October 2020 Challenge - Tall and Skinny Shimmy

[szaza]

Beautiful soaps (as always) @Jersey Girl and @Catscankim ! I love the tall and skinny kimmy. I'd actually love to try to recreate that design

@Jersey Girl entry pictures aren't supposed to be posted on this thread, only on the entry thread, so I'm afraid you'll have to try at least once more to enter!

@tommysgirl looking at your soap again I think you might actually have switched sides one too many times (between the white outline on the left and the blue on the right), putting the blue right on top of the pink. But.. It seems like you're really starting to get the hang of the pour and trace control! If you're losing track of the pouring order, it can really help to make a drawing of what you want to do and put your cups in pouring order on the sides you want to use them.

 

[Jersey Girl]

@Jersey Girl entry pictures aren't supposed to be posted on this thread, only on the entry thread, so I'm afraid you'll have to try at least once more to enter!

@szaza. OOPS! I did try one more attempt today so I’m hoping it’s an improvement but I didn’t realize that so it better be an improvement!

 

[AliOop]

My first try, cut while still a bit warm because someone isn't the most patient soaper (ash will be forthcoming, no doubt). Scratching my head a bit at the order in which the the colors came out - it's not the order in which I remember pouring them.

Decent shimmy except for the bottom layer that went flat (?). Some colors at the top also broke through a little bit because I went too deep when I tried to swirl the top.

I'm going to call it the Sherbet Shimmy in honor of two of my favorite things: ice cream and soap. And I'm happy to try again because I like the colors and design, I enjoyed the pour, and ... truth be told... I want to play more with the Nurture multi-bar cutter that my husband gave me. Cuts like buttah.

 

[tommysgirl]

My first try, cut while still a bit warm because someone isn't the most patient soaper (ash will be forthcoming, no doubt). Scratching my head a bit at the order in which the the colors came out - it's not the order in which I poured them.

Decent shimmy except for the bottom layer that went flat (?). Some colors at the top also broke through a little bit because I went too deep when I tried to swirl the top.

I'm going to call it the Sherbet Shimmy because that combines two of my favorite things: ice cream and soap. And I'm happy to try again because I like the colors and design, I enjoyed the pour, and ... truth be told... I want to play more with the Nurture multi-bar cutter that my husband gave me. Cuts like buttah.

View attachment 50671

Love it! Good job indeed

 

[Suzette]

Here is a picture of my 1s shimmy design.

Very pretty!

My first try, cut while still a bit warm because someone isn't the most patient soaper (ash will be forthcoming, no doubt). Scratching my head a bit at the order in which the the colors came out - it's not the order in which I poured them.

Decent shimmy except for the bottom layer that went flat (?). Some colors at the top also broke through a little bit because I went too deep when I tried to swirl the top.

I'm going to call it the Sherbet Shimmy because that combines two of my favorite things: ice cream and soap. And I'm happy to try again because I like the colors and design, I enjoyed the pour, and ... truth be told... I want to play more with the Nurture multi-bar cutter that my husband gave me. Cuts like buttah.

View attachment 50671

Love the color combination!

As promised here is take #2 on my Shimmy Design. Though its not the Shimmy I was aiming for' it was fun trying.

Ohhh, lovely design.

Still no shimmy. But that's ok. I got some pretty colors

View attachment 50648

Great colors!

 

[Jersey Girl]

My first try, cut while still a bit warm because someone isn't the most patient soaper (ash will be forthcoming, no doubt). Scratching my head a bit at the order in which the the colors came out - it's not the order in which I poured them.

Decent shimmy except for the bottom layer that went flat (?). Some colors at the top also broke through a little bit because I went too deep when I tried to swirl the top.

I'm going to call it the Sherbet Shimmy because that combines two of my favorite things: ice cream and soap. And I'm happy to try again because I like the colors and design, I enjoyed the pour, and ... truth be told... I want to play more with the Nurture multi-bar cutter that my husband gave me. Cuts like buttah.

View attachment 50671

You absolutely nailed this technique! ♥ My third and final try is resting comfortably and may or may not be ready to unmold tomorrow. Really great work @AliOop.

 

[AliOop]

Awww thank you @Jersey Girl. Means a lot coming from you!

 

[szaza]

That's pretty much a perfect shimmy on the first try @AliOop ! It's normal that the first layer is a bit flat, the other layers kind of drop into it

 

[MarnieSoapien]

Attempt no. 2 is tucked away. I might have messed up the pouring (again). I'll just have to wait and see when I cut it. Fingers crossed!

 

[peachymoon]

I'm loving everyone's attempts so far! Even the non-shimmies are definitely a work of art. Great job, everybody!

 

[szaza]

I'm loving everyone's attempts so far! Even the non-shimmies are definitely a work of art. Great job, everybody!

Totally agree!

 

[Louise Taylor]

This is my first try at this technique. I think I poured too thin as when I swapped sides the batter went flat on the bottom for the first pour. It is a salt bar and colored with alkanet and ultramarine, scented with lavender and Palma rosa EOs.

 

[AliOop]

@Louise Taylor I love your colors! And your bravery to try it with salt in the batter. Very pretty outcome.

@szaza thank you so much for the compliment and the tip! I didn’t know that about the first layer going flat; I thought I’d messed up there. I’ll be trying again, and we shall see if I can pull it off again.

 

[Louise Taylor]

@AliOop Thank you

 

[szaza]

@Louise Taylor your soap is gorgeous! In my experience batter cannot be too fluid for this technique, so I think you could try again with the same or similar fluidity. The first pour always goes a bit flat, so don't worry about that I think that if you concentrate on pouring along the wall of the lower side of the mold (/making sure no batter drops into the mold directly) and gently changing sides between pours, you'll find a beautiful shimmy next time!

 

[Louise Taylor]

@szaza Thank you, I will try this again

 

[Jackie Tobey]

Unfortunately I will not have time to try this again. And I ran out of lye and haven’t received my shipment. Best of luck to you all.

 

[szaza]

Too bad @Jackie Tobey !

 

[AliOop]

I did want to say that instead of switching hands for the pouring, I turned my mold all the way around after each pour, so I could keep pouring with my dominant hand. I was really worried that this would shake the batter around too much, but Tree Marie did that in one of her videos (not that I'm usually able to duplicate much of anything she does, haha).

I also lined up the cups single-file, in the order of pouring, so I would know to grab whatever cup was next at the top of the line. To me, that was much simpler than another tutorial that I watched, where the soaper lined up two lines of cups, on the opposite side of the pour. In other words, when she poured on the right, she used the cups that were lined up on the left of the mold. That would have scrambled my brain, for sure!

ETA: I split my batter just before stable emulsion. That way, I could still mix in the dispersed micas with the little frother and not worry about going beyond thin trace. Except I forgot the frother and ended up hand-stirring anyway.

 

[szaza]

Thanks for sharing these tips @AliOop !