I'm on bust number three or four for the cloud soap. I am in the middle of using this black and white bar I made and I can see the pattern in there for clouds if it were done in white and blue, but I am not capturing it quite right.

This one isn't too bad. I can see it looking pretty cloud-like but it's not what I want. I am using new FO's, one of which traced fast yesterday but not today, and looked slightly tan in one soap and dreadfully grossly neutral in another. I changed it up but was really looking forward to some new scents. That, however, will not be happening with this project. Sigh. Pardon the crappy lighting.

I am having terrible difficulty getting the real colors captured. This is pretty close but....

Next on the agenda is going back and trying a technique to get a cumulus cloud soap.

I couldn't resist one more variation on a theme with these colors. Not the best picture but once it's nicer outside, I'll try to get some decent ones. A gradient wall pour of 37 different colors. Each color was weighed out so it would be proportionately different but it doesn't feel as stepped as I thought it would. I must have mis-measured on one or two colors because two look a bit out of place, but I
can live with it. Next time, I won't top it off as I don't like the end of the tail going up. Live and learn.

Well, it took 42 cups of soap to get this, but it came out better than I anticipated. The batter was just at emulsion and when pouring it in, I couldn't tell at all if the colors had stayed distinct. The top was somewhat blended so for all I knew, I had an odd-ball tie-dye in there. I didn't use much water which makes the soap stay softer longer but once it hardens, it can break while cutting, so I cut early and got a little bit of road rash on the bars. It'll clean up well though. Now I have to find another color combo I like to try some other patterns. 

I loved the colors I got in this soap but I can't capture it outside. It looks about as intense as it did wet, but I just can't get it nor can I edit for it because the software is suddenly not working.

I sometimes forget how much fun it can be to do patterns in a slab.

Not hosting this month's challenge has allowed me to participate. We are making a soap after "Fire and Water" by Vicki Frost, which riffs off of the cell effect acrylic paints can have. However, she makes the cells separately and adds them. She did get a bit of the real cell effect but not to the degree acrylics give. In paintings, the layer of soap is very thin; I suspect if you could get the true effect with soap, it would take many many layers to get a bar of decent thickness.

At any rate, for my base, I did layers. I don't have as large a slab as she has so I can't tilt my pour the same way or get as much movement so I improvised a bit to get the colors to mix around more. I like the effect which can be soft and dreamy or just funky and space-like. I am not a fan of the added cells, to be honest, but the base pour is fun to do and leaves much to be explored.

The second one looks more like the second and darker picture but the lighter one seems to give a bit more detail. Looks like an egg yolk disaster. I forgot to take pictures of a couple ones I poured but you get the drift. The first one and the blue/green one were thinner so I got a softer effect and the others were a bit thicker so the colors are more distinctive.

Each layer is 8-10 ounces (oils) of soap poured into a 9 bar mold. This way, the effects go all the way through the layer and aren't just on the surface. More work, but more interest while using up a bar.

I just saw this picture of Saturn's moon, Titan. My blue/green soap looks kind of like it!

Just a quick post. I haven't made anything particularly original lately but I liked how this turned out!