SMF February 2021 Challenge - Circling Taiwan Swirl

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Sign Up List:

1. jcandleattic - hopefully will have time to do this one.
2. Misschief - been wanting to do this again for a while
3. KimW - One I've been wanting to try! Yippeeeee
4. GemstonePony - I love this swirl!
5. DKing - I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with
6. catscankim - been wanting to learn this one!
7. AMD - I've been wanting to get "around" to doing this technique again
8. violets2217 - Gonna face my fears! This Challenge and the swirl! Plus, gives me another reason to make soap I don't need.
9. SideDoorSoaps - I’ve had dividers for awhile; I should try this!
10. Vicki C - never tried this but have watched plenty of videos - mesmerizing!
11. S Powers - this has never been my fave design but I love the extra swirl action.
 
Fixing the list to add @SPowers to the end of the last version of the list before she signed on:

Sign Up List:

1. jcandleattic - hopefully will have time to do this one.
2. Misschief - been wanting to do this again for a while
3. KimW - One I've been wanting to try! Yippeeeee
4. GemstonePony - I love this swirl!
5. DKing - I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with
6. catscankim - been wanting to learn this one!
7. AMD - I've been wanting to get "around" to doing this technique again
8. violets2217 - Gonna face my fears! This Challenge and the swirl! Plus, gives me another reason to make soap I don't need.
9. SideDoorSoaps - I’ve had dividers for awhile; I should try this!
10. Vicki C - never tried this but have watched plenty of videos - mesmerizing!
11. linne1gi - I’ve done this before, but not well! I’d like to be better.
12. The_Emerald_Chicken - Was excited to see this swirl as the monthly challenge!
13. Louise Taylor. Never tried this technique and always wanted to try.
14. Mobjack - I’m in.
15. S Powers - this has never been my fave design but I love the extra swirl action.
 
Mobjack Bay said:
In two years of soap making, I have not attempted to make a taiwan swirl because I’m too lazy to make the dividers. I broke down and bought this little 8” mold. When I opened it, I discovered that I have a choice between 3 or 4 dividers. Now I will have option paralysis!
Click to expand...
Where did you find that mold? I like that it is small AND has dividers. Not that I need another mold... I should just go make dividers from some cardboard in the garage. You know, the cardboard from all the OTHER soap deliveries.
 
Mobjack Bay said:
In two years of soap making, I have not attempted to make a taiwan swirl because I’m too lazy to make the dividers. I broke down and bought this little 8” mold. When I opened it, I discovered that I have a choice between 3 or 4 dividers. Now I will have option paralysis!

View attachment 53812
Click to expand...
I just picked up this little mold and I'm loving it!
 
@AliOop it’s this one on Amazon. Interior is 3.5” wide x 2.5” deep by 8” long.

Dada Box 40oz Loaf Soap Silicone Mold Dividers 8" Acrylic Partition Clapboard Rectangular White Mould DIY Handmade Swirl Making Tool
by Dada Box
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087YKS2CS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QJKBBJD3A821DCJZEDX2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I estimated I need 900 g of oil to be on the safe side, which yields 45 oz total batch weight with my recipe. I guess that’s how they got the 40 oz size.
 
Mobjack Bay said:
@AliOop it’s this one on Amazon. Interior is 3.5” wide x 2.5” deep by 8” long.

Dada Box 40oz Loaf Soap Silicone Mold Dividers 8" Acrylic Partition Clapboard Rectangular White Mould DIY Handmade Swirl Making Tool
by Dada Box
Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087YKS2CS/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QJKBBJD3A821DCJZEDX2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I estimated I need 900 g of oil to be on the safe side, which yields 45 oz total batch weight with my recipe. I guess that’s how they got the 40 oz size.
Click to expand...
If you do the math, it comes out to 28 ounces of oils. 8X2.5X3.5X.4=28. When I enter 28 ounces into SoapCalc, with my regular recipe - I get a total of 42 ounces.
 
AliOop said:
Where did you find that mold? I like that it is small AND has dividers. Not that I need another mold... I should just go make dividers from some cardboard in the garage. You know, the cardboard from all the OTHER soap deliveries.
Click to expand...

Same thing here... my mold is a 'Nicole' mold with 3 dividers - I'm quite sure I got it on Amazon and thought it was bigger than it turned out to be. It's abt 9" long but only 2" wide and 2 1/2" tall. I too have the makings for diy dividers, but haven't brought myself to the point of trying to make it - I'm not the least crafty in that sense! But I just finished my Taiwan Swirl and hoping for the best. This looks like it might be good enough for an entry. The only other challenge I entered my batters all morphed together and no real design could be seen. Can't remember the name of that one but it wasn't recognizable as that design.
 
