Dear soapfriends,
It has been a while I was not taking part in
that soap madness called Soap Challenge Club! But this month I gathered all my
strength and made my only soap using soap dough. As usual during last week and
as usual at night because of my little girl.
This month we had our great teacher Tatsiana
Serko showing us a lot of wonderful creations using dough. My best on from them
is Indian elephant. In the case you did not see it, it is waiting here for your
visit.
I tried to make my soap according to the recipe
we were given, but unfortunately I gelled it and did not like the way it
worked, but the soap itself is wonderful!
So I used this soap as a base for my work, but
for dough itself I took the only soap I had at the moment that was not gelled.
It was a castile type soap with 70% of olive oil and the rest of cocoa a
babassu butters. I would not say it is the best to work, but it was possible to
make the picture I wanted to make.
The theme for this challenge was a huge
struggle for me as I don’t like making flowers or animals, which are the most
popular for making. So I was watching some polymeric clay videos for
inspiration and they led me to some other art of making dolls. So I saw someone
making geisha and I loved that idea, which was too much ambitious for me and my
level of making soap.
Geisha is wearing different clothes under
strict rules, though I was very interested in that, I had too little time ti
study all them. Also it was difficult
because of the existence of Maiko or Gaiko (like student Geisha), different
types of kimono (that colorful big robe), different types of hair making styles,
flower on them according to time of a year, color combinations for flowers,
other different types of hair decorations etc. etc.
So I decided to make something that will be
close enough to Geisha but made without those strict clothing rules, so I
choose to make Madame Butterfly from Puccini’s opera as I may imagine her. I chose the period when
she met her future “husband” Pinkerton and fell in love with him. She was
bright and wear colorful dresses. So here is my Madame Butterfly!
I was inspired very much by this picture I had found
on Google.
First I have printed the picture and transferred if onto a soap
I thought that head will be the most difficult
part and it was the most ambitious part of the whole project for me. So I started there.
I wanted her to look like the geisha on picture with no eyes seen.
I wanted her to look like the geisha on picture with no eyes seen.
Then I moved to umbrella flowers and clothes.
Then big pink umbrella
The heaviest part in umbrella :
Flowers on head:
And a little gold on it and beveling the sides:
The soap is some 7,7 cm long and 6,3 cm wide
Thank you, Amy and Tanja for this challenge! You make our life very much interesting!
Thank you, friends, for stopping by and have a good luck!
Nasta
