Soap Challenge Club - Squeeze Bottle Designs

Hi Dynamos!  I enrolled in the Soap Challenge Club this month over at Great Cakes Soapworks.  Amy was teaching how to do squeeze bottle designs in your soap this month and I was desperate to know how to do it, since my previous attempt to figure it out on my own had proven disastrous.  Okay, perhaps disastrous is a little dramatic, but it sure was ugly as all get out.

Anyway, as part of the "class" you have to post pictures of your finished soap and write a little about your experience.  So, crochet goddesses, if this doesn't interest you, I'll not be offended if you just skip to the next blog in your feed.  But for those of you who want to know a little more about the weirdness I've been up to, please join us and follow along!

My entry to the Great Cakes Soapworks Soap Club Challenge!  I am calling this Fresh Snowflakes.

This was my first attempt, post video lesson, with the squeeze bottle technique.  I had picked a scent I'd never used before, Fresh Snow from Bramble Berry, and I found it very easy to work with.  The scent is supposed to evoke the calm and peace that follows a snowfall, and I wanted to use a snowflake to really drive that feeling home.

Of course, being me, one soap was not enough.  I drew some skull and crossbones and made a pirate soap.  I used Bay Rum from Bramble Berry to scent it, and as I poured the FO (fragrance oil) into the raw soap batter it turned the batter yellow!  I almost had a heart attack (since, much like the Fresh Snow, I had never used this FO before.  Why do I torture myself this way?! LOL!)  I added a big spoonful of Titanium Dioxide (TD) to the batter, which didn't quite mix in and left it a little spotty.  I think that I got lucky, since the TD spots look really cool with the skulls.  And I am very gratified to see that the FO didn't cause my soap to turn brown, or even stay yellow.  It's a bony cream color, perfect for scrubbing pirate booties.

My MIL is a huge fan of Marimekko, and this technique lent itself beautifully to creating designs inspired by that label.  I would really like to give this one another try, I would love for the orange centers of the flowers to pop a little more, and it would have been cool if I could have kept the pink and red from bleeding into each other.  But, I'm pretty pleased overall with how it turned out, since working with a ketchup-bottle full of lye soap isn't the easiest way to paint.  LOL!!!

I very much appreciate how supportive all of you have been with my new endeavors.  Does anyone want some soap?  I can vouch for it, it's awesome!  I'll mail out soap packages to 3 lucky Dynamos.  Leave a comment with your email address, and I'll do a random drawing on Monday, November 18th to decide the winners!

xoxo