What do you do with your mistakes

[Traumabrew]

I am relatively new to making soap. I have had many successes but a few flops. The issues I have run into is when going for designs/swirls. Either I have severe acceleration (not frozen/soap on a stick) when I want to swirl or, like today, it seems to take forever to get a thick trace when I need it for my design. I was making a simple 2 layer charcoal and clay soap and I had my top layer break through a bit, even after trying to beat the batter into submission with my stick blender.

When I do run into a mistake, most often acceleration, I stand there trying to figure out how to salvage the soap. Anyone got any pointers in rescuing a batch? Most often I turn to spoon plop and try to use a big stick to get some swirl action.

 

[mx5inpenn]

One technique that is very forgiving is a spoon swirl. It works better with a thicker trace and its easy. Pour/plop your batter into the mold however you like then use a spoon to swirl it. There are videos on you tube that show it. You can also search the forum. It was the monthly challenge a while back. I believe most of us described how we swirled when we posted our entries so you could see how different motions affect the outcome.

 

[Obsidian]

I do something I call plop and glop. I use a big spoon, plop the different colors randomly in the mold and let it be. You don't always have to swirl soap for it to be pretty.

 

[pkraoji]

Just swirl the spoon randomly in the mold...