Hello, everyone,
This is my 11-th Soap Challenge hosted by GreatCakes Soapworks and Amy Warden) I am very happy I could participate in it and
managed to make some several nice soaps although my daugther is still having her teeth epopea(((((
This month technique is called Cosmic Wave and
it was created by one of the most talented modern soapmekrs Tatsiana Serko from
Creative Soap by Steso (Tatsiana was also my guest for the Soapmakers of the
World interview serial here as well as Holly Shelton and Debi Olsen). The technique
was created as a result of soap “duel” with another wonderful and very talented
soapmaker Jelena Vasiljeva from Soap Techniques. Both of them are teaching in
Savonnerie private school, which I am a proud pupil of.
To be honest I did not like the technique at
first. Some several month ago I made two soaps in different variations. I liked
the one with circles (or like I call after Soap Baby Whirlwind swirl). But the
waves… no… It seemed to my like I made sausage soap))) I saw the direction in
which my soap was poured and it made kind of hot dogs in the pattern… While I
prepared for this challenge I looked at some very nice soaps made in this
technique and I understood what was my problem… Sausages…. In sense of making soap
- bad trace.. So I was trying to achieve the right trace for this pour, so
there are no bright boundaries between the waves))
Those were my first soaps in that technique:
I made 6 attempts in a week before the end of
the competition) I used a shoe box (the cover of it) as my mold as I have no
mold with low sides. As I started to sell my soap, here in EU I had to use
recipe and color scheme I have certificate for. The recipe includes olive,
coconut, castor, shea, babassu, cocoa and jojoba wax.
So my first attempts were with my Jojoba and
Bamboo (with bamboo charcoal, scented with tea tree, rosemary and lavender EOs)
soap that normally looks like that:
I liked the way it looked, but it seemed to me,
that I had too little colors in it, too little color soap (I made those
recommended 15% of all batter) and too thin trace for this technique…
The second try was worse I think….
All other tries were with my Jojoba and
Lemongrass soap (colored with yellow, tropical teal and brown moca NS micas,
scented with lemongrass and lavender EOs). That is how it looks standardly:
First one attempt was very nice, seemed to me
very harmonic, but there were kind of color “spots” instead of waves, so I
wanted to make another try.
Second one try with this recipe ended up
overmixed))) So, first one or two waves perfect, then I could only give my soap
to a mold and the end)))
The third try was ended up like not very nice
soap, because I used too much colored soap (more than 15%) and too thick trace
again. I did not like the soap at all, so I normally have forgotten to take
pics of it)))) So here is the only one I made before I died from that cold outside) SAUSAGES))))))
And last one try is my best I think as for the
cosmic wave design. I over-CPOPed my soap, so there are little air bubbles in
the structure of the soap.. I hope I can forgive myself one day for that))
My entry this month – Fresh Wave.
Just poured in my wonderful shoe box mold)
All soaps together:
Thank you for stopping by and have a very good
luck with this so very hard technique!
Nasta
