Soap challenge week one

So the week one Challenge thrown out by Amy over at GreatCakesSoapworks was to do an " In the pot" swirl with one more color than I have ever done.

If this is the first you have heard of this I have accepted a challenge to do an assigned technique every week with about 65+ other soap makers and have decided to blog all about it!

And If you are also wondering what in the world a "in the pot" swirl is, basically you have your soap base and you take out as many "servings" as you intend colors. I put them in red solo cups.

 You mix your colors individually in those cups and put them back into the remaining soap base still in your pot. Once around the pot with your spatula will start that swirl and when you pour it into the mold it completes the swirl.

 I did a 4 color swirl last year. you may remember it.

My Energy 4 color swirl. I was a bit more conservative back then! 

Anyway to add one more color made me a bit nervous. It's hard to get all that swirled in time to still get it into the mold before it gets too thick to effectively swirl.

So my beloved better half Alfred graciously took photos while I soaped and he got a little distracted and started taking pictures of the soap lab, the ceiling, my messy lab floor, the poster of Elvis I have hanging on the wall. Subsequently, he filled the camera full and I was not done soaping! I had to stop and clear those silly pics off the camera and my soap became like cement! 

Here are the pics!  

Getting all my colors lined up

Adding Pure Tussah Silk. Makes for such a wonderful bar!

Hand stirring my fragrance oil in. Don't want to get too thick too soon

Pulse and stir, pulse and stir!

getting the colors stirred

putting the colors back into the "pot"

At this point I knew I was in trouble! Soap should not look like that!

But being the artisan I am I forge ahead!

The sorry, sorry results of that batch

I knew I could do better so I did it again and this is the result of my second attempt at a 5 color swirl

I used cranberry fig in the first bars and they may to go into my "too ugly to sell at full price bin"

 The second batch is scented with one of my favorites. Sage and Lemongrass.

 Ah! My house smells amazing with that soap curing downstairs!

I was pretty happy with the second attempt at this swirl and you can find these bars for sale in my Carbondale shop in about 4 weeks.

This challenge was alot of fun to do and I look forward to my next challenge coming this Sunday. 

I hope you are enjoying our release from winter! I think today was an amazing 71 degrees!

Be blessed,

Donna