If it helps any, here's how I made, and use, my dividers. They're made of Sintra, which I got at work (I work in a print/sign shop). It's a type of vinyl. I cut them to the length of my mold and place them using binder clips. This was how I did my 2-colour soaps but I use the same idea with more dividers. (Also shown in the pic is my hanger swirl tool.)

20201227_104913.jpg

.... and mine is in the mold. I gave myself an added challenge by using all hard oils but it's one of my fave recipes. We shall see how it looks tomorrow morning. *keeping my fingers crossed*
 
AliOop said:
@Mobjack Bay thank you! I love how their ad uses pictures from Tree Marie's Taiwan swirl video, along with other soaps that have horizontal layers. ;)
Click to expand...
I doubted Teri knew this company was using her photos, so I messaged her (they are from her tutorial on Elements B&B). She did not know, so this company stole her work. I hope she can get the pictures taken off any of their listings at the very least. This kind of thing happens more often than you would think.
 
@dibbles I didn't even think of messaging Teri - thank you for doing that! It really does bug me when folks rip off other folks' work. I knew right away those were Teri's, not just because I've seen the video, but because her work is so distinctive.
 
Sign Up List:

1. jcandleattic - hopefully will have time to do this one.
2. Misschief - been wanting to do this again for a while
3. KimW - One I've been wanting to try! Yippeeeee
4. GemstonePony - I love this swirl!
5. DKing - I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with
6. catscankim - been wanting to learn this one!
7. AMD - I've been wanting to get "around" to doing this technique again
8. violets2217 - Gonna face my fears! This Challenge and the swirl! Plus, gives me another reason to make soap I don't need.
9. SideDoorSoaps - I’ve had dividers for awhile; I should try this!
10. Vicki C - never tried this but have watched plenty of videos - mesmerizing!
11. linne1gi - I’ve done this before, but not well! I’d like to be better.
12. The_Emerald_Chicken - Was excited to see this swirl as the monthly challenge!
13. Louise Taylor. Never tried this technique and always wanted to try.
14. Mobjack - I’m in.
15. S Powers - this has never been my fave design but I love the extra swirl action
16. Jersey Girl- Haven’t done one of these in a long time but have been meaning to. Perfect excuse for some experimenting!
 
Well, that’s crummy about them hijacking Teri’s photos. It’s a nice mold, so I will also put a comment in the reviews if I can figure out how to do it.

I did a practice run today to use up some pre-mixed micas that were leftovers from a previous soap.

Lesson #1 - overfill the sections between the middle dividers, and be prepared to add more to the outside sections. By the time I removed the three dividers and the end pieces, the soap level had dropped by about 1/2” below the top of the mold. I needed it to be level in order to have two 1” layers on the horizontal cut. Adding extra batter along the nice clean lines took time and patience.

Lesson #2 - plan out exactly how far apart the swirl lines should be and mark the mold. Shouldn’t this one be a no-brainer for me by now? Apparently not because I spaced my lines too far apart.I realized it on the second line, but just kept going. My solution to the “this is not a circling Taiwan swirl” issue was to create a new pattern I’m calling a triple circling Taiwan swirl because I did the entire pattern three times at the same wide spacing through the body of the soap, but with a slight offset each time. Or, maybe this already has another name!

Here’s what I ended up with, which is not too bad, I think, for a first attempt. ETA: my recipe stayed fluid enough through all of the swirling to make nice points each time. That’s a definite plus.

AB5F56E8-0B6B-4027-A151-5F455A4A1FCE.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Sign Up List:

1. jcandleattic - hopefully will have time to do this one.
2. Misschief - been wanting to do this again for a while
3. KimW - One I've been wanting to try! Yippeeeee
4. GemstonePony - I love this swirl!
5. DKing - I'm looking forward to seeing what I can come up with
6. catscankim - been wanting to learn this one!
7. AMD - I've been wanting to get "around" to doing this technique again
8. violets2217 - Gonna face my fears! This Challenge and the swirl! Plus, gives me another reason to make soap I don't need.
9. SideDoorSoaps - I’ve had dividers for awhile; I should try this!
10. Vicki C - never tried this but have watched plenty of videos - mesmerizing!
11. linne1gi - I’ve done this before, but not well! I’d like to be better.
12. The_Emerald_Chicken - Was excited to see this swirl as the monthly challenge!
13. Louise Taylor. Never tried this technique and always wanted to try.
14. Mobjack - I’m in.
15. S Powers - this has never been my fave design but I love the extra swirl action
16. Jersey Girl- Haven’t done one of these in a long time but have been meaning to. Perfect excuse for some experimenting!
17. Guspuppy - need to make soap to test FOs anyway and have wanted to try this!
 

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