Hanger tool

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I hate metal hangers and have never kept them. I have seen where at least some people don't bend the hangers out of their original so I don't think that will be an issue. My concern is mostly about the circumference of it. Anyone tried it?
 
A thin hanger will create wispy swirls. Thicker "hangers" tend to make bolder swirls. I like the wispy ones better, but it's really all in the eye of the beholder. If your soap batter gets too thick, I think a thicker hanger might work better for swirling in that case, because it will drag more soap batter along with it.

Irish Lass doesn't bend her hanger out of its original shape nor does she make it thicker. See her recent thread on Ione Swirl to see the results of her technique.
 
No -- she uses the unmodified hanger just like most people use a "U" shaped hanger. Her mold is apparently just about the same length or a bit longer than the hanger is wide, so she doesn't need to modify it. Look at IL's Ione Swirl thread -- there's a link in that thread to a video made by the lady who gave IL the idea.

If your molds aren't long enough, then certainly you'd need to modify a real hanger to fit your mold. An unmodified hanger would work with my molds, but I already have a "U" shaped hanger so I just use that.
 
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I actually had to re-re-bend my wire hangers to fit my molds. To explain 're-re-bend'.... When I wanted to do a hanger swirl back in my 'before Ione' days, I used wire hangers that I had taken apart and re-bent into a U-shape (or rather more like a squared off U: l_l) to fit each of my variously-sized log molds. And I beefed them up with straws or chopsticks to make them fatter.

That all changed the day that I saw Ione's beautiful hanger swirls which she had made with just a plain old, un-adorned, triangular-shaped wire hanger. The minute I saw how she did her hanger swirls, I went and gathered up all my l_l-shaped wire hangers, and I re-re-bent them back into their original triangular shapes, or rather "almost-original" triangular shapes, because I had to make some adjustments to the 2 corner angles of each of the reformed triangular hangers so that they would custom-fit to each of my molds.

It was not exactly the easiest of tasks to say the least, because wire hangers are tough little buggers to bend. If I had the use of a vise it would have gone much easier for sure, but being determined, I was eventually able to reform each hanger back into a triangular shape using just my hands and a pair of trusty pliers in one afternoon.


IrishLass :)
 
The video below is what I will be attempting with a plastic hanger. I will make the mold to fit the hanger. Hopefully it won't be too thick to get the look of a tree!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OsQtAS6Cs&list=PLMiPmBLlri1H-T3Ot3Fw4XqWOnp9aN7Bi[/ame]
 
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These work awesome as an alternative to using a regular wire hanger or buying a special soaping hanger. They are super inexpensive, you can find them at Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart.

http://www.lowes.com/pd/Nite-Ize-2-Pack-3-8-in-x-2-3-4-ft-Tie-Down/4754362

I got the idea to use gear ties from Yellow Cottage Soapery, if you want to see how it turns out, I use one to do a hanger swirl in this video

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNlNnLCLHeA[/ame]
 
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