SMF January 2020 Challenge Signup thread - Book Inspired

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Welcome to this installment of the Soap Making Forum's Challenges. For January, we are doing a soap inspired by a book!

PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THIS FIRST (and ALL Rules)-

General Rules:

1. To be eligible to vote, members must add their names on the sign up list - regardless of whether or not an entry is submitted, although full participation in the Challenge is highly encouraged for all who sign up (see General Rules below).

2. This month’s voting will be password locked. Passwords will be sent (via SMF Conversations) to all registered participants ONLY. So please check your messages when the voting begins.

3. No posting your entry photos until the entry thread is made. Non-entry photos are very welcome!

4. You are allowed to change your entry photo up until the entry thread closes. So if you decide after you post your entry you want another try, and you like the second better, you can change it up until the deadline.


SMF Challenge General Rules

· To enter you must have a minimum of 50 posts and been a member for a month (sorry but no exceptions on this)

· In the spirit of advancing our soapmaking skills, all members who sign-up for an SMF Challenge, do so with the expectation that they will make every attempt to make the Challenge soap, as well as post their experience in the Challenge. By doing so, each participate has a better knowledge of the process when voting. We do understand that sometimes things come up in our lives and throw our plans out of whack, however signing up with no intent to participate and only to vote is discouraged.

· Please add your name to the sign up list if you wish to participate (however, you don’t have to enter a soap at the end if you don’t feel happy with what you have produced), but please do post your experiences in the main Challenge thread and be prepared to be encouraged to continue trying.

· The challenge thread should be used to upload pictures of any of your challenge attempts where you can ask for advice and discuss the technique with other members, and provide helpful hints you learned along the way.

· Constructive criticism is welcomed, but please try to keep your comments polite.

· Competition entries must be uploaded to the separate entry thread before the closing date. The Entry thread will open on January 24, 2020 (Please follow the challenge specific rules as to what you need to enter)

· After the closing date January 29 at 11:59 pm CST the winning entry will be chosen using survey monkey (Voting will be open from January 30 to January 31) and the winner announced on February 1, 2020. There is no prize attached to this challenge.

· If you fail to make the challenge deadline, you are still welcome to upload your soap onto the thread, but your entry will not be eligible for voting. We still love to see anything you have produced.

· Even though there is no prize, this is still a competition. If your entry is deemed not to fulfill the general rules or the rules specific to the challenge in any way, then you will be given the opportunity to amend your entry. If this is not possible then your entry will not be included in the voting.

· All the challenge mods reserve the right to have the final say on whether a soap is eligible for voting.
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The January 2020 SMF Challenge is a soap inspired by a book.

Rules for this month’s challenge:

Your soap may be any design or colors that represent a book that you read. Books made into movies are acceptable, I know not everyone reads :) You may use any shape, embeds or design techniques that you prefer and does not need to be lye based soap. Your soap may be based on the book cover, a character or location in the book, or even a book theme. For example, the book I’m currently reading has a dancer as one of the main characters, so I could make a soap with a dancer embedded in the soap.

See examples below.
Harry Potter inspired:
upload_2020-1-3_12-59-8.png


Game of Thrones inspired:
upload_2020-1-3_13-0-22.png

(I love the technique used to represent fire and ice.)

Alice in Wonderland inspired:
upload_2020-1-3_13-1-46.png


You may enter a group of soaps in one photo, or choose a minimum of two soaps for your entry photo, but choose one entry photo, please.

When you enter your soap on the entry thread (which will be posted on January 24) please feel free to include a description of your creative process, the name of the book/book-made-into-movie and why you chose it.

Entry photo:
At least one photo of the soap, as well as a photo of the book that inspired it (you can get these from the internet if you don’t own the book). If your soap is inspired by a character or location, a picture representation of that character/location is acceptable.

Thank you for participating and please sign up using the sign-up sheet below.

Enjoy!

Next post is Sign up post:
 
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I also meant to share this soap that @Dawni found and shared on the browsing soap pics thread. For the uber ambitious, if your book inspiration leads you to re-create a book cover, I would love to see it!

Sign Up List:
1. MarnieSoapien - I'm soo excited for this challenge!!
 
1. MarnieSoapien - I'm soo excited for this challenge!!
2. Artemis - I hope I can carve out a little time this month
3. Kosmerta- The hardest part of this challenge will be picking just one book, I love so many
 
1. MarnieSoapien - I'm soo excited for this challenge!!
2. Artemis - I hope I can carve out a little time this month
3. Kosmerta- The hardest part of this challenge will be picking just one book, I love so many
4. Primrose - down the rabbit hole I go ...
 
1. MarnieSoapien - I'm soo excited for this challenge!!
2. Artemis - I hope I can carve out a little time this month
3. Kosmerta- The hardest part of this challenge will be picking just one book, I love so many
4. Primrose - down the rabbit hole I go ...
5. bookreader451 - how can I not enter this one!
6. dibbles - I have 4 days to get this done...fingers crossed!
 
