Soaping 101 Challenges #1 & 2

Soaping 101 Study Hall is a teaching forum for soapmakers. You can find Cathy's wonderful soaping video's on You Tube. Cathy is posting a new challenge each month. I am enjoying these soap challenges! It is fun to learn something new and try different techniques.

The first week was a challenge Cathy called Pointilism. We were to find a photo or artwork to use as our inspiration. Since I enjoy my garden flowers I went through some of my photos. This is what I came up with:

Hollyhocks at the back of the garden

I chose several colors to work with: greens for the leaves, shades of pink and red for the flowers and some blues to create a bit of the sky. The technique involved using squirt bottles so that meant I had to have a slow moving soap recipe to have time to squirt the soap into the mold. I decided on a White Ginger/Amber blended with Blackberry Amber for the fragrance. This was definitely a challenge! My hands hurt by the time was done filling the mold. Each color is presented into the mold in lines that are then built up to create the feeling of the photo. Here is my result:

Hollyhocks in Pointilism Soap

For the second challenge we were to use a color palette for our inspiration. There are several good ways to find a good color palette. Going to a home improvement store would work - they have lots of great color ideas in the paint aisles. Another way is to find a good webpage like Design Seeds (http://design-seeds.com/). I really like this site! There are so many inspiring ways to create color that could be used for gardens, sewing or craft projects and of course for designing rooms. I choose a palette under the theme Mineral Autumn.

I used some gold, copper and bronze micas for the main colors along with some activated charcoal to create the black lines. I added some titanium dioxide to half of the charcoal to get a lighter gray. Then I left a small amount uncolored to get a more subtle color. For this soap I layered each color and repeated the layers. Then I used the hanger swirl method to mix the layers (yes, I literally used a hanger!) The soap is scented with a blend of essential oils of vetivert, orange, ylang and patchouli. I wanted something a bit different to go with the mineral pattern, something a bit deeper and earthy. The orange and ylang rounded it off very nicely.

Autumn Mineral

Both of these soaps will be ready for purchase by mid-June.
I hope you are enjoying reading and seeing the results of these soap challenges as much as I am enjoying making them!