Swirl tutorial??

[KristaY]

Nice job, newbie! I really like how you used the light reflection to show the first signs of trace, plus the description of the oils and lye mixing then coming to emulsification. I think that's the first video I've seen that shows it that well. Figuring out the difference between not-quite-mixed batter then to emulsification can be a bit tricky at first so this video will be very helpful to those that aren't quite sure where that fine line is drawn. Thank you for taking the time to make the video!

 

[Dahila]

Fantastic Thank you. Easy to follow, and such nice effect, The quality of video is not so bad, much better than most of them on you tube

 

[dibbles]

Thank you for doing this. It is very helpful - nicely done!!! Off to watch again...

 

[newbie]

Thanks! I hope it was helpful and will be for other newer swirler too.

Here's the other pour video. It went much faster because of my skewed castor percentage. I was intending to replace the first video, so I repeat much of what I said in the other but because the trace was so different, I thought I'd leave them both up. This was is sharper, though.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xkhC2TZx1E[/ame]

 

[Saponomancer]

your videos are fantastic, it didn't cover any new ground for me but I enjoyed watching them quite a bit, I'm pretty sure my problems with swirling come down to temperature control, liking FOs that accelerate a little and plain old practice

 

[Jes]

Yes, thank you newbie! The video was awesome for showing emulsion. I do have a question in part 2 of your first swirl video. You advise to use full water to help keep batter fluid. My question is why not add the full amount of water with the lye? I see it looks like a portion of the full water amount was used for the lye solution and the rest was deposited into oils before adding lye-water. This may be silly to ask, but I have never seen or heard about the benefits or reasons of incorporating more water in this manner. Thanks in advance for all your help!

 

[CTAnton]

WOW! Just watched the last video and Newbie, you got my vote! Great voice,cool,calm and collected AND knowledgeable...what more could anyone want!

 

[spenny92]

Thanks so much for these videos! I was swirl-phobic until last night when I watched your video, and a trail of other related videos on YouTube. I felt so inspired to give it a go today, and I'll admit - I failed miserably!

I think my problem is I'm too SB happy. I tried to stop at emulsion, but I accidentally got light trace. By the time I had my colours mixed (I only used 2), I had pudding consistency. I plopped them in with the mould tilted but really, I made a complete mess of it hah. I've got a pretty ugly mash up of black and orange at the moment. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised when cut, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[green soap]

Newbie thanks so much for the first video. Questions:

what is in the cups? is it just micas/oxides dry? made into a paste with water or oil?

Did you say 80% tallow?

I use pomace and my soaps would be solid 1/3 trough your video. If I ever attempt to do anything like this I would have to change my recipe. Perhaps just switching from pomace to pure OO?

I could not follow the swirl pattern so I'll watch the other video.

 

[TeresaT]

I am fascinated by swirled soaps. Butterfly soaps in particular. How the heck can that happen? When I decided to make soap, I was going to make plain ordinary no-frills soap. But then learning about soap, and seeing all of the amazing artistic creations, has made me want to do that. So, I've just ordered a mica sampler pack with a ridiculous 41 colors in it. I'm going to make a lot of unscented swirled batches of soap over the next six months or so.

 

[newbie]

I'm sorry if I left too much unanswered. I was trying not to make the videos too long.

Jes, you can definitely have all your liquid in with your lye. I use a 1:1 lye concentration so I can use the balance of the liquid for other things. Sometimes I use beer syrup, I almost always dissolve sodium citrate in my leftover water and I prefer to do that instead of mix it in with the lye (personal preference), I prefer not to add lye to milks because of scorching (another personal preference), and if I want to use water to mix my micas, I use it out of my water balance and then don't put in too much liquid.

I premix my micas in the cups with either water or oils. I measure it out into the cups and mix it in there. I then add my batter to that and stir, rather than mixing micas separately and adding that mix to my batter. I found I wasted more mica when I did that. I think I said I used some of my water to mix with them, in the one video, but I may not have emphasized it, so sorry about that.

