#creativeswirls #coldprocesssoap #butterflyswirl #abstractartinsoap
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
We are becoming slightly obsessed with trying to do a butterfly swirl. You'd think it would be a slam dunk, but ha! Not so fast!
We've had issues, oh so many issues - batter that was too thick and one that was too thin, colors that were too pale, swirls that were too un-butterfly-ish. Mostly we've created everything BUT a butterfly.
We know that many of the soapers who have entered the challenge have been doing this for years, and they are REALLLLY good at what they do. We also know that we probably don't have a prayer of winning, but we are happy (with ourselves) just because we took a chance, we pushed ourselves, and mostly because we've learned a lot while working on this challenge. Guess that's why it's called a challenge!
I was scouting around the web Tuesday evening and drooling over all the beautiful colorants they have on the +Nurture Soap Supplies web site. The owner of NSS, Carrie Thornsbury, has a blog so of course I took a look. It was a good move on my part because Carrie had listed her favorite soap recipe and even mentioned that it was great for swirling designs.
You now know where we got the recipe we used for today's soap. Our thanks to Carrie! The fact that she posted the actual page from SoapCalc was immeasurably helpful.
The following pictures will give you an idea of what we did today. All in all it went well. You can see if our efforts paid off and if we got a butterfly or not.
Carrie's recipe called for a lot of olive oil....a lot!
Ok. We've never seen a butterfly with this color combination
except maybe in a coloring book.
Amethyst Purple, Aqua Pearl, TD, and Fired Up Fuschia are all from +Bramble Berry.
Aborigine Amber and Moonkissed Nights are from +Rustic Escentuals,
and Diamond Dust Mica is from +Natures Garden.
Here are the colors after we mixed them in a little oil.
top row: TD+Diamond Dust, Aborigine Amber, Fired Up Fuschia
bottom row: Amethyst Purple, Moonkissed Nights, Aqua Pearl
We wanted a different scent today, so we designed our newest fragrance combination.
We used a lovely FO from +Rustic Escentuals called Calabrian Bergamot and Violet
(described as: floral heart pairs sweet bergamot and delicate violet with no perfume undertones - it's a fresh, gentle breeze from a lush Italian oasis. The middle notes of sparkling citron and fresh pear are seated upon a delicate base of soft sandalwood.)
which we mixed with an EO called Litsea Cubeba (also known as May Chang) it smells fresh, lemony, sweet and slightly herbal and came from +The Lebermuth Company.
The combination is wonderful and we will be using it again!
We added lye/water into the oils then
mixed enough to emulsify the batter and reach (barely) trace - we needed liquid, loose batter.
Adding in the EO and FO, combination is smelling so nice.
Quickly mixed up about a cup of batter for each color.
Using the uncolored batter to fill the mold about 1/3 of the way.
Now, from way up high, we pour the colors into the mold. The height causes the colored batter to drop right into the batter in the mold, burying it deep (exactly what we want!)
If you don't stay really high to pour, the batter will lay on top of the base. It's a tricky balance. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes...not so much.
The black batter was the worst, it seemed to thicken faster than any of the others. Why? we haven't a clue, but pouring wasn't a option so we spoon plopped it in.
At this point I felt the butterfly was trying to fly out of the mold....thinking, it's not going to happen with this batch!
Here I am just about to insert our hanger tool into the batter.
As they say, a wing and a prayer.
Counting swirls and swishes, oh how we hope this works!
I am almost finished swirling.
Batter had thickened considerably from the time we began pouring.
At this point it's still pretty workable.
I pull the hanger swirl tool out of the batter, and say yet another prayer.
I plopped the remaining batter into the mold, randomly.
Then, my favorite part, swirling the top.
(What I didn't realise until we unmolded the soap is that the skewer was too deep in the batter. That had an adverse effect on the overall "butterfly" look of the soap.
We will NEVER stop learning!
Finished....well....maybe......just a little more.
Now I'm done, seriously, I think Alison took the skewer out of my hand...a good thing.
The last shot before it goes into the curing box for 24 hours.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Here is how the loaf of soap looked after curing overnight.
Now we cut the soap,
cross your fingers!
A frowning dog with big cheeks.
No clue, but surely not a butterfly.
A CT image of an unhappy uterus, or
or maybe a happy one?
If it had worked, I guess these could have been good lower wings.
It didn't really work as a butterfly even though the swirls look pretty.
looks like the butterfly flew into something blue, and compacted the top half of it's body!
Or, it is stuck in a layer of brown quicksand and is trying to push its self out?
I know....it's a stretch.
hummmm, this is actually kind of pretty, but a butterfly.....no way.
Maybe a backwards peacock.
A demon bat, doing an encore performance with the Rockettes
(note colorful costume)
Out of the whole batch, this pair looks the most like a butterfly to me,
I wish I hadn't pushed the skewer down so far in the top, it looks like colorful icicles dripping all over it.
And here is the last one.
Words fail me.
What do you think?
Please leave us a comment. Maybe you see something we don't.
This soap was fun to make, and although most of the pairings don't look much like a butterfly, it all smells good - really good. This fragrance blend is wonderful, and we think our customers will love it.
It will be cured in 6 weeks.
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