SMF December Challenge- high and low water batch

[newbie]

Not too many entries this month but we will carry on no matter how many there are!

You have three votes. Please vote if you signed up, whether you submitted an entry or not. You may still partake! If you did not sign up, please do not vote.

Voting will close on at midnight on the 30th.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QZBPSLK

 

[Cactuslily]

I misread the final date, and with the craziness of this time of year, time got away from me. I tried this technique at around midnight last night. Cut this morning. Must have done something wrong. Despite minimal 3 D effect, overall not much happened, although using the 1.4:1 ware to lye ratio did in fact give a lot of time. Now to find EO's or FO's that I know play well...always an issue. We should post what does not accelerate trace on a list. Just a thought. Happy holidays to all! Thank you for all your help and support. The soaps listed for this month are all so lovely!

 

[Rowan]

Congratulations to everyone who entered the challenge this month. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your journeys. Unfortunately we had a flood through our kitchen and bathroom and had to repair the damage, so ran out of time to enter! I can't wait to give it a go next year!

 

[CaraBou]

Aw Rowan, that sucks! Hope you recuperated nicely.

There weren't a lot but there were some great ones. Really cool to see what people could do with it. I took me a few tries to get something that really showed the potential, but it was all fun. I've been so busy, no time to post my 'flops.' Things will slow down for me next week (no work, no parties, no shopping, no traveling, no big meal cooking!) so maybe I'll get pics up then. It's too bad the next challenge won't start til after the 1st, it would be nice to take advantage of the time off. Oh well, that's part of the challenge I guess!

 

[Saponista]

I guess there are others that might feel the same carabou, so I will give out the topic for the challenge early. It's really simple, black and white soap. Create any design you like using any technique, but you can only use those two colours in your design. No shades of grey either (I won't hold it against you if your black turns out a little bit grey though as I know it can be hard to get a true black sometimes!)

 

[Judiraz]

What does everyone use for black?

I find micas morph to a dark grey on me and black oxide is a mess to work with. I've never used activated charcoal. What are the opinions on that?

 

[Misschief]

What does everyone use for black?

I find micas morph to a dark grey on me and black oxide is a mess to work with. I've never used activated charcoal. What are the opinions on that?

I used activated charcoal for mine

 

[Saponista]

I use activated charcoal too, however it's also very messy. I tend to mix it with oil beforehand to avoid getting black mess everywhere. I just ordered a new tin of it and it came with free latex gloves to help you handle it!

 

[Saponista]

I don't want to hijack newbies challenge thread though, so I feel a bit bad, maybe I shouldn't have told everyone what the next challenge was?

 

[lionprincess00]

I just wanted to pop in and say everyone's entries are fantastic! I managed one attempt Wednesday and it was a bust. December was very busy not just with holidays but a kids birthday this week, so i plum ran out of time for attempts. Great job to everyone who participated!!!

 

[BlackDog]

In the interest of keeping the thread on topic but also making comments about the upcoming challenge, I'll post one of my "flops" from the December challenge. I actually tried a black/white high/low water bar.

From the top down, the layers go:
HW white
LW black
HW black
LW white

I didn't get any special effect from the high-low, so I didn't use it as my entry soap.

BUT, the interesting thing I found was that I used the same amount of colorant for both whites and both blacks, and I got the obviously truer white with the high water portion, and a slightly truer black with the low water portion. (The difference in blacks is hard to see in the pic, but it's there.)

Also, the high water black ashed something awful and I got zero ash with the low water.

Something to keep in mind as we move into the next challenge!

 

[Saponista]

Do you know if it gelled blackdog? I had very little effect from my attempt that didn't gel.

 

[BlackDog]

Do you know if it gelled blackdog? I had very little effect from my attempt that didn't gel.

It was really hard to tell! It looks like there's a texture difference between the shades of the same color so I think it did. My oven doesn't go down to 140 so I just turn it off to put the soap in and I never want to open it during CPOP and lose heat.

 

[newbie]

Hijack away, Saponista! I think it's fine to say what next month's challenge is since many people take some time off at the end of the year and will have more time to soap, as long as no one gets wound up about an entry made before the official open of the challenge. I would mention that all entries have to have been made specifically for the challenge though. No sneaking in an old but awesome B&W soap.

I too am wondering if your soap gelled, Blackdog. When I use black in high and low water, the black definitively had shading. Because I end up soaping so cool with this technique, I've found my soaps need more of a heat boost than usual to get them to gel so your normal method may not have kicked it into gel, perhaps.

 

[newbie]

Reposting, for easy access and in case someone doesn't go back a page or two.


Not too many entries this month but we will carry on no matter how many there are!

You have three votes. Please vote if you signed up, whether you submitted an entry or not. You may still partake! If you did not sign up, please do not vote.

Voting will close on at midnight on the 30th.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QZBPSLK

 

[CaraBou]

Saponista, thanks for the early notice! Maybe you should start a post so that we're not the only ones who know? I have a bunch to say about B&W soaps since I adore them, but I'll hold off til we have a space. BlackDog, you should repost your observations on true colors and ash -- those are great tips for people coming in to the new challenge.

I took DH to the airport today. He'll be gone a week now so in addition to having free time, I can leave an utter mess in my kitchen if I want. Not sure I can handle the chaos myself but I just might try. It's time for a soaping marathon!

 

[KristaY]

I just voted and, as always, it was really tough! There was something unique and beautiful about each one. Congrats to all the people that were able to make soap and get it entered this month (I'm NOT one of them, lol). You guys really did great work!

 

[CaraBou]

As promised, I'm posting some of "the unchosen." The Red Cedar bars here were cut from the same batch in post #178 above that showed differential gelling in the mold. While the bars do show some high/low water contrast, it was a bit underwhelming so I opted for another round. But man it smells good (a blend of Cedarwood EO/Redwood Cedar FO/Patch EO). I will give most of it to a silviculturist that I work with. He's showed me some really big trees here so this is a way of saying thanks.

More to come, I've got to place my WSP order (sale starts in 11 minutes)!

 

[CaraBou]

Ok now that that urgent matter is over, back to our regular scheduled program. Here's the next to last batch I made (which apparently totaled 4 not 3 like I alluded to earlier). I liked it a lot, but was quite hooked on the process by then, and continued to chase the dragon without taking tally. I have a feeling things will only get worse now that I ordered a T&S and another 1 pounder during the WSP sale.

The second pic is of a backlit bar. It really shows off the difference in translucence produced by this method. Pretty nifty!

 

[newbie]

That backlit picture is so cool!