Ebru Technique Soap Challenge

[kumudini]

count me in folks, my soaps could use some pop of color!
As for the great cakes challenge, this ebru challenge was all over the place. correct me if I am wrong but I didn't think the first place is ebru. I couldn't wrap my head around the third place owl either, those well defined lines may be could be achieved if the soaper was an actual ebru artist, and still they would need to do some PPW to get the picture they submitted. And even if all three top placers are ebru, I still think Saponista's has to be right up there for a joint second. I expected Sonya's higher up in the order. LP's dragon was so cool.
I think the voting went the way it did was because everybody understood the challenge a bit differently and may be Amy let it slide as she didn't have very clear guidelines to begin with. I think the previous challenges were well conducted and I expect that would be the case moving forward. May be the ebru challenge was just what was needed for the great minds at SMF to come up with a challenge of our own so color novices like me could take a shot at it. May be I will finally learn how to upload a picture May be
ETA: the names that I mentioned, were names I could attach to a particular picture. There were many other beautiful entries and I am sure many of them are our own SMFers. For example, I have no idea which one is newbie's

 

[lionprincess00]

Beyond that the owl, though cute, is missing two leaves from the shot of it in mold to the shot of it cut. It's too far out the branches to have been trimmed off.
The top right and bottom right branches are missing a leaf, they both had three and in the cut bars there's only two.
Second, if you zoom in on the pink wispys coming off the ears, and well, the wings as well you can see none of the base blue batter was pulled into the ears and wings. In my spin swirl ebru on my blog and on here somewhere, you can very well see the flowers pull in the base color as you drag, but my dots that are gently laid on top the base obviously don't drag any base batter...so in order to not drag your base batter with ebru, you must lay your design on top already made hardened soap, or you paint it on with mica after the base hardens. Either way it isn't true ebru that way. The only other explanation is either she has ninjas hands able to drag thin batter without disrupting one piece of the base blue, or you pour thick trace and have a shelf of soap for the owl that's thick enough to avoid the blue and not accidentally skewer it. I am betting neither was the case.

And I just zoomed in on the wing on the left of the pic of it with only eyes, before the face was made. There's a darker blue streak going along the tips of that wing that should've been pulled into the batter, but the blue streak stays straight and wasn't pulled. You can't drag with a skewer without disrupting that blue...

...and yes as newbie said the eyes went from pink toned to white. Also looking at the owl from the shot of having only a body and eyes to the shot of it having a face, it's eye on the right was very oval and then more round.

Point is, it seems very questionable, and considering the high votes for something so questionable, it seems futile to try and keep doing the challenges.

 

[lionprincess00]

count me in folks, my soaps could use some pop of color!
As for the great cakes challenge, this ebru challenge was all over the place. correct me if I am wrong but I didn't think the first place is ebru. I couldn't wrap my head around the third place owl either, those well defined lines may be could be achieved if the soaper was an actual ebru artist, and still they would need to do some PPW to get the picture they submitted. And even if all three top placers are ebru, I still think Saponista's has to be right up there for a joint second. I expected Sonya's higher up in the order. LP's dragon was so cool.
I think the voting went the way it did was because everybody understood the challenge a bit differently and may be Amy let it slide as she didn't have very clear guidelines to begin with. I think the previous challenges were well conducted and I expect that would be the case moving forward. May be the ebru challenge was just what was needed for the great minds at SMF to come up with a challenge of our own so color novices like me could take a shot at it. May be I will finally learn how to upload a picture May be
ETA: the names that I mentioned, were names I could attach to a particular picture. There were many other beautiful entries and I am sure many of them are our own SMFers. For example, I have no idea which one is newbie's

She is 10th, the beautiful hummingbird king.

 

[kumudini]

She is 10th, the beautiful hummingbird king.

That one was really beautiful, Thank you for letting me know. I'm sure I have seen it mentioned before, but with my house move entering the home stretch, having lots more stuff to do, I haven't been paying full attention here.

 

[not_ally]

I thought the results were all over the place, too, many did not make sense. Newbie, I loved your hummingbird king, beautiful. Lion Princess, you totally got robbed, that result was probably most shocking to me.

 

[lionprincess00]

I thought the results were all over the place, too, many did not make sense. Newbie, I loved your hummingbird king, beautiful. Lion Princess, you totally got robbed, that result was probably most shocking to me.

Nah, I understand my place. It was neat but probably didn't capture the heart of ebru. I was influenced by my inspiration, wu, off etsy. His style is more unconventional and I really liked that, but the conventional ebru designs seemed to win out.

 

[not_ally]

Ok, I kind of get that. Although it doesn't explain the inconsistency of ebru-non ebru inspiration pics and application in the way things worked out, it seems. But in the end it doesn't matter, your dragon is a thing of beauty, I would just be happy to look it over and over if I had made it.

 

[Sonya-m]

Beyond that the owl, though cute, is missing two leaves from the shot of it in mold to the shot of it cut. It's too far out the branches to have been trimmed off.

The top right and bottom right branches are missing a leaf, they both had three and in the cut bars there's only two.

You're right!! And look how defined that top right branch is on the cut bars yet in the uncut it's quite smudgy. Something isn't right about being it all all

You know what though, none of us here would want to win by cheating so if that is what's happened they're feeling pretty disappointed with themselves now.

 

[galaxyMLP]

You know what though, none of us here would want to win by cheating so if that is what's happened they're feeling pretty disappointed with themselves now.

But, if they DID cheat (and I'm not saying they did because I didnt look closesly at it). Then wouldnt they be happy that they won? I mean, why else would you cheat than to get a competitive edge that makes your chances of winning higher. Just saying.

 

[Sonya-m]

Oops, I meant to say I hope they're feeling disappointed with themselves

 

[not_ally]

OK, I am getting really eager to find out the first official smf soap-off is going to involve. We might have to start sending moles over to newbie's and Saponistas to see if we can get some clues ....

 

[Saponista]

Sorry we are discussing how it's going to work. We will sort it out as soon as we can but want it to be done right.

 

[Sonya-m]

You get my email back?

 

[Saponista]

Yes sorry I shall reply tomorrow. Thanks sonya

 

[lionprincess00]

I did

 

[Judiraz]

Will anyone be able to join a challenge? I'm usually a lurker, but I think this would be a great way to real hone some skills.

 

[doriettefarm]

I really like the idea of a monthly SMF challenge and would definitely participate! No prizes or winners required just honest feedback on how to improve techniques and execution.

Do you think the mods might consider creating a new forum just for these challenges? The 'Inspire Me - Soap Making Game' thread was a great idea but I feel like it gets lost in the other CP forum activity.

 

[Saponista]

I will contact the mods when we have got the general idea of how it's going to function mapped out. I agree doriette that the other thread got very lost and confusing so we need to make sure that doesn't happen and it is more organised. I will also ask the mods permission to set it up in general as I think that's polite. But I wanted to wait and present them with the finished idea first.

Any member will be allowed to participate. I'm hoping there are a few other lurkers out there that might be convinced to come out of the woodwork and join us.

 

[ArtisanDesigns]

Can someone please post the link to view the challenge entries? I've been all over trying to find it. Can you only view if you've entered the challenge?

I have been wondering the same thing!

 

[Saponista]

http://www.greatcakessoapworks.com/...ncing-the-winners-of-the-ebru-challenge-club/

The link to the other entries is on this page. It's quite well hidden but it's between the sponsors prize winner and the description of next month's challenge.