Using soap dough like polymer clay

I tried again to use soap like polymer clay. There is a lot of overlap, although I don't think they will ever be completely alike. It takes a long time to do but it's fun to have something new to try.

No, this is not what the February Challenge will be. You could use this for the challenge, but is not the challenge to do caning.

Those look neat! Does your soap dough ever harden up? The batch I made to play with a few months back never did, the chunk I have along the back of the sink is still soft enough to easily dent with a finger, after several months.

I love them all!

I just made these and did gel them. They are the same hardness as my regular soaps the day after making them so time will tell! The recipe gets plenty hard so I think it should harden very well.

Very cool, newbie. Kittish, I used the Sorcery soap dough recipe for the soap rocks challenge and have left them out on the curing rack since then. They are hard, and I just tried using one today. They are pretty small though, which may have helped them to get hard faster.

Oh my goodness... That is so neat! Do you have the link for the recipe? Or is that something I need to figure out on my own?

KattChaos said:

Oh my goodness... That is so neat! Do you have the link for the recipe? Or is that something I need to figure out on my own?

Click to expand...

Check out the Prep for February Challenge thread. There are links to soap dough recipes there.

I used Bee's recipe from Sorcery Soap but many people use their own recipes and just keep them airtight. After saponification is done, you can handle it at will.

Bee's recipe is

20% Castor oil
30% Coconut oil
50% Alrd

water:lye for her recipe is about 2.4:1

Ooo, I can use my Clear MP that I had no idea what to do with! I'm so glad I get to participate this time

Those are beautiful

I love them all, especially the first one. Wish I still had time to play

What a clever idea, wow! So unique looking. I'll have to try it!

Very cool. So you made like polymer clay canes?

Thank you!

Carolyn, that is one reason I choose not to sell. I feel like it would take away the time to play.

Katt- yes, please!!! M&P dough is fine for the Feb challenge. I would love to get more M&Per's involved but I know not all challenges are suited to it. This one is perfect.

SunRise- yes, I did them just like clay canes. I watched a bunch of polymer clay cane videos and looked up tutorials and used exactly those techniques. I did not try to run the dough through a pasta machine at all because I was pretty certain I would end up with a mess or would have to use a lot of some sort of starch, so I rolled everything by hand, and I also used a Play-doh Fun Factory, although that was difficult to clean out. I rolled it out between sheets of plastic wrap so I wouldn't have to deal with anything sticking to a surface and having to scrape it off. The plastic wrap peels off nicely. How far you can reduce something and keep the pattern or image is difficult to know. Once I made a complex cane, I decided on approx doubling it from 2 or 3 inches to 6 inches and that worked well. This weekend, I'm trying for further reductions. I tried a short fat cane, about 3 inches across and that did not go well but I know at least part of my problem was that the outer canes were warmer than the inner ones and therefore more squishy. It was dreadful.

A lot of effort and beautiful canes newbie!

I was curious about your comment on the outside being too warm - do you mean from your hands, or was there some other reason it was warm?

Wow, they are so pretty newbie...

Very cool, I used to make polymer clay canes a lot. I still have some uncure ones out there, somewhere. I became really good at it, and made flowers, fruits, etc. Made many pendants, and pens with them.

I think I am going to try your technique at some point! Thank you so much for sharing!

Those are soaps? Wow newbie, they're awesome!

Thank you!

SaltedFig, yes from the warmth of my hands and also, when the dough is being rolled and shaped, it becomes softer. If it is sitting around, waiting for you, it cools and also become stiffer. A big point in the polymer clay videos that I watched was that all the materials should be of the same stiffness. If you have something that is much softer than the others, it will move much more readily than the others. To reduce a cane, everything has to press together evenly so it all stays in place. If something is soft, it provides no resistance and that will thin out but the other pieces won't.

A case in point: I made this very large flower cane but didn't let it sit. I started reducing it but the outer green leaves were still too soft, so they thinned but the flower inside wouldn't move, as I had made it first and it had been sitting for a while. For half of it, I stopped and just embedded it but you can see the difference in the leaves from front to back (that is about an inch thick) and how parts of the flower stayed large and other parts started to thin. The other part took the brunt of my peevishness. I just manhandled it until it was down to 3/4-1 inch and now I have no flower at all, just abstract colors.

SunRise, February would be the perfect time!!!

My soap dough is made... sort of. The black isn't black enough, the blue is way too blue, the red is more like fluorescent pink. I think I'll make another batch and leave it uncoloured.