Hey, there my name is Teri with tree soap works, and I want to share with you my soap challenge
entry for the July 2021 challenge. I will list information below about the soap challenge. It's
hosted by Amy Warden and I would really encourage you to try it. There's a new challenge every month
and this month it was abstract soap designs. Also, this month it was a blind challenge meaning that
you can't post any of your images of your soap on social media until after the voting is done.
I really enjoyed this challenge and I wanted to explore it a little more. I only got one shot at
it this time because of time constraints, and with no further ado let's get started on the way I did
this challenge. Since this challenge is abstract art I decided that I wanted to try making a soap
frame. I've never made a frame before it was a learning experience, so I will share that with
you. First, I needed to make the batter for the frame. I need enough batter to make the
thickness of each of the four sides of the frame, but also I knew that I wasn't going to be able
to do uniform thicknesses without some trial and error. So I made probably about twice as much as
I needed. The fragrance doesn't really matter in this soap, but just so you can imagine I'm using
jade fragrance from Brambleberry. I love that scent and it never gives me any trouble. The
smooth coconut carbon is from Elements Bath and Body I'm using that at a rate of one and a half
teaspoons per pound of soap. When I was done pouring this I covered it put it in the oven,
and did the normal cold process oven process method I usually do. Then I waited another
day to cut it. I did use sodium lactate in this batch, so that helped it harden up a bit
for the cutting. The mold I'm using here is a new one for me. I got it just in time because this one
has straight edges where as my silicone molds have a little bit of a taper to them, and they wouldn't
work well for making a frame that you need to be 90 degrees. This mold is from Custom Craft Tools.
I want you to see my new cutter from Custom Craft Tools. I will have to tell you this story sometime
about how it came about, but this cutter cuts horizontally and vertically. I have a discount
code for you if you're interested. As I'm editing this video I just realized that I'm misusing this
cutter. The wire cutter is put into slots, but it's supposed to be underneath. So if you see my
cutter handle that would have to go to the right and underneath, and it would be completely out of
the way that way. Well, I don't know why but I didn't use it that way. I think it's because I
was used to the Bramble Berry one where that is on the top. I did have to reposition my hands
to compensate for that being in the way, but Custom Craft Tools had thought of that. So that
would be underneath and out of the way if I'm using this right. Here I'm doing some trial and
error to try to get my thin pieces. You can see that my cut isn't even it's not uniform there's
a little bump right in the beginning and then it's not quite uniform, so we need to work around that.
This is not meant to be a planer it's meant to be a log splitter. You can use it for a planer
you just have to figure out how to do it, so I figured out that you have to sandwich that slab
of soap in between two hard pieces, put even pressure on it, and slide it through there and
it should be pretty uniform. The pieces that I'm using to sandwich the soap are from the mold that
I was using before. I just placed the flat side to the soap and slid it through there. Again, I have
this configured wrong. My left hand wouldn't be hitting the wire cutter it would be completely out
of the way and underneath if I had it configured right. The first one didn't turn out so great,
but I kept trying and I finally got at least four that would be good for all my four sides. Next,
I have to fit these pieces into my mold, and by pushing them through the cutter they stretched out
a little bit. I have to get that little sliver cut off the end to make them fit. To use this cutter
vertically I just turn it around 180 degrees and I have that nice straight edge to cut down. I
stacked the top and bottom pieces together and cut them at the same time so that they would be equal
lengths. I probably should have stacked all four of them together and cut them at the same time.
But really I was just learning at this point it was kind of trial and error until I got it figured
out. I think the next time I do this it will go much more smoothly. Next, I have to figure out
what the short end of my soap is going to be and I have to cut it to that length. So I just take the
height that I want and subtract the thickness of those two end pieces that I've already cut.
I sandwiched them in between two pieces that were cut slightly less than the height that I wanted.
