Zebra Print Soap

Happy Monday everyone! I've been pretty busy lately, summer craft shows and festivals are happening all over town and I have less than 3 weeks to be ready for my next show at the Pow Wow grounds in Harbor Springs, Michigan.

This summer I thought it would be cool to step up my soap design, so I have been working on different designs other than my typical 2 color swirl. My first attempt at the "Tiger Stripe" which I have renamed "Zebra Stripe" turned out pretty darn good in my opinion.

I used cocoa powder mixed with black mica, I was going for more of a deep brown, but I guess I added a little too much black mica, because it looks black, but it's nice, the hot pink is fired up fuchsia neon colorant I got from Brambleberry. I scented this batch with an essential oil blend of patchouli & lavender. And of course I have to sprinkle my textured tops with iridescent glitter :)

The technique is actually pretty simple. Divide soap into 2-3 colors and pour a stripe down the center of your soap mold, alternating colors each time until all the soap is used.

Below is a video demonstration by Amathia Soapworks.

Tips:

Your soap batter does not need to be as thin as in the video, a nice medium trace will work, a medium trace is what I prefer; however, you will want to use a fragrance that you know will behave and is easy to work with. Stay away from the  florals and spices.You do not want this to seize up on you before you get started.

Contrasting colors, colors that compliment one another or light and dark variations of the same color, the choice is yours.

Make your lines as thick or as thin as you want or make some off center. Experiment. Have fun with it!

Let me know how it all works out for you! :)

First attempt at an elemental swirl

So lately I have been into watching these youtube video soap challenges from Amy at Great Cakes Soap Works. As a matter of fact, I just got an email today offering a new challenge....the Holly Swirl! I think I am going register to do this :)))

In the meantime, I have been trying to step up my soap design and take it to a more artistically interesting level. Below is my first attempt at an elemental swirl. I haven't cut it up yet....but you know I will :)...I am a monkey see, monkey do, type so if I see it once, I can typically pull it off. I thought this elemental swirl was awesome and relatively easy...I think I can get pretty creative with my next few batches.

The scent is amazing! It is a creamy coconut scent paired with raspberry and vanilla. Smells so yummy!
Like a day at the beach...only better.

You definitely want to use a fragrance oil or essential oil that will allow you time to work with this swirling technique. I separated the soap batter into 6 different parts, 4 colored and 2 uncolored to use as my base for swirling each the blue & green and the yellow & orange. I did my pencil line with cocoa powder and a touch of black mica. I saved a little of each color to texturize the top of my soap loaf. I am happy with the way it turned out. Just can't wait to cut it!

Here it is the cut bar! I just want to mention that I did have some separation between the layers on a couple of the bars where I sprinkled on the cocoa powder mica mixture a little too heavy, so make sure that you only put a light layer between the two layers :( oh well, it's an excuse to try it again :) I'll have to clean up those drag marks from the cocoa powder.