Trying the Dutch Pour technique

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Tara_H

Mad scientist
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Today (and possibly tomorrow) I'm going to make a first attempt at the technique from this month's challenge.

I poured the slab a couple of days back, it gave me a couple of issues. The batter thickened too fast so I had to spread it in the mould rather than pouring, so the top was rather uneven. Also I seem to have stored it badly so it wasn't entirely flat, and it was bowing a bit. So first step was to plane and trim it to get it into better shape:
IMG_20210306_123826.jpg IMG_20210306_125302.jpg

Next was prepping the space. I'm definitely not doing this in the kitchen, which is where I normally soap, and it's too chilly outside. I got special dispensation from my husband to work in the office/craft room which is still currently undergoing transition from its original function as a cow shed 🤭 This was under the strict understanding that I set up a kill-room style space to minimise the chance of getting soap everywhere. I'll also be using my air compressor for the blowing action, so a certain amount of splash seems likely, and I'll be wearing plenty of PPE.

IMG_20210306_132752.jpg

I currently have the oils melting, and it will shortly be getting a bit hectic around here. I'm hopefully going to set up the tripod and record some of the action; will update once the deed is done.

The plan is to make quite a bit more soap batter than I think I'll need for the technique, and whatever's left over will be poured for a new slab for the next attempt.

Well, that was an exciting first attempt!

IMG_20210306_1438442.jpg
Here's me all suited up and ready to go 😁

What I hadn't accounted for was how much cooler that room is compared to our kitchen (which is not exactly warm) and how much heat would be lost on the trip from the microwave to the kill room...

Unfortunately I forgot to set up the camera in the excitement, but basically as soon as I split the batter to add colours, it started hardening up. I had brought out an old pancake maker to warm things up on, but when I turned it on it didn't smell great so I panicked and just started pouring!

The batter was totally lumpy by the time I got it onto the slab, but then I remembered I had brought my hairdryer as a backup blowing device. Set to full heat, and with the assistance of the gas heater, I was able to melt enough of the top layers at least to get them pushed around a bit.

It's not exactly what I was aiming for, but I think it's quite pretty all the same! Have poured the next slab and hopefully tomorrow can be attempt #2 :)
PXL_20210306_150242270.jpg IMG_20210306_153448.jpg
 
Well, that was an exciting first attempt!

View attachment 54796
Here's me all suited up and ready to go 😁

What I hadn't accounted for was how much cooler that room is compared to our kitchen (which is not exactly warm) and how much heat would be lost on the trip from the microwave to the kill room...

Unfortunately I forgot to set up the camera in the excitement, but basically as soon as I split the batter to add colours, it started hardening up. I had brought out an old pancake maker to warm things up on, but when I turned it on it didn't smell great so I panicked and just started pouring!

The batter was totally lumpy by the time I got it onto the slab, but then I remembered I had brought my hairdryer as a backup blowing device. Set to full heat, and with the assistance of the gas heater, I was able to melt enough of the top layers at least to get them pushed around a bit.

It's not exactly what I was aiming for, but I think it's quite pretty all the same! Have poured the next slab and hopefully tomorrow can be attempt #2 :)
View attachment 54797 View attachment 54798
Wow thats looks awesome' 🧼💫
 
So just outta curiosity... you took your slab out of the mold? Was it extremely messy? It is beautiful btw!
I was just thinking if I were to try this it would stay in the slab mold to contain splatter and run off!?!? Plus I also think I would like the lines of the separate layers. Just thinking out loud. There are so many option with this pour! Lol!
Anyways, great first try! Love it!
 
you took your slab out of the mold? Was it extremely messy?
Yep, I took it out and put it on a cake turntable. I've been watching a bunch of videos doing this with paint and I like the way it moves all the way to the edge. I felt that it would be restricted doing it in the mould, but that's just going on a hunch.
I think if the soap had been the consistency it should have been, it would have been messier! As it was very little ended up on the tarp underneath, but quite a bit on the turntable which I scraped off as soon as I was finished, and put that towards the slab for tomorrow's attempt.
 
Yep, I took it out and put it on a cake turntable. I've been watching a bunch of videos doing this with paint and I like the way it moves all the way to the edge. I felt that it would be restricted doing it in the mould, but that's just going on a hunch.
I think if the soap had been the consistency it should have been, it would have been messier! As it was very little ended up on the tarp underneath, but quite a bit on the turntable which I scraped off as soon as I was finished, and put that towards the slab for tomorrow's attempt.
Cake turntable - YES!! I have one of those!
 
Soooo - Do we get to see it cut? Please say, "yes".
I'm trying to figure out what to do about cutting! The slab is very thin since I was just practicing so if I cut it normally I won't get good sized bars. Ideally I'd put it upside down into the mould and pour more on top, but I don't want to ruin the design... What I was thinking to do is pour another lot into the mould for the slab and then put this on top, but then I'm sure there would be lots of trapped bubbles, so where I've arrived at so far is to cut it and then float the pieces on top of a newly poured slab, to minimise the trapped air 🤔
Decisions, decisions...

