Teach Soap

I wouldn't really call my skill level 'soap art' at this stage, but for lack of a better title, we'll call it that for now. Tonight, I tried to combine my love of making very 'pretty' and cool soaps, with my new found addiction to CP soap making. I have a mold here that is a frog sitting on a lily pad.

This is it here: http://www.aussiesoapsupplies.com.au/fl ... oggie.html

I had an idea to do black dots for the eyes, colour in the suckers on his toes in a dark green, then do him light green, sitting on a dark green lily pad in blue water. I've tried a couple attempts with MP soap, but for the little amount I need to do the eyes and feet, it always goes hard and I'm re-melting it every 3.5 seconds.

After using black in one of my CP soaps today, I pinched a little bit and dotted out his eyes. It worked really well - that is, it was WAY easier for the finer details to do it with CP instead of MP soap. So tonight, I had a plan to make a single batch of CP soap, then disperse it between cups that had my colour in it, and do the frog soaps that way. I also pulled out some Dinosaur and Butterfly molds to try at the same time.

With the eyes already done, I grabbed my first cup of soap mixture, colored orange (was meant to be yellow, but either the scent discolored to orange or I don't know what happened) and started on the suckers. As expected, much easier. I even grabbed a paint brush and started getting a bit adventurous with painting the dinosaur's scales on the back. I was working quickly (almost frantically) as I could see my cup of soap thickening and knew I couldn't exactly remelt CP soap...

After spooning the rest of the orange soap into a spare mold, I returned to my pot to find my soap was going HARD! Moving the hand mixer broke the top, so, in a slight panic, I turned it on to see if I could re-smooth it all out. I couldn't. It was like lumpy mashed potatoes. Knowing I couldn't do fine details with that, I splashed in some color, wizzed it around for 10 seconds then started slopping the mixture into any mold close enough.

So... the point of this post How is it possible to make the detailed soap's with CP?

OR...

Is it possible to do the finer details (dots, eyes, etc) with CP soap, then finish it off with MP? And if it is, do I need to spritz the alcohol on the CP stuff when pouring the MP in?

Did that all make sense?

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The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

Cute mold! You could try to make it as whipped CP soap a la Nizzy. http://nizzymoulds.com/Whipped/index.htm

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Cool technique - will have to try one day. Looks like all their detailing is piped though. I wouldn't be able to use whipped soap to do the eyes and that on the frog.

Is it possible to do the finer details (dots, eyes, etc) with CP soap, then finish it off with MP? Or can you not mix the two?

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I have mixed the two. I also find it difficult to do fine detail entirly with CP. I usually use M&P for the detail and then use CP for the main pour. I have the leaf and ripples mold (got at otion when we visited this summer!) and want to do that with the leaf being M&P. I never thougth about using a pinch of a soap when soft for some detail... will have to try that. I have also done a M&P swirl into my CP soap and like the looks of that. Usually I do that to add a sparkle with mica or glitter and sometimes it is to add a FO that I know will morph or cause me trouble with CP. If I am adding M&P to imbed into CP I have spritzed with alcholol but do not really know if it is necessary. With the swirl there is no way to spritz and I have not had one come apart yet (stay away you gremlins !!).
I did purchase a bar once at a flee market, before I made soap that was CP in M&P and after a short time using I was left with all the different pieces of that soap. Also left my skin itchy so I am not sure if they used quality base???

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

I do CP with MP on a regular basis. I use MP and a brush for the fine details. BrambleBerry has a tool kit that you can purchase to work with the fine details.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Here is the pics of what I was trying to do.

http://coolahcreations.com/blog/2011/12 ... detailing/

The eye on one-eyed Frank was my first step, but none of them stuck to the frogs. Of 8 eyes, only 1 came out. The rest are still in the mold. You can also see where I've tried to do the suckers, and had a bit of a play with the other molds. The yellow was last night's detailing. The rest of the mixture was slopped in best I could. Was very thick, so I think there's a few parts missing... I know one of the dinosaurs is missing a back leg.

Easier to link to the blog that post them all here

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I think you did pretty good for your first try. You can still give the froggies some eyes. Melt clear MP with black mica. Dip a fine, thin point brush and let one drop of the MP fill the eye area, or use the brush and carefully paint it on.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I agree... they are very nice for your first try. You could go the route of soap painting. I do that to paint the eyes on my catapillars and bears. Why don't you try M&P for some of the accent areas of the molds and pour CP over. You may find that easier and like the results just as much.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Thanks ladies. I was going really well until the CP in the pot starting hardening up on me. And yeah, I think next time I will try painting the eyes on after. Or, I was thinking maybe putting some of those plastic googly eyes on! Just for fun hehe.

Question - how do you think those edible texta's would work on soap? They are the textas / markers you can use to do outlines and such on food. Would they stick to soap do you think? I was thinking of trying those to do things like the mouth lines or really tiny spots. Being edible, I figured they would be ok to wash with - although they would wash off yes, but still.

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

Edible pens used for cakes bleed; badly.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Bugger.

I suppose normal markers / textas are out too? The ones kids use to colour?

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Well phooey. Coz I can colour in like a ... well, at least like a 5 year old! I thought I could sneakily improve my soaping skills.

I have no idea how I'll do a black line for things like mouths then!

_________________
The Soapinatrix! *whip-crack*
- Posting the trials and tribulations of my Soaping Journey!

I would look up colored jojoa beads. That might work for you.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Why don't you just make up some soap paint?

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!