ENTRY THREAD for the March 2024 Challenge - Stone Soaps

[Vicki C]

This is the entry thread for the March 2024 SMF Challenge - Stone Soaps.

As a reminder, this entry thread is for challenge entries only. Please post any and all comments to the general challenge thread, here.
The first photo in your entry thread post will be used as the entry photo for the voting survey. The entry photo need only one stone soap, but more than one is welcome. Please refer to the competition rules in the intro post here if you have any questions in general about the challenge requirements.
Your entry post may also include additional photos and information about your design, process, fragrance or inspiration. Special note: We love to see your soap photos, but please keep photo dimensions in mind when posting. Photos that appear full screen size on a laptop or desktop screen may exceed the dimensions of an iPad or tablet screen by 2x or more, which makes it harder for some of us to enjoy your entry soap photo the way you intended.
The entry thread will remain open until March 27 at 11:59 PM GMT. Soon thereafter, voting instructions will be sent to eligible registrants only, by private message via SMF conversations. Please check your SMF messages when the voting begins. Voting will remain open until March 28 at 11:59 PM GMT. The winners will be announced by March 30 at 11:59 PM GMT. There is no prize attached to this challenge.
Good luck everyone! I can’t wait to see your creations!

 

[MichaelP]

Hi All, I am currently on Spring Break with my wife and son. I didn’t get as far as I wanted on this but am submitting my pic. I actually carved it but am not at home. Also, @Vicki C , I just realized that I won’t have access to internet to vote so please excuse me from voting. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

[Tammyfarms]

I looked at molds and making molds and decided to go in another direction and make my stones from dough. This challenge was certainly that. This was my first time attempting soup dough. My first batch of dough didn’t work out so I regrouped and thankfully the second batch was usable. I ended up using my usual recipe without added salt or sugar. No fragrance was used. For color I used mica and the red/orange is an oxide. Here is my entry and a few pictures of the work in progress.

 

[CLMP]

Hi everyone this month I made 2 batches of stones the first one is a ITPS and the second one is a Ciaglia soap. My first batch I actually wanted to make stripes on my rocks but my F/O I used with this recipe I used sped things up and my soap got so thick I had to do a ITPS to save it but I'm pretty happy about the results I think they still turned out pretty nice. So my ITPS batch I used colloidal Oatmeal with Calypso sun F/O it actually smells like a beach kinda scent. For the color black and grey I used Charcoal and for the white I used TD. My second batch of Ciaglia Soap I used Colloidal Oatmeal with Blood Orange & Goji F/O. For the colors I used Pretty in Pink with red shreads that I think was just a red pigment color. I think that's it hope you like it!

 

[not_ally]

I really wanted to try another batch but only managed the one before the entry date raced up. So here it is. I pretty much just followed the process from Lisa/I Dream of Soap's video and did little repeated ITP pours into the mold (which I think is the same as the one CLMP bought!). I colored with white, brown, taupe and gray by mixing TD, AC, mixing the two for gray, and then mixing the gray and some brown mica for taupe (which ended up being a little too orange-y, oh well.) Also added black glitter and poppy seeds for contrast/texture.

I think the scent was Natures's Garden Cucumber Wasabi Cilantro, did this with leftover batter from another project (so some of the details from the larger pour are fuzzy), but in any event a well-behaved/non-accelerating fragrance with plenty of time for the teeny pours.

Thanks for putting this together, @Vicki C!

 

[Cindy D.]

I'd been really wanting to try making a silicone mold and had the silicone and clay that didn't have any sulfur in it to make my shape. Fossils are so cool, as I was looking at photos of fossils Ammolites kept coming up. I went down a rabbit hole!! Ammolite is such an interesting & pretty rock/ precious gem and how it has so many different colors is amazing.
Above is my second try, the batter colors were poured from multi sectioned cups. I intended to get more blue, green and purple on the front, but didn't stop pouring the red, orange&yellow soon enough.
Below is the shape I made and sculpted/ carved a bit to get the crack lines and other shell lines. It is sitting in the corrigated plastic form, it is on a couple pieces of clay to hold it up off the bottom and make it level. The corrigated plastic form leaked a little, but I had plastic wrap under it and aluminum foil under that all sitting in a big roasting pan.
Below is my silicone mold, it did have a few small bubbles,but it wasn't bad.
I've opened up the top part(bottom of the soap) so there's more room to pour. I was getting quite a few bubbles in my batter and they were getting trapped inside.
Above is some of the detail I was able to get with the titanium silicone from "Let's Resin".
This is the third soap, I don't think my batter was quite thick enough, it should have been mixed more. The lighting in the room wasn't good.
Below is the first soap, but I put black mica and water mix in the cracks to darken them up.
Thank you @Vicki C for such a fun challenge.

 

[Vicki C]

The entry thread is now closed. Voting email will go out tomorrow morning. Great job all!