The advantage to pouring a new slab for it is that I could try to enhance the ocean-ness with an ombré pour going from almost black to the ocean-y colours in the design, which I think could look very nice.
 
Today (and possibly tomorrow) I'm going to make a first attempt at the technique from this month's challenge.

I poured the slab a couple of days back, it gave me a couple of issues. The batter thickened too fast so I had to spread it in the mould rather than pouring, so the top was rather uneven. Also I seem to have stored it badly so it wasn't entirely flat, and it was bowing a bit. So first step was to plane and trim it to get it into better shape:
View attachment 54781 View attachment 54782

Next was prepping the space. I'm definitely not doing this in the kitchen, which is where I normally soap, and it's too chilly outside. I got special dispensation from my husband to work in the office/craft room which is still currently undergoing transition from its original function as a cow shed 🤭 This was under the strict understanding that I set up a kill-room style space to minimise the chance of getting soap everywhere. I'll also be using my air compressor for the blowing action, so a certain amount of splash seems likely, and I'll be wearing plenty of PPE.

View attachment 54783

I currently have the oils melting, and it will shortly be getting a bit hectic around here. I'm hopefully going to set up the tripod and record some of the action; will update once the deed is done.

The plan is to make quite a bit more soap batter than I think I'll need for the technique, and whatever's left over will be poured for a new slab for the next attempt.

Well, that was an exciting first attempt!

View attachment 54796
Here's me all suited up and ready to go 😁

What I hadn't accounted for was how much cooler that room is compared to our kitchen (which is not exactly warm) and how much heat would be lost on the trip from the microwave to the kill room...

Unfortunately I forgot to set up the camera in the excitement, but basically as soon as I split the batter to add colours, it started hardening up. I had brought out an old pancake maker to warm things up on, but when I turned it on it didn't smell great so I panicked and just started pouring!

The batter was totally lumpy by the time I got it onto the slab, but then I remembered I had brought my hairdryer as a backup blowing device. Set to full heat, and with the assistance of the gas heater, I was able to melt enough of the top layers at least to get them pushed around a bit.

It's not exactly what I was aiming for, but I think it's quite pretty all the same! Have poured the next slab and hopefully tomorrow can be attempt #2 :)
View attachment 54797 View attachment 54798
I think this first attempt is wonderful! I have done this with alcohol inks but soap that dries so quickly is going to be a fun challange!
 
Here is today's attempt!

Same rig as yesterday, but with some extra tweaks to try to help with the issues.
IMG_20210307_144746.jpg
First of all, an extra table separate from the SB one, for the fine mixing. I also put a casserole dish full of hot water on the pancake maker, to stand everything in and keep it warm. And I put the gas heater on full blast for a good half hour before I started.

For the soaping itself I did the lye mixing and SB action in the kill room so as not to have to drag hot things across the cold yard. The casserole dish worked a treat for keeping everything toasty and moving nicely.

The plan was to try and do trees; I mixed a few shades of green, and some sky blue for the background. I also put some titanium dioxide in a squeeze bottle along with some 70% ethanol hand sanitizer, in the hopes of getting 'cells' to form like they do in the painting version of the technique.

I tried the air compressor this time and it worked surprisingly well! I had it set to the lowest possible but I actually got my husband to increase the power halfway through. 3 bars ended up being the point I enjoyed working at.

It started out with circles of the various colours, which I blew from the centre with the air compressor to make the tree effect. If started out just as I had hoped, but then my nemesis, the cold, showed up. The slab itself was chilling the batter, and it started slowing down and dragging. :(

So it was back to the hairdryer for the extra heat. I ended up just doodling on the batter for a bit; I dropped some liquid soap dye directly onto the slab and dragged it around with a skewer and that actually gave very interesting results. It's not a dye I've been very happy with since it's hard to mix in, so I figured it might be resistant enough. (That's the dark lines in the picture below). I also liked the white, it was clumpy and flaky but in this case that's what I was going for. Somewhere around this point I realised I had made another ocean rather than trees, so I just ran with it...

Positives - I learned a lot more about the way the different liquids behave together. I got a much smoother surface, and a design that covers the full slab so there'll be some interest in each section after cutting. There's also a really interesting depth from the highlights and lowlights.
IMG_20210307_153539.jpg

Not-so-positives - I didn't get the trees I wanted! And it's still too cold in there.

Attempt three will be done in the kitchen, and I have a whole new thing I want to try out...
 
You should also be posting these to the challenge thread so that others who are in the challenge can learn from your experiences. Not everyone reads all the posts on the forum, some may only go to specific posts. The challenge thread is not just for signup, but also to share tips, experiences, and ask questions.
 

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