To copy or not to copy, that is the question.

I waffle a bit on the issue of copying another soaper's design. It's difficult to replicate your own soap many times, much less make a copy of someone else's, but should you even try? It sometimes feels like a cheat and I have made some of my worst soaps trying to replicate something, but there are times I have found that I automatically put my own twist or spin or signature into my soap, sometimes with intent, such as a slight riff on something I've seen, or unwittingly. There are many soaps you can recognize as a specific maker's because their signature is so strong. I don't have that but I hope over time that I will develop my own looks that I prefer.

I recently saw a picture of a friend's soap and fell in love with it. White and black and just gorgeous lines through it. I'll see if she will post it to her own blog so I can link it and you can see for yourself. I made one attempt to do the same technique but with a different tool, but it wasn't good. Then tonight I made two attempts with my own twist to them. Nothing special, but it was my way of trying her technique without it being a direct copy and putting my own style on it. It caused an awful lot of mental cursing because my first batch accelerated on me, although I kept to plan. I figured it was a bust. I tried another, taking out the part of the FO blend that I thought accelerated only to have that batch accelerate just slightly less, but again, I kept to plan. I thought I might have had better luck but was assuming it would be just not ugly, at best. Holy balls! They gelled, which I would not have done but the accelerating FO drove it that direction and I didn't want the partial gel, and when I cut, I was so thrilled! Is it wrong to love your own soap? It feels slightly narcissistic but I am going to do it anyhow.

The first batch gelled and the black stayed black. This soap got rock hard right after pouring and gelled first. The second batch seemed to have gelled hotter and I got crackle, even though I used well under 1 tsp ppo of TD and I got some precipitation of the AC in the lines, but dang, I love the effect!