SMF January Challenge Entry Thread - Black and White

[Saponista]

Please post your challenge entries on this thread. You simply need to post a clear picture of your soap, but we would also welcome a description of the technique you used and the additives/fragrance etc. That you have included in your entry.

Please keep any other comments or compliments for the entries on the original challenge thread. This post is for entries only.

 

[MySoapyHeart]

Oh my, not feeling very confident, but here goes
This is hereby my entry. I had only enough oils to do this batch one time, so held my breath during this process!
The process:
The soap is made with Cocnut, Lard, Olive and Castor oil.
I did a small water reduction on this one (33%) because of the TD as I didn`t want to risk glycerin rivers (although it wasn`t a huge water discount, but didn`t want to fiddle to much as I had only this one try)

The scent is Nurture Soaps Juicy Apricot, because it doesn`t discolor my soaps, and added some Atlas Ceder to get a bit more kick to it. Very happy with this combination.

Colored with TD & AC. I brushed on Nurtures Black Onyx to the black, to get a bit shine after soap had hardened, as I felt the tree to be a bit...blobby. The tree didn`t come out so refined as I wanted, but couldn`t be helped. Hope the images are clear enough, although my soap cutting wasn`t the easiest since it was easy to ruin the design.

ETA: I used a plastic bag without any nozzle, just cut a small hole to be able to spritz the soap out in layers, and build up the tree and branches that way. Not a complicated tecnique at all, just fill the bag and squeeze.

 

[lionprincess00]

Might as well post seeing as I have an opportunity to do as such at the moment! This was a recipe I've never made before.

75% lard, 20% CO, and 5% Castor.

I intended to use my standard 40% lye concentration, but I managed to over pour the water and wound up with 36.5% lye concentration. The batter performed well at first and thickened up appx midway through, but it remained fluid enough to complete. I added 2% sodium citrate ppo and 1 tbs ppo sugar (my standard).

TD and AC used

FO Ocean Breeze by cs (trying to get used to it, it's heavy on the florals for me).

Technique is a hanger swirl I've been working on lately.

 

[Saponomancer]

I did a Castile bar, with Black Oxide, and Citric Acid, this is a simple drop swirl.

 

[Misschief]

I'm calling this one Salt and Pepper. In the white section, I added a few poppy seeds and in the black section (which could have been blacker), I added a bit of sea salt. The idea was to get white specks in the black and black specks in the white and then to have the black melding into the white and vice versa, almost a yin and yang. I poured half and half and did a horizontal hanger swirl.

 

[newbie]

I got my son Nightmare Before Christmas playing cards for Christmas and a week or so into the challenge, I saw the cards and a perfect black and white in Jack Skelington, whom I love. My initial thought was to make him into a snow globe with black glitter for snow but I made him too big, for one and the clear M&P would not have worked for the challenge, for the second thing.

He is entirely out of soap. I made a white soap in a sphere mold then whittled and molded his head. His collar is molded out of black soap that was still soft. His neck and plinth are from a bar of white soap. His neck needed to be able to hold up that big noggin so I cut a long rectangle from the bar of soap and then used a knife to get the shape, so I wasn't weakening in the soap in any way.

He smells like a girl because I used Amazing Style from WSP, which I wanted to try out and the title suits Jack, if not the fragrance so much.

 

[Sonya-m]

So here's my attempt. Initially I'd hoped to do a design with embeds but my white got too thick then discoloured anyway!

So I decided to stick with a simple drop hanger swirl.

 

[McGraysoldtowngifts]

Well I had a success on my third try for the January challenge . I have learned so much from doing this challenge that I look forward to the next one.

Recipe used is as follows

80% lard
15% coconut oil
5% caster oil
50/50 split coconut milk/water

Used Brambleberry black cherry fragrance oil

 

[JuneP]

Here's mine. Wish I had more time to make another one because I know that next time I need to up the amount of black batter to get the image I had in mind.

 

[BlackDog]

Well, here are my fugly little "confetti trees" as I've dubbed them. Had to chop up some white soap from my fourth fail on my original idea. This was intended to be just a black stripe in the middle with confetti, but because I failed spectacularly on the math, I ended up with too much black and not enough white. I'm ready to move on to a different challenge!

 

[CaraBou]

Zebra Soap

My few remaining elephant soaps were lonely so I decided to make them a zebra. Here was my inspiration, broken into manageable sections. Dividing the mold helped me control which way the stipes bent in each section for a more realistic impression.

Here he is wet in the mold, peeking out.

Here he is saponified and full of ash. Oh the ash! Later I was able rinse away some of it with hot water, but some remained Well, he's a mature zebra I guess.

Next I carved out a chin to better define his neck. Then I backfilled with a new batch of black. I was afraid of pouring over his head so I stopped a little below the height of the existing soap, which is not ideal but did provide some depth perception. I also tried to clean up the ash.

Here he is complete, next to the original inspiration photo. He might not look as good, but he smells a lot better (rosemary-mint EO)!

I'd like to make another run at this someday, with hopes of getting cleaner lines and a better eye. This was my first try. Two later attempts were fails.

 

[luebella]

Don't laugh... I was going for a mountain type structure but ended up with a blob.

 

[KristaY]

After a few fails due to muddled & morphed colors, here it is. I used a slab mold and did an ebru technique. When I showed my hubby the last pic, he said "Oh, it's the Joker!"

 

[Judiraz]

First let me say, I was humbled by this challenge. None of my tries (like 5) came out anything like I thought. I got a few neat looking bars, but I didn't execute what was in my head at all! This entry is another scary tree look. Or maybe I see two people in profile looking at each other. I think its a safe bet to say I'm done with black & white for awhile.

 

[Steve85569]

This challenge seemed so simple. Like "what could go wrong?" I learned SOME of what.
Here's my attempt...

 

[Wildcraft_Garden]

Here is my entry into the soap challenge.

The black is coloured with AC, and the white has a little TD.
This recipe uses Palm, Coconut, Olive, Shea and Castor Oils.

This wasn't my original plan, but I actually like it much more. There were so many interesting shapes, I had to pick just two. The first looks like a hand-drawn map of North America, and the second reminds me of Rubin's Vase, or a similar optical illusion where you see different things.

The black was scented with Hot Cocoa from WSP, and the White with Cherry Almond.

 

[QueenBeeSoap]

Here's my entry. I used black oxide and titanium dioxide. I alternated pouring the black and white soap batter with the mold tilted to each side. The soap is scented with Shea & Coconut fragrance oil from WSP.

 

[topofmurrayhill]

This is my first attempt to do a spin swirl. I didn't do it as well as I would have liked, but I think I know how to get it right the next time. Pigments here are TD and AC. I left the soap CPOP-ing on autopilot when I left the workshop and it got a few bubbles from the heat.

 

[dibbles]

My entry for the Black and White Challenge. In the end, I decided to go with my first try, which was made before I sprained my wrist. AC and TD were used for the colors.

 

[SweetBubbleTreat]

Mine is all coconut oil with a little eucalyptus and rosemary. It smells divine. It's colored with activated charcoal and the white is just coconut oil.

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