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So, I’m planning my next soap project. I’m wanting to do something fun, cool, and easy. Sorta. Lol. I wanna swirl! But I know, I know, go slow…☹️ So, I need ideas. I want something spring/summery. I have colours! *does booty shake*
I’m wondering if I can do the lines thingy. Where you make each line a different colour, in order within a bed of one colour. Then swirl the colours dropped into the base colour.
Or perhaps an in the pot swirl. Never done that either. So many options, so little time. Lol
I need to narrow ideas, people! I’m hoping to get this project started in a week or so.
Are you talking about a Taiwan Swirl? Do you have dividers for your mold? If that’s the design you’re talking about, that’s why I ordered the silicone log mold from Essential Depot. You can order dividers made to fit that mold off of Etsy. I got the mold and basket for $25 AAAAAND the dividers for about the same price. The dividers I bought can be inserted to make three separate sections or four separate sections. I’ve only made one soap loaf with the dividers, but did a neat Circling Taiwan Swirl design that turned out pretty nice. It’s basically in the same colors that I did my swirled soap in. Hmmmmm, I must really like that color scheme! Haha
Once you get the hang of NOT mixing your soap batter to trace (geez, this was a hard one for me for some reason!😬), doing swirls is easy-peasy! The swirling is much easier with a fluid batter. Also, using a scent that doesn’t accelerate really helps. When I made that second batch of soap with the fragrance oil, I just basically hand stirred it. Literally, two quick bursts with the immersion blender and that’s it. Hand stirred the colors and started pouring in the mold. I should have just swirled the colors and been done with it, but i really had no plan, so I just started playing with it. It thickened up really quickly, so I layered it in the mold as best as I could then swirled the top with a chopstick. So, it wasn’t pretty, but it’s still soap and I got to play with it a bit without feeling like my plan was ruined.
So, if you don’t have dividers, plan a ITPS design. Pick two or three colors and swirl those babies!! I think my first ITPS was two colors. I colored half green and left the other half natural. That made it pretty easy and it was nice soap. I think that’s the soap recipe I did with a blended cucumber as part of the water part. So, it had little green speckles from the cucumber skin in the green and yellow swirls. The recipe was on Modern Soapmaking if you want to check it out.
Not sure if it’s with dividers. I just remember a Soap Queen and another video where they put half of one colour down, then poured the other colours one at a time into that base colour. Then topped with the base colour. Now I’ll have to go look. It made some neat patterns throughout the soap.
Yes, ITP swirl has potential if I get cuckoo and overblend again. (Please no.) That was such a learning experience. I want swirls. I’m needing swirls. 😂
Ah! That Swirl technique is similar to Barb’s chopstick Swirl. I’ll have to remember that!! I’m ready to make more soap again!! I’m on a roll!!
Stick the chopstick in the batter at an angle, the way the girl did her spoon handle(?) in the video. I was half watching, half cleaning up the breakfast dishes so I didn’t really see what she used, just how she swirled it. After sticking the spoon handle, chopstick, whatever you’re using…swirl it around in circles in the center of the mold, slowly moving down the length of the mold.
Soaping in the morning. I have a recipe picked out. I’m gonna swirl! I’m so excited! Me me me! Swirl swirl swirl! Purple and orange and silver and perhaps blue. Depends on how I feel. Lmao. Swirlies!
Yeah…I’m having a moment. I’m leaning to ITPS. Though the drop swirl thing has potential!
Yup. I just scoured the kitchen and have sanitised. Now it’s time to soap! I’m so excited! Swirl! And one must remember not to over blend. Just enough to see it be fully incorporated.
Okay. I made soap. I did an ITPS. I discovered that using NDA’s Green Tea and Pear, which smells awesome, accelerated trace with my yellow and Orange from Wholesale Supplies. The pink berry, it worked perfectly. Because of that, the swirl didn’t quite work like I wanted, but I still think it turned out pretty good. We shall see when we cut it.
Awesome! It looks pretty swirly to me! I’m sure it’ll look great when you cut it!
Don’t you just LOVE acceleration!?!?!
Let me explain the words that came out of my mouth. “OMG! What is this nonsense? No no no! We are swirling, not pumpkin banana chunking! We will not do this *€}%{%{£|+!!! Do you hear me!”
Yeah, like that. Exactly. I was so happy the white and pink berry behaved. And I was so good on not over mixing! I was!
Next time you use a fragrance oil, just stir it with a spoon or spatula. One super quick blitz of stick blender, ZZZZZIP, then put it away. Hand stir in colors and FO. Believe me, it’s going to thicken up but it will do it much slower with only hand stirring! By the time I molded my last hand-stirred batch of soap, it was a thick pudding. The fragrance oil did its job well! Haha
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