SeaWolfe and I went to a Soap Collective Meetup on Sat. It was a lot of fun and I did my first Peacock Swirl. Maybe she will post hers too. Everyone's turned out beatiful. LOL, even if mine is Superfatted!!
First Peacock Swirl
- Thread starter cmzaha
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Oooooo, perfectly done! You must feel so proud to pull your first one off so incredibly well! I laughed at your Sf comment; did they force you to Sf at 8%?
So pretty! I love your color choices. Did you use a tool for the second part of this technique or free hand it? Ive never done it before but I've seen it done both ways. I'm guessing you used a tool to make the first drag marks? (otherwise I would think the soap would be too thick by the time the second part rolled around) please enlighten me!
TVivian
Well-Known Member
That's really well done!
LOL, I prepared all my oils and lye instead of using their recipe. Well I was tired when I mixed everything after my Friday market and shorted my 50/50 lye solution by 100 grams. Oh well, it was to be 3% superfat, went up a little :roll:
A mold and tools were available to purchase. Oh no, there was no worry about mine getting to thick. I used 34% Lard, 34% Olive, 17% co, 15% Avocado. I did not want to take a chance of stick blending to much so it stayed very thin. The organizer, John, made a perfect set of tools and mold. He made a wood template to draw the swirl with after raking. Btw this is a perfect recipe for a slow trace. Also forgot to mention I soaped this with a 40% lye concentration because I forgot to add in my extra water. Had bad news at my Friday market and I was not thinking well when I was mixing everything
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Looks awesome!
That turned out awesome. Love the colors too. That's on my list of things to do soon, I hope!
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See, I said 40% lye concentration is slow to trace! No one seems to believe me or newbie on this, but higher lye concentration has been key to our soaps taking eons to trace.
It is perfect. Clean perfect lines and just very well done...and beautiful as well!
Edit, what is the other oil you used...you left one out at 34%.
It is perfect. Clean perfect lines and just very well done...and beautiful as well!
Edit, what is the other oil you used...you left one out at 34%.
Saponista
Well-Known Member
Cani explain exactly what you mean by 40% lye concentration? I am hopelessly useless with maths. On soap calc the water as a % of oils is not what you are talking about with this is it?
navigator9
Well-Known Member
Wow, that is a beautiful peacock swirl! I have swirl envy.
Oh I was just thinking about posting pics! Im so glad you did. And Im glad yours firmed up so nice. I told you it would be fine Just call it a facial bar.
Mine survived being driven about, but it wobbled a bit.
I was SO jealous of Carolyn because she brought her own recipe. The one suggested was like 30% CO, 65% OO, 5% OO - which is fine if I SF at around 8% and let it cure a long long time. But I coveted Carolyns lard!
Heres mine, Ill post cut pics later. I used my silicone slab mold and Johns tools, which worked peachy, but the silicone has been slow to release. This was SO much fun because I havent done a lot of work with colors, it was a fun technique - especially seeing how 9 others turned out as well, it made me work at that sweet spot just before trace (which I really needed), and its so much fun to meet other soapers - especially Carolyn!!
Just call it a facial bar.Mine survived being driven about, but it wobbled a bit.
I was SO jealous of Carolyn because she brought her own recipe. The one suggested was like 30% CO, 65% OO, 5% OO - which is fine if I SF at around 8% and let it cure a long long time. But I coveted Carolyns lard!
Heres mine, Ill post cut pics later. I used my silicone slab mold and Johns tools, which worked peachy, but the silicone has been slow to release. This was SO much fun because I havent done a lot of work with colors, it was a fun technique - especially seeing how 9 others turned out as well, it made me work at that sweet spot just before trace (which I really needed), and its so much fun to meet other soapers - especially Carolyn!!
Oops fixed it, it was lard and yes I am going to try the 40% lye concentration again, I thought it would never trace. I do use 40% with castile but had not tried it with some of my other recipes
Love it SeaWolfe, it did not wobble to much even with the side trip to Winco! One other plus to the class we learned how to easily make a chevron pattern...Oh I was just thinking about posting pics! Im so glad you did. And Im glad yours firmed up so nice. I told you it would be fine
Mine survived being driven about, but it wobbled a bit.
I was SO jealous of Carolyn because she brought her own recipe. The one suggested was like 30% CO, 65% OO, 5% OO - which is fine if I SF at around 8% and let it cure a long long time. But I coveted Carolyns lard!
Heres mine, Ill post cut pics later. I used my silicone slab mold and Johns tools, which worked peachy, but the silicone has been slow to release. This was SO much fun because I havent done a lot of work with colors, it was a fun technique - especially seeing how 9 others turned out as well, it made me work at that sweet spot just before trace (which I really needed), and its so much fun to meet other soapers - especially Carolyn!!
kchaystack
Supporting Member
On the web page you can select 3 different ways to measure your lye. Water as % of oil, Lye concentration and lye to water ratio.
If you select the lye concentration you put in 40%. This means that for 60g of water you have 40g of lye.
Edit to fix my mistake
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There are 3 ways to calculate lye concentration,
Water as a percent of oils... default to 38%. This is high full water and the number is inconsistent because it changes with regard to the oils you use . The concentration of this is Appx 25% lye concentration
Lye concentration, I use this. Many use 33% which isn't full water, isn't full lye. I use 40% which is a ratio of 1.5 water to 1 lye, and is a highly concentrated lye solution.
Lye ratio is just that, the ratio. A 1:1 ratio is full lye or for ex 1 oz lye to 1 oz water.
If you calculate one method, and click view print, it'll show you the conversion of the other methods on top
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Actually for 40 grams of lye you'd have 60 grams of water.
kchaystack
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Ooops. you are right, Not enough coffee when I typed that
Sonya-m
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Two beautiful peacocks!! Well done!
One persons batter got a little too thick, but it made the most beautiful 3D textured peacock tails. Would be super risky to plan that though.
One thing I thought was clever was to split up the whole batch into colors and do the entire depth in thin stripes, and put the chopstick all the way to the bottom, so the pattern won't disappear as the soap is used. Takes more time, but the process was very Zen.
One thing I thought was clever was to split up the whole batch into colors and do the entire depth in thin stripes, and put the chopstick all the way to the bottom, so the pattern won't disappear as the soap is used. Takes more time, but the process was very Zen.
