 powder to water and that was a pretty good consistency but I still need more vibration.



Can't wait now to make cypress and lavender scented soaps with the matching moulds!

 

[MrsZ]

I made goats milk soaps that actually worked! It's nothing compared with all of y'all's beautiful soaps, but for me it's a win.

 

[Tara_H]

I made goats milk soaps that actually worked! It's nothing compared with all of y'all's beautiful soaps, but for me it's a win.

Looks great! Those little honeycomb moulds are so cute

 

[ResolvableOwl]

It's nothing compared with all of y'all's beautiful soaps, but for me it's a win.

Yes, indeed! You can't compare them, you don't have to compare them! They're yours.
And besides this, the most artful soaps will look like a gooey ovoid most of their service life anyway.