Dueling Hanger Swirls, Monday, June 16, 2014

This blog entry is all about one of our hanger swirl attempts.  Of all the different ones we created while we practiced the technique, we think this is the prettiest one that shows the best definition of colors and the most interesting swirl design.

All of these soaps were inspired by a design challenge we entered.  We present our entry into Amy Warden's Soap Challenge Club: The June Hanger Swirl Challenge.  Trying this design technique was not only fun, but it also pushed our creativity boundaries further than we might have otherwise gone.

On Monday we decided to practice hanger swirls again.  This time we split the mold in half and each did our own thing, but at the same time.

We spliced together a video of our efforts, as best we can do when we try to create and record at the same time!

Thursday 6-12-14, Alison's Hanger Swirl

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Today was my turn to try my hand at the hanger swirl.  I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.  I also decided to add a bit more action to the blog (or, as my daughter says, this one is called a vlog).

Tuesday, we try new things and remake a favorite

Tuesday June 10, 2014

Today we took what is for us a giant step.  We entered the Great Cakes Soap Works  Hanger Swirl Challenge for the month of June.  (take a peek  - http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/handmade-soap-blog/index.php/category/making-soap/soap-challenge/), we promise you will be awe struck.

The challenge isn't really a contest, well, maybe it is, but the bottom line is we probably don't have a prayer of being noticed. It is making us challenge ourselves and try new things.  This time it's called a "hanger swirl", both of us have seen youtube videos and read tons about the "hanger swirl" but we hadn't tried it.

Tuesday Kathy (blogger in residence for this post)  tried one, and Wednesday Alison gave it a try.  I will show you almost all of what is involved. As we both learned, it's hard to make soap and take action shots at the same time.

I've gotten a little ahead of myself. This morning I made a cold process (CP) batch of Lemon Verbena soap because this scent has been very popular. 

When we made a HP batch last week we discovered the flash point was 133 degrees.  Not great for hot process soap, where temperatures range around 175 - 190.  We came to the conclusion that while using the Rustic Escentuals lemon verbena we'd have to use the CP method.

I decided to use Old Faithful. It's tried and true, and the combination of olive, coconut, castor and sustainable palm oils make such a great bar of soap.  The coloration was easy, white and yellow.

After I mixed the oils with the lye/water solution, I used the stick blender and mixed until the batter reached light trace. I mixed the lemon verbena scent into the batter, then evenly divided the batter into two measuring cups. I added TD (titanium dioxide) to one and the fizzy lemonade yellow colorant to the other.

I poured all the white batter into the mold, covering the entire bottom, then tamped it down to release any air bubbles.

I carefully spooned the yellow mixture on the white, trying to be as gentle as possible because I did not want the yellow to break through into the white layer.  

It was starting to look like cheesecake with lemon topping!

I inserted the plastic dividers, and this step of the soap making was done.  I put the lid on the mold, wrapped it with towels to insulate, and left it overnight.

You can see how much brighter the soap was after it cured; it is truly LEMON yellow!  The smell is out of this world (lemon verbena is a favorite).  All that is left to do is remove the soap from the mold and take a few pictures.

In the photo above, the soap looks completely yellow, but it's not. The bottom half really is white, but I will say this, the yellow is really yellow. Maybe next time I will dilute the yellow with some white. I'm not sure it needs to be quite this bright.

Now you can see the white.  This soap will be cured in 6 weeks or about July 22.

As the day progressed I started to think about the soap challenge, could we do it, how do you do a hanger swirl, and so on and so forth.  Before I knew what had come over me I was pulling out oils and deciding what scent to use on my first hanger swirl.

I scrounged through my closet and found a wire hanger, untwisted it and used a pair of pliers to shape it so it would fit in our log mold.  I wrapped it in blue painters tape and viola! I had the proper equipment for the hanger swirl.

I decided to use essential oils, Lavender (3/4) and Litsea Cubea (1/4) which is like lemongrass but  has a softer scent.  

I used ultramarine violet colorant along with TD (titanium dioxide).

