April SMF Soap Challenge, Hanger Swirl Petra Style

[Saponista]

I made mine in a long log mould divided in half. That meant none of my hangers fitted. I was originally going to use my gear ties, but in such a small mould I thought they would be too fat. I ended up using some of the florists wire I used for the inverted stamping. It's too thin on its own but u used three pieces taped together to get the right thickness.

 

[KristaY]

^^^^ Ooohhh, good idea Saponista! I'll go check to see if I have any floral wire left. I tried taping something else and it wouldn't stick so I was thinking maybe just twist it together?

 

[Navaria]

Ok. Here goes. <deep breath> Is it too late to enter cause I kind of think I want to give it a shot. Gulp!

 

[newbie]

Not to late, Navaria. Please enter! It's a great way to push yourself to learn something new, even if it's not a swirl you'll do a bunch more times. Come on, jump in!

Just copy this list and add yourself to the bottom.

1. Newbie- Oooooo, this will be harder than it looks. I know because I've tried it with not so stellar results.
2. Dixiedragon (gulp)
3. Snappyllama (if only mine can come out half as pretty as the example, I'll be one pleased petunia)
4. Saponista- I can't wait to have a go at this!
5. Misschief - now to find the time
6. dibbles - I heart this
7. TeresaT - I am a huge Petra fan. She is stellar!!
8. Songwind - I just got some gear ties. Let's do this!
9. LisaAnne Thanks for letting me play
10. Crispysoap - let the good times soap
11. KCHaystack - I was going to do this anyway
12. BlackDog - Fine. But I've got to get a 1 lb mold first; I sense a lot of fugly soaps in my future.
13. Judiraz- Maybe the #13 will change my luck!
14. doriettefarm - I've been wanting to try this since LP's black & white soap was so wispy and gorgeous!
15. GalaxyMLP- I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before. It's gorgeous! I can't wait to try it.
16. Karenbeth - absolutely love this swirl
17. Penelopejane - I will try despite seeing the dreaded phrase "easy with the right trace".
18. Lisajudy2009. Can't wait to try!
19. topofmurrayhill - What could go wrong?
20. Sonya-m - so looking forward to trying this technique!!
21. Amd
22. Rowan - thankyou LP for making this seem manageable. Can't wait to try it.
23. KristaY - I'm going to give it a swirl!
24 JuneP - Hoping all my planting will be done by early next week, so I can give this a try. It looks challenging; but fun. Love the soap in the video. Wow!

 

[Navaria]

1. Newbie- Oooooo, this will be harder than it looks. I know because I've tried it with not so stellar results.
2. Dixiedragon (gulp)
3. Snappyllama (if only mine can come out half as pretty as the example, I'll be one pleased petunia)
4. Saponista- I can't wait to have a go at this!
5. Misschief - now to find the time
6. dibbles - I heart this
7. TeresaT - I am a huge Petra fan. She is stellar!!
8. Songwind - I just got some gear ties. Let's do this!
9. LisaAnne Thanks for letting me play
10. Crispysoap - let the good times soap
11. KCHaystack - I was going to do this anyway
12. BlackDog - Fine. But I've got to get a 1 lb mold first; I sense a lot of fugly soaps in my future.
13. Judiraz- Maybe the #13 will change my luck!
14. doriettefarm - I've been wanting to try this since LP's black & white soap was so wispy and gorgeous!
15. GalaxyMLP- I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before. It's gorgeous! I can't wait to try it.
16. Karenbeth - absolutely love this swirl
17. Penelopejane - I will try despite seeing the dreaded phrase "easy with the right trace".
18. Lisajudy2009. Can't wait to try!
19. topofmurrayhill - What could go wrong?
20. Sonya-m - so looking forward to trying this technique!!
21. Amd
22. Rowan - thankyou LP for making this seem manageable. Can't wait to try it.
23. KristaY - I'm going to give it a swirl!
24 JuneP - Hoping all my planting will be done by early next week, so I can give this a try. It looks challenging; but fun. Love the soap in the video. Wow!
25. Navaria- here goes nothing!

 

[Saponista]

I just taped it at the top Krista. I just bent all three pieces of wire at once and they stayed together. I will post a pic of it tomorrow, but I'm at home now and it's at my workshop. It worked well. My soap came out pretty nice, I want to have some more goes to see if I can perfect it, but I won't post a pic of it now in case I can't do any better!

 

[Rowan]

Well, the fiasco isn't so bad after all. I think it's pretty, I like it, and if I wasn't trying for something specific I'd be very happy with it. I need more base in the bottom. I was out running errands today. Couldn't find wire hangers OR thin gear ties anywhere. I'm still going to look for something, but what do you think - is this OK to use for another try?

Dibbles, that is absolutely beautiful. I really love your purple and green.it looks perfect to me!

 

[Sonya-m]

Attempt number two is cooling but I suspect it was also too thin. I CPOP it and the top has lots of little bubbles on top - overheated??

 

[newbie]

Maybe a little but it should be fine since it didn't separate or crack or anything. I hope it turns out well!

 

[galaxyMLP]

I scoured my house today for a wire hanger and I couldn't find one... I'll have to go and buy a wire to do this challenge! Looking forward to it though! I tested 39 scents today and I have a few to choose from.

 

[Navaria]

First attempt is done and about 1/4 way through doing its soapy magic . I'm so excited/nervous to see how it turned out. I want to pull it out of the mold now!

 

[Navaria]

Well, I couldn't wait so I pulled it. I knew it wouldn't be "the one" because of the goofy gel. But now I know where I stand when I make my next attempt. I have my batter a little too thick. And monochromatic isn't the best choice with this swirl.

 

[Steve85569]

1. Newbie- Oooooo, this will be harder than it looks. I know because I've tried it with not so stellar results.
2. Dixiedragon (gulp)
3. Snappyllama (if only mine can come out half as pretty as the example, I'll be one pleased petunia)
4. Saponista- I can't wait to have a go at this!
5. Misschief - now to find the time
6. dibbles - I heart this
7. TeresaT - I am a huge Petra fan. She is stellar!!
8. Songwind - I just got some gear ties. Let's do this!
9. LisaAnne Thanks for letting me play
10. Crispysoap - let the good times soap
11. KCHaystack - I was going to do this anyway
12. BlackDog - Fine. But I've got to get a 1 lb mold first; I sense a lot of fugly soaps in my future.
13. Judiraz- Maybe the #13 will change my luck!
14. doriettefarm - I've been wanting to try this since LP's black & white soap was so wispy and gorgeous!
15. GalaxyMLP- I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before. It's gorgeous! I can't wait to try it.
16. Karenbeth - absolutely love this swirl
17. Penelopejane - I will try despite seeing the dreaded phrase "easy with the right trace".
18. Lisajudy2009. Can't wait to try!
19. topofmurrayhill - What could go wrong?
20. Sonya-m - so looking forward to trying this technique!!
21. Amd
22. Rowan - thankyou LP for making this seem manageable. Can't wait to try it.
23. KristaY - I'm going to give it a swirl!
24 JuneP - Hoping all my planting will be done by early next week, so I can give this a try. It looks challenging; but fun. Love the soap in the video. Wow!
25. Navaria- here goes nothing!
26. Steve85569 - Wasn't going to and then DW said "What's this month's challenge?" soooo very innocently.....

 

[penelopejane]

I can't believe, after Dibbles' warning, that I forgot the hanger swirl! I did it after I had beautifully decorated the top! But, unfortunately, that was the least of my worries. One of my colours (with pumpkin puree in it) was so thin that it shot right across to the other side on the first pour. So I scooped it out and tried again after SB it (A LOT). By the time I had it to the right trace (which required sacrificing my third colour and mixing it with the pumpkin colour mix because something drastic went wrong) my second colour was too thick. So I had one thick and one thin colour which wouldn't walk across the mold.

I didn't pour the main batter in delicately enough and I am pretty sure it went through the colours.
I forgot the final horizontal hanger line at first so I had to go in again to achieve it.

Lesson: don't try new colour techniques at the same time as new design techniques

 

[Sonya-m]

Oh dear! That does sound like an adventure!!

I unmoulded this morning but didn't have time to cut! I still think it was possibly too thin. Still excited to cut tonight.

Though now I'm worried I'm gonna cut along the wrong edge as my mould is a square so not obvious which way I need to cut!!

 

[lionprincess00]

most of the time when i make this swirl, I have a side that appears like this photo. If you have a side that looks like this, this is the way you should cut it.

 

[Sonya-m]

most of the time when i make this swirl, I have a side that appears like this photo. If you have a side that looks like this, this is the way you should cut it.

Thanks for the tip!! Hopefully I will cut correctly

 

[dibbles]

Made Try #2. Last time my batter was too thin. I used the same recipe, but a different fragrance, Nuture's Karma. I did stick blend the batter a little longer, but it was still at emulsion, or possibly very thin trace. Stirred in the FO. This time my batter got a little too thick toward the end of my pours. I should know better than to use a new FO. It behaved well enough, unless you are doing something like this, or a spin swirl for example that takes longer to pour. I had split off a little of the batter to test out a different fragrance, and that was still very fluid. Starting to think about what to do for Try #3.

 

[LisaAnne]

Made Try #2. Last time my batter was too thin. I used the same recipe, but a different fragrance, Nuture's Karma. I did stick blend the batter a little longer, but it was still at emulsion, or possibly very thin trace. Stirred in the FO. This time my batter got a little too thick toward the end of my pours. I should know better than to use a new FO. It behaved well enough, unless you are doing something like this, or a spin swirl for example that takes longer to pour. I had split off a little of the batter to test out a different fragrance, and that was still very fluid. Starting to think about what to do for Try #3.

I read somewhere to put the FO in the melted oils, I did it on my last attempt and it was slow tracing. But I also used too much water.

 

[dibbles]

I read somewhere to put the FO in the melted oils, I did it on my last attempt and it was slow tracing. But I also used too much water.

That may have helped. I wouldn't say I had any acceleration though. It was fluid enough for almost anything else I would want to do, just was thickening up a bit toward the end so it was hard to get the colors to push across to the other side. I don't think I'd trust it in a low water batch either, but generally very nice to work with.