Thursday, April 4, 2013

Moving on, the Elemental Swirl: Third try = the charm?

OR...is it just that the FIRST try of each technique is the charm???  Who knows right?  All I know is now I can't wait until the weekend comes to share this one - heck, if you are reading this it might already BE the weekend :) It seems for me, with the challenge, I should leave "well enough alone" and stick to one attempt on things...ok universe, I get it, can do!

So...I went on into the soap room bout, eh, 6ish this evening (Actually yesterday evening now...Wednesday night that is).  I got EVERYTHING prepped to do my version of the "Elemental Swirl".  Then, I walked away.  Oh yes, it was time to milk, then dinner and so on...I figured there was no storm blowing through tonight and odds would be in my favor if I waited until after ALL the critters were fed! Plus, I really didn't know if I had it in me to get back in there...but then while I was waiting on the chicken to finish roasting for dinner, I came across a blog post by another soap challenge taker and I was really and truly inspired to stop pouting and get back in that soap room.  Sometimes, I must admit, the farming thing can kinda drive you nuts...this has been one of those weeks!  But I put on my big girl panties and in I went...

'Bout 10p.m. I headed in - ready to do battle!  Flashlight always handy, just in case, everyone on lock down, gloves and goggles on, here I come to tackle a batch of soap with NO INTERRUPTIONS! See now, I was (and still am) VERY excited about this one!  I had some Cucumber Melon fragrance oil from Nature's Garden that I had been meaning to soap - and when I heard about the soap challenge BAM! It hit me!  THAT was the one for the elemental swirl!!!

Milk and lye, all mixed up and ready (oils not pictured ready too :) )

A hot mess of colors and cups, ready to mix away - see my oils off to the left there? Also - please note the splash of purple on the wall above the single red cup...see it?  Oh yes, that would be a splash from the spill in my great Leopard attack the night before!  I still don't know how I came away from that one unscathed....no back to the soap at hand...


The greens and the yellows needed no stick blending - I choose those three on a plain soap base because they reminded me of how both cucumbers and watermelons often have a bit of yellow in the rind portion...The black hadn't been blended yet when I paused to snap this, but I was going for watermelon-y reds/pinks with a bit of black like the seeds ya know?

I didn't get any pics of me mixing it all in the pots...i was way too excited to slow down for the camera!  First...in goes the red bit....I kinda over did it with the swirling thing, it's a little curfuddled and more muddy than I was going for, but hey...I'll take it!  At least a tree limb hadn't come through the roof yet and no goats had strolled through the kitchen either!  Gotta take what you can get in terms of perfection LOL :)
It's more red/pink than white closer to the bottom - funny how you can over stir part of it and not the rest right?  Okay...so then I choose the pearly white mica for my pencil line.  Sticking with the whole "melon slice" theme I was going for, I wanted the white line to be there like that ucky white part only chickens and pigs eat on a melon...
I'm just ITCHING to see how that white line comes out...a little scared it WON'T come out!  Looks silvery a bit in this lighting doesn't it?  Oh well...I must admit here - when I have done "pencil lines" until now I have used a strainer thing-a-ma-jig that I have.  But this time I tried Madame GreatCakes herselfs hint and used an old pair of panty hose over a little jar and YES!  Hausfrau farm wife me did have a pair in the closet still (of course I have never worn them LOL, pulled 'em fresh outta the package! Thank goodness I'm not froo froo anymore!) LOVED that little trick!

Then, ever so gently, on with the green layer....
I ended up with the coolest ever ribbons of green down the middle! I ALMOST left it like that too!  But, alas, I had pink/red bits left and couldn't resist swirling the top a bit....
On with the melon colored madness...annnnnnddd....then we swirls it all :)


Now, here's where I had a VERY tough moment - to glitter or not to glitter - that is the question????  After staring at it VERY hard for a moment, I went with "or not".  A little tidly wee bit of shine from the mica is coming through in that darker red and I decided I liked that.  No, not a ton like melt and pour soap would give it...but enough...A nice little pop of "look real close to see how special this soap is" if you will.

The best part?  The VERY best part?  I only had enough fragrance to do this one ONCE right now at least LOL....I won't be going back for a round 2 on this soap for a while!  So...knock on wood...long as the rest of that oak tree stays put and doesn't fall into my soap room we are safe for a while!  

****************************************************************


And....drum roll ya'll............

Sorry, it's a tid bit out of focus - my shaky hands would not cooperate tonight.  But...Me likey :) :) :)

The pencil line in white = bad idea - you can BARELY see it there (of course maybe if I went with darker colors it would be better...but I like the lighter pastely look for this scent).  IF you look reeaaallllly close, it looks more like tiger stripes than swirls LOL!!!  I suppose that is a big "cosmic laugh at me" kinda thing though - I asked for tiger stripes last week danggit and NOW I get them!  Oh my...I'm still laughing at my reaction when I cut it!  "WHAT?  Stripes now??" It took my 2 slices in to catch on too - at first I was all "ooh, ahh" and THEN a very loud WHAT was heard all across the county - sorry ya'll, it was me (my husband seriously came in to check on me as I was talking very loudly to myself as I cut this one haha!) I still love it though!  

Note to self for next time:  more red, no white, in the bottom part...maybe a thin white SOAP middle layer...and no pink stuff on top, perhaps a mica swirl on top and insulate and gel it - usually my soaps do well on their own once I put the lid on them, but it got colder in here last night than I thought! I shoulda wrapped it in a towel or 2, eh, next time I will watch the temp in the house better (I don't recall inviting winter to return either - it's been crazy cold for APRIL the last few days!) Oh well, no big deal right? Ya know, for a cucumber melon scent, I really like the way it came out! It has melon colors, it has cucumber colors, and a little bit of sparkly from the micas I used.  Tres nice :)

Now I need to make a decision for the next challenge - mica swirl tops and such....hmmm...I made a really neat one last month and I know it will go fast among the friends and family.  DO I TAKE A CHANCE ON ROUND 2???  Or do I do something totally different????  We shall see.....
 





10 comments:

  1. I think your elemental swirl/tiger stripe batch came out great! LOL--don't ya just love how soaping goes sometimes?? Just when you think you know what you're doing, you get surprised!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your elemental soap turned out VERY cool! Love all of the 'in the mold' shots too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you both and YES part of the fun in soaping IS how it can get a little "random/surprising"...I just wish the rest of life weren't always so surprising LOL :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very pretty soap even if you got the stripes now :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like the look of the oriental tiger stripe soap ah I mean elemental! Those green ribbons oh so beautiful I don't think I could have covered it up. Great color choices too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you :) I had a REALLY hard time covering it up too! Maybe next time I won't...hmm...we will see ;)

      Delete
  6. Love the Cucumber Melon theme! You definitely have the right idea! So funny that you got stripes this time around too! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like your green part, very nice shades of green, it goes well with the top colours!

    ReplyDelete