Pomace will definitely be speedy so trying your same recipe but using regular OO in its place would be worth a try if you want to swirl, Green Soap. A recipe that is 80% tallow or lard or regular OO will generally be very slow to move, so I was saying that I was using my regular recipe and not one like an 80% lard one, so people could see that a basic mixed oil recipe is very doable. I admit part of my head was responding to things discussed in various threads, which was not wise of me because not everyone has read the same threads. That's what I get for going off the cuff.

Part of what I wanted to show was how little stick blending you need to do in most cases. It's very easy to blend too much and then, with the time needed to separate and color and pour, you are far more likely to end up with glop. It's figuring out how LITTLE you need to do that is difficult and stopping when you feel like maybe you should do some more.

I was not explicit about the patterns because I was more focused on getting the soap into the mold. Once people can get there successfully, they will figure out what patterns they would like, or even just a random swirl will get you going. IT's not the patterns that seem to be the stumbling block; it's being able to get the soap in the mold in a fluid enough state.

I'm glad the videos are okay.

Spenny, it's still worth forcing a thicker dowel or tool through your soap in a swirl, even if you have glopped blobs in. I recently had that happen- it was very thick and heavy- but i swirled it and than banged the mold down a bunch of time to close the many air gaps and patted the soap as smooth as I could. The top looked horrible and really ugly, but when I sliced a thin layer off the top, this was what was underneath. Not a smooth swirl, to be sure, but I actually like it quite a lot.

 

[TeresaT]

Can you explain to me how much mica to use. You said 1 tsp ppo and you divided your 16 oz (oil) batter into three 9 oz cups. How much mica did you use in each cup? In a recipe I just ran thru SoapCalc, using full water, my 16 oz oils would have 8.78 oz water/lye/fo added to them. The batter at emulsion would weigh 24.78 oz. If I split them equally into 9 oz cups and put mica in each, how much mica do I use? 1/3 tsp per cup or 1 tsp per cup? What about in instances where you don't divine the batter evenly? How do you know how much is "too much" when it comes to micas (and oxides, for that matter). Thanks.

ETA: that soap is beautiful. It looks like very expensive Italian marble. I wonder if you could do it again. What do you think?

 

[green soap]

Beautiful soap! Newbie the demonstration of the emulsification/light trace overlap was wonderfully explained and demonstrated. It made me realize I was an order of magnitude off in my soap batter (trace too thick) to do any of the fine wispy swirling.

 

[Shalora]

Newbie, you rock! I just made my first attempt at swirling, and I suspect that the soap will be very ugly. Of course I find this thread about an hour and a half after I tuck the soap in. But now I'll have so much more of a clue for next time! I got a ton of supplies in a swap just the other day, and I have all of these plans for fall soap, Halloween soap, Christmas soap... But they all involve swirling, lol. I was just wishing for a swirl tutorial - and here it is!

 

[Jes]

I'm sorry if I left too much unanswered. I was trying not to make the videos too long.

Jes, you can definitely have all your liquid in with your lye. I use a 1:1 lye concentration so I can use the balance of the liquid for other things. Sometimes I use beer syrup, I almost always dissolve sodium citrate in my leftover water and I prefer to do that instead of mix it in with the lye (personal preference), I prefer not to add lye to milks because of scorching (another personal preference), and if I want to use water to mix my micas, I use it out of my water balanve and then don't put in too much liquid

Newbie: You are very kind and generous for not only the videos, but helping inquiring minds find answers. I appreciate you sharing this info. I've read so much online, rented every book from the library, researched from a multitude of sources and because of the chemistry aspect I get so stuck on following what I've read to a T. My mind sometimes can't make sense of things that may seem common because of this. Thanks for putting it so simply, it never occurred that I could use just enough of the water amount to dissolve the lye and the rest can be added to the oils. I will have to try that with my milk soaps. Very grateful for this!

