Teach Soap

Greetings All,
Just a quick question. I have been working on putting pictures in soap. Has been working well with the soluble paper & all. I followed the directions on the brambleberry site with spraying of hair spray. They are soooo cool!
My question - I have both clear & extra clear m&p. I expected more from the extra clear - but it has a REAL YELLOW tint to it. Is this how the extra clear is suppose to look?
Also - why is it some of my clear bars of soap seem foggy & some do not? Weird.
I have also printed little snowmen & put them in a dome shaped soap mold with little white swirls for the snow They look like the domes you shake & watch the confetti swirl- sooo cool. I will post them when I figure out how to do that. I'm sure they will sell well for the holidays. These do the same though - some of them turn out foggy while some are crystle clear!!
Any help much apprecitated.
Vanessa[/b]

Hi Vanessa -

It could just be that the bases you are using aren't ideal for embedding. In my experience, though I love the Bramble Berry house brand of soap, it is a little more yellow than some on the market. If you'd like more of a "blue" based clear, the Stephenson brand of clear soap is a more blue based clear.

As for the cloudiness, could it be the fragrance? If fragrances aren't stirred in well enough, they make soap look cloudy.

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Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

I also use a clear soap that's a little bit yellow. The first trick is to ad just a tiny bit of ultramarine blue to the base which makes you think you're looking though the sky. Example:


The other thing is that clear bases will turn more and more yellow the higher they are heated. So keep stirring and don't let any spots get too hot.

_________________
PJ,
http://www.pjsoaps.com

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

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Debbie Chialtas

- [i]

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Adrienne
bramblecs2@qwest.net

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

_________________
PJ,
http://www.pjsoaps.com

_________________
Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Here are some tips for using the water soluble paper - and for what it's worth, some inkjets are way less bleeding than others. The HP inks really seem to bleed and the Epson seems to do better for me?

Thanks to Cyndy in Connecticut for sharing these wonderful tips:

We printed our paper inserts and sprayed them with an extra-fine mist hairspray to set the ink. We let the inserts 'cure' for several days before use.

When pouring the first layer, we let the soap cool down some before pouring and then pressed the inserts in place when the soap began to form a 'skin'. Since the paper inserts were water-soluble, we could not spray alcohol between the two layers to help bond the soap.

Instead, we let the first layers sit and cool for almost an hour before pouring the second layer...which we did the same way--letting the soap cool down some before pouring it.

We discovered that by waiting and letting the soap cool down before pouring, the ink did not run...and the soap remained clear/white instead of evidencing yellowing. Higher temps always resulted in the ink smearing and discoloring the bars. The lower temps produced extremely clear soap plus the bars seemed to 'hold together' better (no coming apart at the layers).

The extra effort does add significantly to production time but it was well worth it in the bars' final appearance - the company's logo and tag line were very clear and the soap looked like glass.

_________________
Happy Soaping!

Anne-Marie
blog: www.soap-queen.blogspot.com
supplies: www.brambleberry.com

Great tip! Thanks!

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