Making a black soap with flames
- Thread starter luebella
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I found this on SoapQueen (just scroll down a little to the black soap with orange and blue flames): http://www.soapqueen.com/bramble-berry-news/facebook-photo-week-aug-30th-sept-5th/ Underneath the soap pic there's a link with a few ideas by SoapQueen on how to make black soap with colored accents.
Mind you, I've never made a black soap with flames, but if I were going to attempt it, I would color 2/3rds of my batter black, with the remainder split between orange/yellow and red. I'd pour 1/4 to of the black in the mold, then I'd squiggle on half of the orange/yellow over the top in a snakelike fashion, followed by half of red in like fashion,.
Then I'd very gently/carefully pour 1/4th more of the black on top of that, followed by the rest of the orange/yellow and red in squiggly snake-like fashion.
Then I'd fill up the rest of the mold with the black.
Then I'd do a hanger swirl to help pull the orange/yellow and red up into (hopefully) flame-like shapes.
When done, if I happened to have any more of the orange/yellow and red left over, I'd dot the top of the soap with them and then do a corner-to-opposite corner swirl with a chopstick (just on the surface only).
IrishLass
Mind you, I've never made a black soap with flames, but if I were going to attempt it, I would color 2/3rds of my batter black, with the remainder split between orange/yellow and red. I'd pour 1/4 to of the black in the mold, then I'd squiggle on half of the orange/yellow over the top in a snakelike fashion, followed by half of red in like fashion,.
Then I'd very gently/carefully pour 1/4th more of the black on top of that, followed by the rest of the orange/yellow and red in squiggly snake-like fashion.
Then I'd fill up the rest of the mold with the black.
Then I'd do a hanger swirl to help pull the orange/yellow and red up into (hopefully) flame-like shapes.
When done, if I happened to have any more of the orange/yellow and red left over, I'd dot the top of the soap with them and then do a corner-to-opposite corner swirl with a chopstick (just on the surface only).
IrishLass
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Oh, luebella, you are a woman after my own heart. I am a bit of a flame freak. There are many ways to make flame soap. Question for you is what you are hoping to get as your end result? Do you want more flame than black, a lot of black with hints of flames? Where do you want your flames within the soap? I am fully at your service. One thing I will say is to stay away from neon colors, although it is highly tempting to use them, unless you are 100% certain that color will never fade. Many of them do and it is truly disappointing to see your flames fade with time.
Two of mine and I have to post another from my phone. I've made a number of them.
Two of mine and I have to post another from my phone. I've made a number of them.
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Here's another with more subtle flames.
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Last one first. It's a bit simpler- a drop swirl essentially. The black was made with activated charcoal and you want to be sure you are getting black and not gray, so use black oxide, AC, or mix one of them with black mica so the batter is definitively black. In the last one, the black got a bit thick- medium trace or like a soft pudding that holds its shape. I poured about 1/4-1/3 of the black into the mold and then used the colors- sunshine yellow, orange vibrance, and one of the strong pinks (can't remember which one, but don't use a soft pink). All the non-black colors were still just at trace and pretty fluid. I pour them down a straw so they layer one on top of the other instead of blending, and pour in a pretty random pattern. Then pour the thicker black on top. It will squish some of the colors up around it. Another layer of bright colors and then pour the black in. DO as many layers as you want but leave some black to top off if you want your flames more in the middle. It's fine if you see some of the flame colors coming up around it. It give them a more organic shape. I believe I used 1/3 or less of the batter for the colors, the rest black. If you look closely, you can see how the black went in and pushed the colors around those pours.
The first one is a little more complicated. I used dividers but you can also just tilt your mold and pour carefully down the upside wall to get the colors to go into lines. In the first one, I had dividers that made 6 spaces. Filled each one with a different color (yellow, orange, pink/red) and I made each color slightly different (one yellow was very bright yellow, the other a more golden yellow, one orange bright and the other a bit deeper for instance). Use about 2/3 of your batter for those colors. Batter should be not be terribly thick so pour at trace but not at medium trace. Take out the dividers and then do a taiwan swirl. If you do the taiwan with a lot of space in the swirls, you'll have bigger swathes of each color (like the first one). If you do a taiwan that is very tight, or if your trace is very light, you'll get more color blending/intermingling (like the second). Then pour your black (about 1/3 of the batter-your call on proportions of course) on top of the taiwan swirl (I know, it seems wrong but you want the vertical cut of the taiwan) and make sure the black is sinking a bit into the other soap. Pour almost like a drop swirl so the flame colors get the movement between the black. This is done in a loaf and you cut vertically, not horizontally even though the taiwan swirl is laid out horizonally.
Post pictures of whatever you try!
The first one is a little more complicated. I used dividers but you can also just tilt your mold and pour carefully down the upside wall to get the colors to go into lines. In the first one, I had dividers that made 6 spaces. Filled each one with a different color (yellow, orange, pink/red) and I made each color slightly different (one yellow was very bright yellow, the other a more golden yellow, one orange bright and the other a bit deeper for instance). Use about 2/3 of your batter for those colors. Batter should be not be terribly thick so pour at trace but not at medium trace. Take out the dividers and then do a taiwan swirl. If you do the taiwan with a lot of space in the swirls, you'll have bigger swathes of each color (like the first one). If you do a taiwan that is very tight, or if your trace is very light, you'll get more color blending/intermingling (like the second). Then pour your black (about 1/3 of the batter-your call on proportions of course) on top of the taiwan swirl (I know, it seems wrong but you want the vertical cut of the taiwan) and make sure the black is sinking a bit into the other soap. Pour almost like a drop swirl so the flame colors get the movement between the black. This is done in a loaf and you cut vertically, not horizontally even though the taiwan swirl is laid out horizonally.
Post pictures of whatever you try!
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Yep. You put the lip of your container with the color to the side of a straw (or a skewer), with the bottom of the straw close to the surface of the soap in the mold. When you pour, the soap should follow the straw down, instead of dropping from the container. It allows you to place the soap where you want it and also lays it down gently so it doesn't sink or blend in to the other colors. Very helpful for doing layers at a more fluid trace deeper in the mold.
snappyllama
Supporting Member
Newbie, all I can say is... Sizzle, hot mama. Those are fantastic.