I split the batter into three sections, white, light purple and dark purple. (sorry the picture is not in focus)

The first layer was white, the batter poured nicely, it was still fairly runny.  The two hues of purple were a little thicker because I had to mix them to incorporate the color.  In the picture above I am adding a light purple layer over the white one.

Next I added the darker purple layer

Then another layer of the light purple and finally ending with a layer of white, 5 layers in all.

Now for the part that I couldn't photograph, the hanger swirl.  

Placing the length of the hanger into the outside edge of the mold you push it all the way to the bottom.  Slowly you raise the hanger to the top while moving across a small section at a time.  It is up, down, across, up, down, across until you've gone from one side of the mold to the other.  With the size of our mold 3 - 3/4" wide, I was able to swirl about six or seven times.

Once the swirling was done 

With the batter is thickening up nicely I put the remaining white and a some of the darker purple on the top, then feathered the edges and swirled the top.

This is what the soap looked once I finished the top, off to the curing box it goes.

On Wednesday Alison and I took the soap out of the mold, not having any idea what it would look like.

This is what the end of the soap log looked like, hard to tell if this is going to look good or not.

This was the first cut!  We like it! 
The swirling pattern isn't exactly vertical looking, but it does swirl.  We keep cutting bars.

This bar is from the middle. Each one is completely different. 

It's really quite pretty, and the scent is very nice - lavender with a kick of lemon.

This is one of our formal pictures, the ones we use for Etsy.

And today because it's so pretty we will leave you with two single shots, which one do you like better?  This one or ....

 This one?

We like the hanger swirl. Alison is planning on making one on Thursday, and I can't wait to see how pretty it is.

The lavender litsea cubea swirl soap will be cured in six weeks, July 22.

Sweet Patchouli - Wednesday, 6-11-14

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Tuesday, I (Alison) couldn't make it to our workshop early enough to help Kathy with any soap, so today Kathy said, "The stick blender is all yours!"

Hmmm.  There are so many different things that I want to do, that it was really difficult to single in on one thing.  It was difficult until I remembered that one of my very good friends had asked me several weeks ago if we had ever made any patchouli soap.  It is his mother's favorite, and he was looking for something for her.

At the time we didn't have anything, but we ordered a sample scent not too long ago, and I decided that today would be a great day to try out the new fragrance AND make something for a good friend that his mama would love.

Because the fragrance we ordered is sample size, it is only enough for a batch that is 1/2 the size we normally make.  I don't see that as a bad thing, though.  I LOVE using the silicone mold, and this is a good way to make sure that the fragrance is what they are looking for before we make a bigger batch.

I assembled all of my materials and ingredients.  This soap is made of olive, palm, coconut, and castor oils. I decided to add a small bit of colloidal oatmeal for its soothing qualities.  I also decided that I wanted a bit of shimmer on top, so I had a small amount of mica sparkle ready as well.

In the photo above, you can see the most necessary items.  Today I tried using a bucket (formerly known as the coconut oil container) for mixing the soap.  It makes a deeper container for mixing smaller batches.  I'll probably use it every time.

When the lye /water mixture had cooled down enough, I added it to the oils and stirred with the spatula for a couple of minutes until the two were combined.  Then I used the stick blender to finish the job.  If you look closely in the picture below, you can see that I had reached trace.

At trace I added the "Sweet Patchouli" fragrance oil that we had purchased from +Natures Garden.

Nature's Garden describes the fragrance as "an earthy blend of Patchouli and Green Grass intertwined with Fresh Lavender and hints of licorice with crisp notes of menthol softened by amber."  

All that was left was to get the soap ready for the mold.  First, I poured about a cup of the batter into a smaller container.  Into the bucket I mixed the colloidal oatmeal, and then I poured the contents into the mold.

In the smaller container, I mixed about 1 tsp. of mica sparkle.  Below is a closeup of the batter.  See the tiny shimmery flecks?

When it was mixed evenly, I gently spread that batter on top of the oatmeal batter. Finally, I gave it a spritz with alcohol to avoid any ashy residue on the top, and the soap was ready to go into the insulating box for about 24 hours.

