From the soap pot

I managed to hit some late evening sunlight while taking pictures of s few of my discoloring FO soap. The green cast has given way to more of a tobacco brown and in the rich evening light, they look deep and stony, which I like. The light was fleeting so I didn't get many pictures but later this week I will try again. I always seem to get marks and odd spots on my soap, but I suppose that's a reflection of me, since I am incapable of not being messy.

I made another batch with a discoloring FO, not knowing if I would ever like any of my other batches, and I'm impatiently waiting for them to fully discolor. I used BB's Cedar and Saffron so the yellowed parts should go caramel brown.

I made a small batch in a chai tea carton because I can't find a vertical mold that I like yet. First, the carton is not structured sturdily enough for a batch of batter so in spite of my impromptu supports, they are oddly shaped. They also came out completely other than what I expected and I do mean completely. I got no distinction between my colors, which looked pretty obvious in batter, and I thought I'd get a visible pattern but instead it almost looks like a got a bleeding gradient type soap. Not complaining because someone will be happy to wash with them.

My espresso soap is simply not going to get dark. It seems a shame.

I've got one more batch that is currently under wraps, trying to gel. I'm very hopeful it will complete gel soon enough that it can cool enough for me to get a slice tonight. If I'm lucky, it will be post-worthy.

All the dogs are staring at me, moaning and groaning, so time for a walk. Later!

Liz, from Amber Waves of Soap, and I were talking about wall pours. We've seen a few over time and I've used the technique many times but to a different effect and end. I tried one of the more standard pours tonight which came out okay. I need more distinction between my colors and I didn't pour perfectly evenly from end to end. I like it but I like the ones I didn't pour quite as well a little better but only if they are upside down. Then they look like a tornado, kind of, and since I love severe weather photos and weather photos in general, they appeal to me more. And the Oz books carry a special place in my heart as I have and read a number of the old editions, favorites being Lucky Bucky in Oz (sitting on my dresser as we speak) and Ozma of Oz.

I made short videos of the two pours I did and will process them and post on our forum website. I'll get a link up when I have them done. The second pour is more randomly done and is probably more my style but we shall see after it has gone under the knife.

I am tearing my hair out trying to get a stupid picture from my phone. I have to default to my computer. Luddite.

Sweet mother of the little baby Jesus, it has taken me an HOUR to get access to edit this post and to get the pictures. Why, why, why??!?

The random pour

https://www.facebook.com/helka.finn/videos/830833577014360/?pnref=story

Discoloring FO's

Are currently the bane of my existence. Challenge- design a soap using a discoloring FO. Sounds simple and for many it is, I'm certain. No joy here in my world, where discoloring FO's are embued with illogic, peevishness, mischief, and a dislike for my intentions, as well as the ability to act independently.

One is scented with Pumpkin Lager, loaded with vanilla and destined to go deep brown. What did I ever do to you, Lager, that makes you go booger khacki green? All the bright yellow you see is now, yes, gross greenish brown.

I thought this one was okay. I got a partial gel on it and the partial gel is proceeding to darken fast apace, far faster than the gelled portion and it looks like the gelled part will not ever catch up with the corners. I can live with that. Then someone saw it and told me it reminds him of colonic polyps and now I can't stop seeing them. Green, though? He's a vegetarian; maybe he thinks they are green when you go heavy on the veggies and only carnivores get the meaty pink ones. He's not 50 yet so he hasn't had a true picture of the reality of his colon. This is out of the mold. The tan part is now dark brown.

I tried a drop swirl, heavy on the mica to get the shimmery effect. Pinks and gold with edges of glittery white set against a backdrop of extremely dark brown. Sounds delightful! Every bar has a large pink ass on it.

Then I tried one that is supposed to turn everything neon yellow, immediately, even before you get it out of the mold. No longer trusting, I left some of the batter uncolored but did an ITP swirl of bright yellow in it. Gelled, unmolded, blew on it to get it exposed to air and have one sitting on the windowsill to expose it to sunlight, anything that might discolor it. No, the uncolored portions are still white. Thankfully I did that ITP swirl.

