A disaster that sort of fixed itself!

[Soapmaker145]

I was testing the base oil mix I planned to use for the swap soap when disaster struck. My plan calls for a geometric design that is poured, sectioned and then assembled into the final soap. I used a mix of 2 FOs I had and added it to the batter barely at emulsion. I needed to add micas and I knew that they may accelerate. The batter turned into thick mashed potatoes within 2 seconds of adding the FOs. I quickly tried to mix the micas and things went from bad to worse. I ended up with hard lumpy mess to a pliable dough depending on the mica. I put everything in the molds and left them alone overnight. In the morning, I tried to recover some pieces to check if it can be assembled. I had a lot of confetti from all the planing I had to do. I squished everything in the molds including the confetti any way I could, placed them in the oven without insulation for 3 hours at 170oF. I cut them a day later. I was really surprised that I didn't end up with swiss cheese and the soaps held up pretty well. Some of the imperfections were introduced by me during cutting. Now I want to make confetti out of different color soaps, squish together and gel to see what I end up with.

I thought I would share just in case other people needed to salvage some misbehaving batters. Maybe other people knew that you could squish confetti into a mold and end up with usable soaps but it never occurred to me. It might be a way to deal with misbehaving FOs and still end up with a reasonable design.

 

[dixiedragon]

Looks really good!

 

[nsmar4211]

That looks like marble! I like it

 

[DeeAnna]

You made a handsome "pitcher of lemonade" out of those "lemons." Well done!

I do something similar with little trimmings and scraps I collect after grooming my soap bars. I spritz the trimmings with a bit of water (or alcohol which works surprisingly well) to slightly dampen them and make a "soap burger" out of the bits. Learned this from Irish Lass, but IIRC she takes it a step further -- I think she scrunches her trimmings into a pretty mold.

 

[biarine]

I was testing the base oil mix I planned to use for the swap soap when disaster struck. My plan calls for a geometric design that is poured, sectioned and then assembled into the final soap. I used a mix of 2 FOs I had and added it to the batter barely at emulsion. I needed to add micas and I knew that they may accelerate. The batter turned into thick mashed potatoes within 2 seconds of adding the FOs. I quickly tried to mix the micas and things went from bad to worse. I ended up with hard lumpy mess to a pliable dough depending on the mica. I put everything in the molds and left them alone overnight. In the morning, I tried to recover some pieces to check if it can be assembled. I had a lot of confetti from all the planing I had to do. I squished everything in the molds including the confetti any way I could, placed them in the oven without insulation for 3 hours at 170oF. I cut them a day later. I was really surprised that I didn't end up with swiss cheese and the soaps held up pretty well. Some of the imperfections were introduced by me during cutting. Now I want to make confetti out of different color soaps, squish together and gel to see what I end up with.



I thought I would share just in case other people needed to salvage some misbehaving batters. Maybe other people knew that you could squish confetti into a mold and end up with usable soaps but it never occurred to me. It might be a way to deal with misbehaving FOs and still end up with a reasonable design.

You know I like style seems like tiles. I love it

 

[GeezLouise]

That's pretty; I would make it on purpose

 

[amd]

Very lovely! I can't wait to see what you do for the swap

 

[Soapmaker145]

Thanks everybody. If you saw what went into the mold you would be surprised that it came out usable, literally chunks of soap of different sizes squished together with confetti. It is really worth gelling those scraps.