Quick question - does it have to be a book people recognize? As I'm sure the book/character I want to use (been thinking of this soap for years!!) is so obscure nobody has heard of it/him.

1. MarnieSoapien - I'm soo excited for this challenge!!
2. Artemis - I hope I can carve out a little time this month
3. Kosmerta- The hardest part of this challenge will be picking just one book, I love so many
4. Primrose - down the rabbit hole I go ...
5. bookreader451 - how can I not enter this one!
6. dibbles - I have 4 days to get this done...fingers crossed!
7. jcandleattic - been wanting to do this one FOR -EVER...
 
Um... @amd ? The title of the thread is Challenge ENTRY thread.
Thanks, Misschief, I'll have to get an admin on it. I looked at the November challenge thread that was linked at the top to see how I should name the thread and very blindly copied it exactly... not even noticing it was the entry thread. But hey, at least I got the name of the challenge right?? :facepalm: ETA: I figured out how to fix the title :) It's Monday, can I go home now?

Quick question - does it have to be a book people recognize?
No, it does not! That's why I included part of the entry requirements to be a pic of the book (or cover image) :) So it can be as obscure as you would like, a local author, self published... hey if you wrote a book and published it, it's fair game!
 
Wonderful challenge idea!! :D
Unfortunately I ruined my scale by spilling a bunch of oil on it and my new scale will only arrive at the end of the month, so no cp/hp for me this challenge. I do have an idea that I could do with rebatch (although it's a bit far-fetched) and I'd have to check if my soapdough is still good after more than a year.
I'll sign up when I'm more certain I can participate.;)
 
I do have an idea that I could do with rebatch (although it's a bit far-fetched) and I'd have to check if my soapdough is still good after more than a year.
I'm intrigued! I hope you can make it work because I would LOVE to see it!
 
Well, I found which book I’d like to do....

1. MarnieSoapien - I'm soo excited for this challenge!!
2. Artemis - I hope I can carve out a little time this month
3. Kosmerta- The hardest part of this challenge will be picking just one book, I love so many
4. Primrose - down the rabbit hole I go ...
5. bookreader451 - how can I not enter this one!
6. dibbles - I have 4 days to get this done...fingers crossed!
7. jcandleattic - been wanting to do this one FOR -EVER
8.soapysuds - I’ve had this idea kicking around, let’s see how it goes!
 
So, currently, I have a dark and richly colored soap, I’m using a combination of a layering technique and a hanger swirl... and I’m CPOPing my loaf. I have had poor luck with hanger swirls and CPOPing my soap, maybe because I soap at ambient basement temps. Not this time. I heated everything up and soaped around 100-110. Currently loaf is in the oven, and I almost forgot to put in my fragrance. I had a quarter of the soap the mold, the rest in squeeze bottles, when I realized I had forgotten the scent. Opened the tops and poured the scent into each of remaining, totally guesstimating the amount for each, meh, whatever.
And my hanger (jerry rigged from a skewer and two tiny zip ties) fell apart with the last pass of a swirl. Ugh.

My soap recipes are amazing when I don’t do designs. Smell nice, don’t separate, look good, and are wonderful to use. The whole design thing is a crap shoot for me. I want it to look good, but I fear it will look like a third grade art project. Like the last time I CPOPed

It looked good in the mold and then I threw it in the oven. Wonderful, this will be amazing, gorgeous, and awesome, not so.

Well, here’s to crossing my fingers and hoping this one pound loaf turns out.

And, I should have made an orange color. Maybe I’ll make another.

Edit: oh there will be another, as I can currently detect glycerin river aplenty in this loaf after CPOPing. Sigh. I’ll just do another. Oh darn. More soap. Unless the effect is stunning (not likely).
 
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So, currently, I have a dark and richly colored soap, I’m using a combination of a layering technique and a hanger swirl... and I’m CPOPing my loaf. I have had poor luck with hanger swirls and CPOPing my soap

I wish you luck, I made two batches Sunday, one a hanger swirl, and the other CPOP. The hanger swirl was a sad, sad joke and the CPOP was laced with glycerin rivers.

Not only was my hanger swirl a fail; the mica morphed into an ugly orangy red. My soapy yucks have become "homeless soap" when it is cured it goes right to the local shelter. I will keep the one with the glycerin rivers, the scent is divine!
 
I think I've decided what to do. I'm going to use this challenge as a reason to try soap frosting for the first time. C:
 
Well, I have two made. My second attempt didn't gel and is cut, but too soft to plane so I don't really know for sure what I have there. Neither were what I envisioned, but I think I like them both. I will be away from home for a couple of weeks, so will look at them with fresh eyes when I get back. I'd do a third try, but I should pack. And I want to get the house clean so I don't have to come home to that.
 

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