The one I will enter, just because I like it, was made with Espresso FO in the uncolored portions and the white and black have Rose Geranium. It sounds weird, I know, but in the right proportions it smells good. Espresso FO turns soap about the color of....espresso, except in my soap. In mine, it doesn't even qualify as tan, in spite of sitting out for almost 2 weeks. It just looks dirty. However, I really like the patterns and in one bar, I see two hawkish eyes and a lemur or ferret, and on the side sit two lambs faces. It's like a Rorschach and I get a huge kick out of it ( I also see a colon, without polyps). It is pathetic as an example of a discoloring FO but I admit myself defeated.

I surrender.

I was watching my small bonfire tonight and took some pictures with a very high shutter speed, just to see if I found out anything about fire. One thing I discovered is that flames will exist momentarily completely removed from other flames or the source of heat. Yes, I do know that flames never actually touch the object that is burning but I always think of them as contiguous in something like a wood fire. Using a gas or liquid, like you would in a flame thrower or such, I know the flames will leave the nozzle but I thought that was because the vapor or liquid was being expressed under pressure. I found many pictures with independent flames above the mass of the others and I thought it was cool. I love the flame flower in the one picture and you have to love the devil tail in the other. At least, I do.

Orange and purple, revisited

I saw the woman whose dress inspired my first orange and purple soap and, lo and behold, she was wearing it again! I told her my first soap had not really been at all like her dress so she told me to take a picture of it, for future reference. I did, and I tried again. I had an odd experience making this soap though. The first side went relatively as expected except for my FO blend reversing trace. Oh, that can be a dangerous thing. It allows so much time to monkey around and often, you find you went too far with swirling only after you've ruined the soap. I had some self-restraint and I like the outcome. I rotated the picture of her dress but it won't stay rotated.

I flipped it and made the other side with the same colors and same FO blend, except this time it did not reverse trace at all, but accelerated. WTH? It was still workable but I didn't get what I envisioned. It usually doesn't bother me that much but I had the oddest feeling. It was almost like I didn't recognize the soap and I was irritated with it. No, I didn't wish to fling it across the room or any such thing; it was more like I wished to shove it away from me and have nothing to do with it. So odd! There is nothing fundamentally wrong with it and there are sections I liked but the overall sensation was one of rejection by me. I kept going back to look at it to see if my feelings changed but they didn't. I cut it and keep avoiding looking at the side I had no attachment to. Did I have a stroke? It makes no sense. I guess I should be happy it didn't happen when I looked at my kid-perspective is a valuable thing- but I still am perplexed by it.

I made another ITP pour using a discoloring FO for part, but the discoloring FO doesn't seem to be doing its job at least after several days. That figures. Then I tried two other another patterns for pouring but the FO is really taking its time to discolor, although I know it will go evertually as I made sure to put plenty of FO in. I have a different ITP planned to do today, so finger crossed something goes right!

ITP pours

I have tried a number of ITP pours and it's a great technique. I've been surprised how many looks you can get with it, dependent on pretty much every variable in soap; trace, how you pour one soap into another, how you lay soap out in the bowl you use for pouring, the size of the pouring stream, addition of thinner and thicker soap, even mica in oils.

Some time ago, I made this soap which did not according to plan- can you imagine? It got much thicker than I intended and it was a little difficult to pour. I also overused the charcoal so you can tell that when you wash with it. Nonetheless, after stumbling upon it in the recesses of my soap shelves, I remember that I really like the effect. It's different, for certain, not smooth and flowing and the shapes and colors are amorphous in many spots but that is just what I like about it. It makes me think of some dreams. When you try to explain them, what seemed clear gets much less so and things get blurred and less than linear. Some things stand out and seem sharp and other aspects of the dream seem beyond your grasp, like they are behind a veil and you can't quite make out the details. I don't sell so I don't name my soaps, but I'd go with some sort of reference to dreams on this one, I think.

The three bars are from the same batch. The last one is cut from the loaf differently, so you get a completely different look.

It should be noted that using a bad color combo with this technique can result in vomit-inducing soap,

but a good one can yield a very interesting soap.

Some other looks from ITP pours:

Sometimes the sides look better than the insides because of the blurring. I occasionally forget how fun ITP's can be and I'm brainstorming on how to get even more variation from it. Hopefully I will have something different looking to post by week's end.