SOTM-April 2017-Snow Flowers-Photos added

[TallTayl]

This winter was so mild my flowers started coming up earlier than usual. The grass would peek through the little wisps of snow revealing crocus, snowdrops, cute weeds and other perennial bulb shoots reaching for the sun. That was the inspiration for Snow Flowers.

 

The goal:

Bottom third: swirled green and white to represent the snow melting over grass. Used TKB Apple Green mica for the grass color.

middle third: snowy air with little sparkly blossoms

Top third: blue and white "sky". Used TKB Blueberry POP mica and UM blue for the sky blue portion.

My soap color is pretty heavily ivory in its natural color, so I used Nurture Soap's water dispersible titanium dioxide in my lye water. I may have gone overboard with it. Will be fun to see if it causes glycerin rivers or chalkiness in the finished soap.

 

This design can be used with any recipe. I used my production recipe on this tutorial which contains Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Olive Oil and Castor Oil. An easy recipe you can use to replicate this that gives a good bit of working time is the trinity: 50% olive Oil, 25% palm or lard, and 25% coconut oil.

 

My 17" wood mold uses 60 oz of oils for a 2.5" wide by 3.25-3.5" tall x 1" thick bar.

 

The scent blend CandleScience Hydrangea and CandleScience English Garden blended 50:50. I committed a soaping cardinal sin by not testing this blend in my soap first. Between the titanium dioxide and the floral blend the raw soap wanted to rice on me.

 

The Sparkling Confetti Blossoms:

I had a bunch of rainbow soap ends to do something with, so I used the fine setting of a cheese grater to make fine confetti blossoms. I used 3 oz of confetti in this log.

 

Snow flowers sparkle, so I used "Super Sparkles" from nurture soap to coat the confetti with a bit of shimmer.  Super Sparkles are different from normal mica. The material is super fine and light and maintains a sparkle even in cold process soap. It floats everywhere, so the other layers ended up with some sparkle too.

 

The Method:

I figured with all the untested floral fragrance that things would accelerate a bit, so I divided my warmed oils into thirds, ditto on the lye solution and the fragrance.I worked one layer at a time to give myself some breathing time.

 

Bottom Layer:

Blended the lye solution with oils, lightly stick blended Added the fragrance and notices a little ricing. stick blended through and poured some of the white base into the green mica waiting in the pouring cup.

Poured the green round and round and round back into the white. The green got to the top, middle and bottom of the pitcher.

 

Then poured back and forth several times across the mold. Slammed the mold on the counter to settle.

 

Middle Layer:

Blended the oils, lye solution and fragrance as before, then hand stirred the confetti into the base. it got pretty thick.

Poured into the mold and slammed pretty hard many times to settle.

Top layer:

Repeated the bottom layer, but with the blue and white.

I texture my tops. My favorite tool is the handle of a plastic "wooden" spoon.

Finished and doing its sap magic.

 

It has begun to crack a little already with the floral heat. I will let it settle for an hour or so, then set into a warm oven to complete to hopefully prevent partial gel in this one.

 

Update:

Here it is freshly out of the mold. It is still really, really soft. Notice the little holes. Those are easily fixed by spackling some of the soap stuck to the liner or from trimmed off bits. Find the closest color, stuff it into a hole, then smooth. as it cures it will look as if there were no blemishes at all.

[PhoenixFyre]

Can't wait to see this one! Looks beautiful already.

 

I haven't been courageous enough to try layers yet in my CP soap, but this may be just the inspiration I needed.

[debratant]

I can't wait either!  Those sparkly confetti's are going to be so pretty!!!

Edited to add, I love glycerin rivers, so I'm curious to see if you get them.

Edited April 5, 2017 by debratant

[Candybee]

That looks awesome TT! This would be a great way to use up soap scraps. I have boxes and boxes of them! They just keep piling up!

 

Can't wait to see the cut pics. I love the colors you used. I love CS Hydrangea. It smells so springtime! Never tried it in CP. Looks like you didn't have any problems with it?

 

Forgot to add, love the way the sparkles look. Can't wait to see how they turned out in the cut pics.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Candybee

[TallTayl]

Cut Pictures!

[Candybee]

Those are really pretty! Love the look of the swirls and the sparkly confetti layers. Wish I could smell it, I love hydrangrea! Don't remember what the english garden smells like but I remember I used to blend it with rose for a 'tea rose garden' scent.

[Incendia]

I'm always amazed at how pretty handmade soaps can be. Who knew?

[Sponiebr]

@TallTayl Just WONDERFUL!!!! In the immortal words of Paris Hilton: 

"that's hot." 


Thank you:) 

 

Sponiebr
 

[cindym]

Really pretty girl!

[Terry]

Love it TT !  

 

Do the layers just adhere together or is there a certain temperature that the layers need to be or a time limit between pouring the layers? 

 

Thanks......  

[TallTayl]

36 minutes ago, Terry said:

Love it TT !  

 

Do the layers just adhere together or is there a certain temperature that the layers need to be or a time limit between pouring the layers? 

 

Thanks......  

i never do anything special with my cp layers. even my 6 layer  rainbow soap just sticks. i pour one layer after another as soon as the previous layer is stiff enough not to smear.

[Faerywren]

What a great idea! So pretty!

[PhoenixFyre]

So beautiful! I absolutely love it. It came out exactly how you described it, with the grass and flowers peeking through the snow and the blue sky overhead. Spot on!