Below is how it looked in the mold:

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Today I unmolded the soap and cut it into bars.  It is a very pretty soap.

See the small layer on top?  That is the layer with the shimmer mica added.

 

You can also see the ground oatmeal in the body of the bar.  I hope that my friend and his mom like this! It will be ready to use in about six weeks.

Etsy - we're live, finally

Monday June 9, 2014

I feel like I should begin this post by saying (after clearing my throat)

"today is a day that will go down in history"  but I probably shouldn't make such a big deal out of our Etsy store going online.

To see the shop go to www.etsy.com and in the line that says find items or shops type in SoapLilySoaps (no spaces) and you can see us!  The following link might work, too:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SoapLilySoaps

We've been trying to get this shop opened for quite a while.   Who knew there would be so many glitches (bank accounts, PayPal, debit cards, Square readers, family stuff, making soap etc.), but it's finally open and I am happy to report that within 5 minutes of our shop being open we had a sale!

One of Kathy's best friends in Florida bought 2 bars of soap.   When Alison's phone went ka-ching (it's a notification from Etsy that we had a sale) we didn't know what was going on, then we realized......WE HAVE A SALE!!

So many thanks to Judy, rather than frame her charge slip we decided to send her a free bar of soap!   Our fingers are crossed with hopes for a growing Etsy business.

Since we didn't make soap Monday (too busy doing cartwheels - really!  We would have shared pictures of it, but they just didn't come out clearly)  we don't have interesting soap pictures to show you so we decided to show you our method of lining wooden molds.


If you make soap and are reading this chances are you already know how to do this, if not, well here is how it goes.

For demo purposes we are using the 18 bar birchwood mold that comes from +Bramble 
Berry 

Shown above with side inserts and plastic dividers in place (and I think there is actually soap in this picture, but let's not get ahead of ourselves)

First thing you will need is Freezer paper, and you will be using it shiny side up.

Remove a piece long enough to hang over the short sides about 4" on either end.  The paper is long enough to give you plenty of room on the long sides.

Place the cut piece of freezer paper on top of the mold.

Normally I would use both hands, however as you can see by the shadow, I was holding my camera with the other hand.

Place your arm across the wide part of the mold and gently hold the paper down and in place.

With your finger nail (and they can't be really long nails or you will rip through the paper) gently trace the inside edge of the mold that is beneath the paper.

Switching out when you have to but keeping the paper in place at all times continue around the entire inside of the box until all edges are traced/indented.

Remove the mold from beneath the paper and lay paper flat.  You clearly see the outline of the mold.

Following the indented lines you traced, shiny side up, fold the long sides of the paper towards the center, in photo above both long sides are folded in.

This pictures shows the long sides open at the fold

Open the paper up, swing it around so you are working with the short side of the paper then using the indented lines fold both short ends towards the center.

This picture shows all four of the folds

With the long side facing you, cut the seams from the edge to the junction of the short fold, do not cut further than the short fold.

Stop right there! Make the same cut on the other (3) long corners.

The paper should look like this when all four corners are cut.  Now get the mold again as we are going to place the paper in the mold.

To make it easier, fold the long sides into the center, then fold the short sides in whilst tucking the flaps (from short side) behind the long sides.  This maneuver is a little tricky, keep trying.

One side is wedged into the mold with short side flaps tucked behind long sides.

Turn mold around and push the other end down into the mold, at the same time tuck the short side flaps behind the long sides.

When all sides are tucked, gently push the paper down into the mold until it is snug on the bottom and in the corners.

There will be a folded seam at each corner, they aren't very tall.  Take a pair of scissors and cut the seam to the point where it meets the mold.  Do this on all four corners.

Now take the loose sides on all four sides and begin taping them to the birchwood box.

Once all sides are securely taped down you are ready to insert the liners, pour the soap in then insert the dividers.

We know it wasn't making soap, but hope you enjoyed this lesson in how to line a mold.

Be sure and check out the Etsy page!!!!