So if I wanted them to be two inches tall I would have those two sandwich pieces, which I use foam
board, in this case. I would have those be just slightly less than two inches and that helps them
go through there very cleanly. Next, I need to cut that same amount off of these edges as I did the
other edges and get them ready to put in the mold. I used a little bit of water on the sides of the
mold to get these to kind of suction to the sides of the mold and have them ready for my pour. Here
i am cutting a few in pieces because I thought I should have something on the end so that the top
piece doesn't sag down. I'm not sure whether I needed it or not but I think it was probably good
to have it. Next, I pour my white batter, and the white is just figured at one teaspoon per pound
of oils. I use my titanium dioxide from Elements Bath and Body. I have made this tool out of two
pieces of plexiglass just to get the proper depth of the soap when I'm scraping it off, and get all
the white just as high as the black side pieces. I had to keep filling in the white until I got it
full. Also every time I moved that scraper across the top I got a little of the black in there so I
had to keep taking that out, and it was a process it took a little while. I may have messed with it
too long but I was happy to see that I didn't get any of those little black scrapings into
my batter. So in the end it was worth it to get that nice even top and a clean-cut.
When I was happy with the way that the white looked I placed the black
piece on top. I kind of started from the center and worked my way out so that I
wouldn't trap any air in there. Next, I added a sheet of plexiglass to the top
then my Saran wrap, and just let it sit on the counter for two days before cutting.
I didn't want my soap to go through gel white is whiter when it doesn't go through gel. For this
one, I think it was cool enough that when left out and covered it was fine and didn't go through gel.
It still wasn't that pristine white but that's okay it was fine and I didn't want to use the
100 coconut oil with a high super fat so this is as good as I could get. Here I'm cutting this.
I already cut off the end piece and now I'm just making 11 pieces because this is my 12-inch mold.
I'm really happy with how the frame came out. In the future, I would probably make it a little bit
thicker but for this challenge, we had to cover 50 or more of our soap face with the palette knife
art design, and if I made my frame too thick then I would have to cover most of the white
with the palette knife art design. I always think in art less is more and sometimes I just want
really simple and dynamic designs. If I were doing this outside of the soap challenge I
probably would have covered less of the white area to make it a little more impactful, I think. So in
looking at the ones that I already have finished I like the ones that have less on them. For the
Soap Challenge Club, there are always certain guidelines and it pushes you to stay within those
guidelines. It makes you grow as a soap maker and even though it's not the way you would have done
it. It just forces you to think outside the box and get a design that works within the rules, and
that's why I really love the soap challenge club because it just makes you grow as a soap maker.
It took me a while to get into the groove. I had to figure out my palette knife situation,
and I also had to figure out the proper trace. I started and I thought it was a proper trace. But I
was not getting the peaks and that nice texture that I wanted, so I had to get the trace to
almost set but not quite. Just a really heavy trace. While I was trying to get into the swing
of things I also figured out that palette knives work on big canvases when you have a lot of space,
but when you're dealing with a bar of soap that's three and a half by two and a fourth that's teeny
tiny. A whole palette knife takes up the whole thing pretty much so I ended up using just my
trusty little skinny stick. And that worked well for this design to get the texture I wanted.
I really enjoyed making abstract art with soap. If I were to do it again I would make something that
could go all the way through a bar like they would have to be in beds most likely. But it could be a
hanger swirl or something like that but that would be something neat to try in the future.
I want to note that I was kind of pressed for time when I took the photo for the soap challenge. The
photo that I took was taken the next day after I made these designs. The entry photo I got in just
in the nick of time so I didn't bother taking photos for this video in that 9x16 format that
you need. So when I went to go to my curing rack to take the photos for this video I noticed that
the colors had changed, and I wasn't really in love with them at first. So here we have
the orange head changed to kind of a peach color and the turquoise had changed to more of
a blue color than it was a little more green and as I get used to it I do really like it.
Thank you for sticking it out to the end of the video, and thank you for bearing with me
while I take a little time off from video editing and voice-overs. During the summertime just
evades me usually, but the kids will be back in school soon and I'll have more time for that.
I also have new soaps for sale in my shop. They're the soaps from the previous video
and they're wonderful. We've been using them and they're very nice. Someone was asking if
they have a colored lather those ones they're really bright and no the leather is completely
white. If you're interested please buy a bar or a few also there are recipes for sale at my shop as
well. Thank you so much for your comments below and your likes and also thank you for subscribing
and hitting that bell for notifications. I will see you back here next time. :)