 

[newbie]

Theresa, you can get pretty mathematical about mica when deciding how much goes into each portion, if that's how you like to roll. For a 16 ounce recipe and three even colors, you could start with 1/3 tsp per portion, going by the standard 1 tsp ppo (go by your oil weight, not the weight with your liquids added). If you are using a very small amount as an accent color, say dividing off 2-3 ounces of batter from the rest, I would use 1/8-1/4 tsp, esp if you like a strong color. You can use quite a lot of mica and get away with it and in fact, if you like the shimmery look, you can use probably around 3 tsp ppo of micas. It's a good idea to start with the standard and see how you like that strength of color and eventually you will learn to eyeball it. I am not mathematical anymore about colorants, I must admit. I generally like strong colors but on the occasion that I'm looking for a soft pink or something, i will start with 1/16 of a tsp in a 9 ounce cup and then add if I want to after I've stirred. That really requires that you pour at emulsification though because it's danged hard to get dry micas stirred completely into thickening batter.

Oxides are powerful colorants and unlike micas in general, they will color your lather if you use too much. Just because I had troubles gauging those when I first started, oxides are a colorant I would mix up in a separate container with oil (a small condiment cup or such) and then add small amounts to your batter until you get the strength of color you want. I think even an 1/2 of a tsp might be too much ppo. Hopefully someone who uses them more will say how much they use.

Could I get the same type of thing again as I did? Yes, I think so and you can get really interesting effects by having some extremely thick batter swirled with very thin batter. Working with the stiff batter does require that you be physical with it. You have to slam the mold down a lot to get out the air and close the path that the swirl tool leaves. I use my hands a lot to pack the soap down as flat as possible, knowing I will be getting rid of the very top. I have also made plenty of dreadfully ugly soap that has gotten away from me, so I will not say that swirling always works.

Have fun with all the micas you have coming! It is a lot of fun, if you enjoy color. We will be expecting to see pics of your upcoming soaps. Same with you Shalora! I'm glad seeing the close ups of emulsion and trace might help you, GS. And Jes, lots of people freeze their alternative liquids so they can add their lye directly to them, but my impatience does not allow me to do that too readily, so I take the easy way out. It works out really well for me so at least now you have some options!

 

[navigator9]

I think many soapers, me included, are intimidated by swirls. I know I've attempted them many times and ended up with soap that's butt ugly. I watch other people's videos and they make it look so easy, yet when I try it, ugh, not so good. So I got tired of ugly soap, and quit trying. I make great soap. Just not great swirled soap. But I should push myself more, and give it another try. And I will....and maybe I just need to try a slab instead of a log mold. At least with those, you can see what you're doing.

I wanted to make sure I let you know that I think your videos are great! I've been soaping for ages, and I love to watch them, so I know that beginners will definitely find them helpful. I really like the extreme close ups, I think those are invaluable for beginners, especially when you showed emulsion and trace. I love watching you take chances with the straight lines and the bullseye in the same slab, I would never think to try that....and what great results. I watch you do it, and it gives me confidence that I too can swirl!!! Once I start up again, I'll be trying out a swirl in the slab mold. Keep your fingers crossed! And thanks again, newb!!!

 

[lionprincess00]

I always try to keep everything so neat and tidy (lines, circles etc). It does end up wasting valuable time I've learned. I love how it shows you can dribble color here, line not perfectly straight there, and it doesn't affect the swirls one bit. I've seen you use a straw to swirl a lot...you like straws? I assumed they'd be too thick, but it seems to work so well for you

 

[newbie]

Thanks! I hope you will try it! And slabs give you far more control than loaf swirls, although loaf swirls have a huge element of surprise, cutting into them to see what you got.

I am a little surprised that no one has teased me about being such a messy soaper. I was checking my second video and laughing about me stirring with batter with it constantly slopping over the sides and me just stirring away, oblivious. Most videos have people wiping down the side and having a really clean working area even after making it, which boggles my mind. I'm a biohazard when it comes to that.

 

[SunWolf]

<snip>I am a little surprised that no one has teased me about being such a messy soaper. I was checking my second video and laughing about me stirring with batter with it constantly slopping over the sides and me just stirring away, oblivious. Most videos have people wiping down the side and having a really clean working area even after making it, which boggles my mind. I'm a biohazard when it comes to that.

I saw the slopping over and dribbling about and thought "woo hoo! I'm not the only one!!"