Stripes, Spots, & A Slippery Solid

This is all I’ve got, ya’ll. The worst part is, I’m not even really sure how I did it!

This month’s Soap Challenge Club is about embracing opposites. It’s one of those themes that is so broad and seems so easy that I inevitably make it difficult and discouraging for myself. At one point, I stopped to contemplate why I was mulling over crazy design schemes instead of just keep it simple. Answer: Because I’m a competitive a-hole who’s full of pride and thinks I might actually win something!

Whew. Deep breath. It’s a good thing there’s grace…and plenty of talented soapers out there who will continue to humble me as I navigate this craft.

After scolding myself for being a jerk-face, I set out not once, not twice, but thrice to come up with a soap design that matched the wonderfulness I had envisioned in my head. Here’s how it all went down…

For my first attempt, I sought to depict the feelings of joy and pain. I wanted to do two flow swirls from opposite ends of the mold. I thought I had enough colors for the in-the-pot swirls to show obvious signs of flow. The loaf would be cut horizontally, revealing the joyful flow springing up, while the painful flow would flow down. Here’s why it was a disappointment:

1. I tried out a new mix of oils that was touted as slow moving. It thickened up on me. Because I over-mixed? Because of the essential oils I used? Because _________ (enter the other 18 million reasons in the soapy universe that might work against me). Not much flow when you’re well past emulsion.
2. The swirl color to base color ratio was not high enough. The colors I wanted to pop the most got a little lost. It was also a challenge to get the colors on the “pain” side to look truly painful. They mostly just looked depressed.
3. I was a dummy and didn’t secure my divider. Hmmmm. Large amounts of thickened soap flowing from opposite ends of a mold? This is what you get:

Should’ve seen this coming. Doh!

The bag that reminds me of my lovelies.

For my second attempt, I tried a technique that allowed me to lay the divider at a slant against the mold. I wasn’t about to let that nonsense happen again (though I may do it on purpose down the road). I began with a good bit of solid yellow on one side of the divider, let the divider rest against the mold, and then began pouring—no, piping—my stripe colors down the side of the divider. Layering the stripes was very slow going. The cute little glasses that I mix my colorants in will hold up to 5oz of batter, but I forget that they don’t have a lip for pouring. Booooo. So, I got to use pipettes and take my sweet time watching each layer go in. Towards the end, I stopped caring how even or accurate my pours were, so the lines thicken up as you look towards the top of the soap. To finish it off, I imitated the spots on one of my daughter’s cloth diaper wet bags. I find a lot of inspiration in textiles–especially ones that make me feel sentimental about the cutest tooshies I know in existence (I’ve got two little girls).

Using bacon pot-holders to keep my mold propped up while I pour down the side of the divider.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not 100% sure how I got this soap looking the way it does. No tricks up my sleeve, folks! Just raw ineptitude. I think I might have bumped the divider a few times. You can imagine my surprise when I cut into the loaf and couldn’t find the bit of solid color I had poured in there. I guess it’s hiding.

I dig the dots!

Wherever did you go, solid bit of batter?!

My third attempt shall henceforth be referred to as “The Soap I Don’t Speak Of.” For some crazy reason, I thought it would be humorous and interesting to juxtapose “lumber sexual” and “metrosexual” men on either side of a soap. To simplify, I tried to do blue jeans and a red flannel shirt for my lumberjack, and a black tuxedo for the other side. You know, going from casual to classy. I created a kick-butt blend of Lavender, Patchouli, and Fir Needle with some Brambleberry Ginger Patchouli added in for good measure. Let’s be real. The only saving grace for this soap is that it smells good. Everything else about it was a big fat fail. I shan’t speak of it any more. And no, I won’t show you any other pictures. It’s just. too. painful.

Dear friends, may your dividers never look this horrendous when you pull them out of your molds!