Awakening

 I thought it would be fun to try a different swirl technique.  Normally the molds I use are nice log molds.  And I think I make some very pretty soaps with them.  But I wanted to try a very colorful  "Column Swirl" technique.  And I couldn't do them in my regular log molds.

For a Column Swirl you need a slab mold.  I don't own a slab mold yet.  So I found a sturdy box and lined it with plastic.  I put a small jar in the center of the box

I made my soap as normal and scented it with a blend of essential oils and fragrance oils.  Then I divided the soaps into 4 parts.  I colored  three of the parts in bright colors, and left the fourth portion white.
 

I alternated pouring the colors straight onto the center of the jar.  The colors stayed in rings!  And as the next color was poured, the colors were pushed out in nice clean circles.  It was somehow very satisfying to pour colors on the jar, have the raw soap go smoothly down the side of the jar, and make nice neat even(ish) circles.

 I tried to keep a pattern to how I poured the colors.  But I often messed up and poured the wrong color at the wrong time.  I don't think it hurt the design at all. I kept pouring till I had the box as deep as I wanted the soaps to be.  Luckily I had figured the size of the batch just perfectly for this box, and had just enough soap to have a perfectly sized large bars.

After all the soap was poured, I carefully pulled the jar out of the box. I then drizzled in the little bits of the color that was left in my color bowls into the center, trying to keep the colors as unmixed as possible.  

 Now for the fun part!  I took a chopstick and ran it through the soap in lines from the center, and then from the outside going to the center.  It was really cool to see the soap turn into such a pretty star-burst design as I did this.




I could look at this design in this box all day.

The final product was beautiful.  I love how the star-burst design goes all the way through the soap. The fragrance is a blend of White Tea fragrance oil, with essential oils of Bergamont, Lavender Mandarin, Thyme, Orange and Ylang Ylang.  It's like a watching a sunrise from your garden .  These are available right now at Sego Lily Soap.  These bars are big and beautiful!  Even bigger than my normal bars, which are already big to begin with.  I think I love these soaps!