This months soap challenge is similar to the fluid pour acrylic painting technique – we were allowed to pour our soap batter but could only use a straw to blow the design we wished to achieve. The most common design using this technique (at least the most used in the videos I watched) was the flowering technique. You pour a single color or multiple colors in the center and then use the straw to blow the colors out in a flower like pattern. But I wanted something different what I had in mind was to make my soap look like waves with white caps and I would call it angry seas.
I knew that most of the ocean/ozone fragrances tend to accelerate how the soap sets up. For this technique you need a soap batter that stays fluid. I have a fragrance called Sea Kelp by Rustic Ecsentuals so I checked their listing description and read “CP Notes: No discoloration, no acceleration. Soaped like a dream!” Yes this would work! My oils and lye were around 100 and everything seemed fine. It took a few minutes to mix the colors because there were seven of them. Well by the time I started to pour, the colors were starting to get thick. Technically it was not acceleration – it wasn’t soap on a stick- but it was thick like pudding. I decided to keep on going and poured a thin layer as my base then my idea was to pour lines across the mold and blow them to look like waves. There was a box of straws in my drawer that I use to make imbeds for my watermelon soap that I planned to use. The minute I put the straw in my mouth I knew I was in for more trouble. It was a larger than normal straw and I couldn’t get enough air flow to make the soap move. What to do? I couldn’t stop now. So I began to frantically look around my workshop for another straw or something that might work. No smaller straws anywhere but I noticed a bag of pipettes. I cut the end of a pipette and it worked. I was more than a little concerned because the pipette was so short with the end cut off – I would have to be extra careful about how I handled it.
With the soap thicker than it should be the blues didn’t blend together the way I wanted so I decided to keep rotating the mold and pouring the waves in different directions before using my make-shift straw. Then another mishap – the lovely green that was going to blend in with the blues turned mustard yellow. Oh well that will work – we will just say it is the angry sea churning up the bottom. Although I didn’t get exactly what I had envisioned, I am pretty happy with the results. (I had to be – there is no time for a second try).
Freshly
Another fun challenge – thank you Amy
