Sunday, February 22, 2015

Making Wild Watermelon Swirl Soap

Wild Watermelon Swirl Soap
Once again I participated in a soapmaking challenge with other soapmakers from around the world.  This technique is called the DNA or Helix swirl.  I want to start by saying, that this challenge looked so simple!  But it was actually harder than I thought it would be.  For this one I wanted to use a slab mold instead of our regular log molds, since this swirl is on the surface of the soap, rather than in the middle.  I don't really own a slab mold.  But I did have a box! And a box makes a nice slab mold.
Supplies for DNA swirl soap

It has been so spring-like here in Utah, I decided to do some pretty spring colors in shades of pink.  For the swirls I used Grape (Blue #1) Auraura Pink Dayglow (Polyester 3, Red 28 and 2)  Purple Raspberry (Red 33), Brick Red Oxide and Titanium Dioxide white.  All the colorants were from Magestic Mountain Sage.  
Colorants
First I did a base in a pretty pink.  It was scented with Sour Watermelon Candy fragrance oil.  It is a fun fragrance that smells more like Watermelon Starbursts than actual watermelon.  

Maranara box full of soap!  
Then for the fun part!  I used squirt bottles to squirt lines of soap all across the base soap.  The lines looked pretty cool just as they were.

Making stripes of soap with squirt bottles.  


But then when you run a chopstick through the lines, that is when it really starts looking fun.


After you make the chevron shapes by running the chopstick back and forth, you finish the design by making "S" shapes down.  Alternating directions of the s shapes.  This was the hard part for me.  It was hard to get the s shapes just right.
Making "S" Swirls

Luckily, even when the soap does not turn out just like you had it in your mind, they usually turn out pretty anyway.  I do love how these turned out.  And it was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.








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