Labor Intensive

but we will see how this pour looks in the end, once cut and from other angles. Teresa T, on our forum, has talked about Jackson Pollack pours, so I though of her the whole time, although this hardly equates to his art.

The fronts and the backs. 

Ribbon Pour

I like the backs a bit better for their weird patterns and the higher sheen of the micas, which I couldn't capture in today's light, as it was raining and overcast. The like the fronts too and love looking at all the details and the shading in the stripes, but generally the more unusual catches my eye a bit more. Happy with the batch overall!

I tried a couple different patterns tonight in a 4 layer. Not so sure I like the figure 8 type pour but the cut bar will tell all. The third layer got a bit of a spin but as the mold was cold, the whole thing didn't move properly because the middle was pretty well solid from the temperature. Doing a spin with this is definitely on the agenda though.

Dissection of the last Ribbon Pour

Cut up a bar. This will be fun for the bather to look at all the way through its use, which is an important aspect for me.

A couple of the finished bars, first.

Edited to add that this has been a very fun soap to use, watching it morph through the layers. It's probably the favorite of the soaps I've ever made.

And after a little heat, the colors pop a bit more. It's difficult to tell in a photo but to the eye, the colors are definitely improved and the sharpness of the lines is more distinct. The bars will go in the oven for a bit after they are done saponifying for some heat therapy. I must say, the photos are almost indistinguishable from each other but I can watch the black deepen and the natural batter comes out more in addition to the lines being clearer when I am standing there! I swear it's true. I can also see it when running bars under hot water but alas, the camera is not backing me up.

Four Layer Ribbon Pour

I separated my batch into four portions and poured each layer so that one layer would not affect the one below, so no drop through or pushing around of the layer before. I used about the same proportions of each color- natural, white, copper penny and black- and put them into the pot fairly similarly but it can never be exact. The first and fourth pour were done fairly quickly, with a larger stream of soap poured more quickly and not much movement by my hand although I did sometimes allow it to pour into the same place just a touch. I like those layers best. The second layer was poured with a thinner stream and more slowly, and at times I shook my hand a bit to get the ribbony effect. I like layer 2 the least. The third layer is okay but my natural batter was thinner than the others and I got a bit more blending of the colors.

I will let it set and see how it looks. I may take a couple bars and use a heat gun to get them to gel in bar form, which can be a bit tricky. The gel has to be hot but not so hot that the bar collapses on itself and forms a puddle. It works nicely to prevent the stearic streak look but is time consuming and of course, it runs the risk of getting too hot and then you've got a bulging bar. We'll see if I want the gelled or ungelled look in the end. Gel will make the natural soap a touch more translucent and will give the bar more depth. One bar will be sacrificed to the knife to see how it looks throughout and I hope to get 5-6 slices from one to get a good feel for how it looks as someone would use it.

Still trying

Different things with a ribbon pour. There are plenty of effects to go after, from kind of lacy to dark and mysterious to a bit of a tiger stripe. High contrast is my favorite but I used some colors that were of lower contrast and got soft dreamy pours, which are nice but I tend to prefer the pop of high contrast. I have been on a Moroccan Fig kick which is causing me some troubles in that late in the pour, the batter is thicker and is getting apple-saucy which is a texture that does not at all lend itself to this technique. I made the mistake of using a small percentage of a discoloring FO on the pink and gray soap, which was not my best idea but I still like the effect of the pour. I'm going to try for a nice tiger stripe through the entire bar next but then I might be done with this for a bit. We'll see.

I couldn't load pictures straight from my computer so had to take cell phone shots of the screen. Please excuse the bit of distortion.

Ooooooooo.......

I have hardly been making soap lately but I got back on the bandwagon last night. I made two batches using the same colors but different techniques just to give some comparison. One batch isn't very interesting but I LOVE this one! I love the shapes and interactions of the colors. I was using an accelerating FO so hand stirred only and it was definitely at trace but still, I waited 9-10 hours to try to gel it. It didn't seem to get that hot but I see I got "glycerine rivers" or "stearic streaks" (our resident chemist has explained why these are complete misnomers but the terms seem to stick). However, I like the effect they add to this particular soap. I may try again tonight and see how it looks if I can prevent those; would I like it as well or less well? I like variations within colors and shading and this kind of reminds me of high/low water soaps although that is not the cause of this effect.

I just cut and grabbed a few cell phone pictures. I'll have to find my regular camera to see if I can represent them any better.

 
Some more variations of a Ribbon Pour, in addition to the above: