I've only done one pencil line. I was just playing around with it, so I didn't follow anyone's advice on anything, like the curious experimenter I tend to be. And although it didn't crack, there's a couple spots that looked like they almost wanted to. Since it was my first, I hadn't figured out quite how much to use, and I was using cocoa powder, which I found out later will bleed color into the lighter colored surroundings a little bit, giving it fuzzy edges. But I didn't have a sifter, so I just took a pinch at a time between my fingers and sprinkled it on. (found out that was very messy lol) I sprinkled a very thin layer at first, and after it hit the soap, it got wet and kinda soaked in, so I figured surely that wasn't enough. So I sprinkled another light layer, and it also became wet and sank into the soap a tiny bit. And I kinda kept going until it was covered in what I figured was a thick enough layer but without any "dry spots" of powder and then poured the second layer of soap on top. I think I was lucky, because although it was very thick, when I waited for each sprinkling to get wet and "adhere" to the soap, I think that let the second layer stick ok despite the thickness of the line. I did go all the way to the edge with mine. It's the very edges where it looks like it might have cracked if it had been just a tad thicker. This may also be because I couldn't get it evenly sprinkled close to the edges using my fingers, so it ended up a bit thicker there.
I learned the following from this:
Don't use cocoa powder in a white soap. It bleeds.
Don't use your fingers to sprinkle it. It's messy.
Don't do it so thick. It was just lucky that I let it soak into the soap enough that the 2nd layer of soap stuck ok without separating.
Did I mention cocoa powder bleeds? lol It also smudges when you cut it, even if you cut it laying on its side.
Follow experienced pencil-line-makers advice. lol
Come on spring!
