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Soap Dough Challenge Entries

This is my first time participating in the Soap Challenge Club with Toucan Design as my entry to the Experienced Category and the Heart Design to the Bonus Category.

I have been making soaps since 2015 and I have enjoyed decorating my soaps with soap dough sculptures and piped embellishments, but not embeds for wet soap (embellishments put inside the soap during the wet phase).  So, to be honest, I’m a newbie when it comes to it, let alone making an embed in the length of a loaf mold.  I never thought it would be that hard.  I have been sculpting since 2011 with clays, but sculpting embeds for wet soap was a big challenge. My mind as a sculptress could not gauge the right form of what I was doing because I am used to interpreting the realistic size and shape of an object especially when I’m doing a live human model.  Live models are interpreted in 3D form while the wet soap embed should be interpreted in an elongated 2D form to fit the length of the loaf mold.  The challenge could have been easier using an extruder but I do not have a single one.  I know that with the right tools, a lot of beautiful designs can be made especially with the help of computer software and a 3D printer.  I might be exploring that possibility one day but since I discovered this challenge a bit late, I did not have time to find the right tools to make my job a lot easier.  But hey, I have a knife and two reliable hands to do the work for me.  It took me almost two weeks to finish two entries, one for the experienced entry and one for the bonus entry.  The process was long because I had to make some soap dough colors from scratch.  I already make my own soap dough, but this time, I took this opportunity to improve my recipe and my soap dough-making process.  It took me 3 days to get the right soap dough consistency, but it took me more than 10 days to make two different soap designs and do the photo shooting.  

My goal in this challenge is to enjoy, learn and honor soap dough- my favorite soap art medium. Knowing the process I went through in making these two designs and the number of days and hours spent doing them makes me feel accomplished.  I am very thankful for this opportunity!

Toucan Soap
Entry For Experienced Category

 

Toucan Soap Design

The first photo with a toucan is my entry for the experienced category.  Working on this design was very laborious.  I had to make shapes which I joined together to make a toucan, make two monstera leaves- the big one as a single embed and the baby monstera as a joined embed of leaf and stem.  The tree trunk was another embed joined with the branch during the pouring process of the wet soap.  I made monstera toppings of different sizes on the wet soap and waited two days before cutting them.  The photo shows the recto-verso of the design.  The toucan can face both left and right, which I like a lot in this technique.  This soap design is a cold process method scented with lemon myrtle and lemongrass essential oils.  The soap dough used was not scented.  

Abstract Heart Soap
Entry For Bonus Category

 

HEART SOAP DESIGN

The second photo with flower petals filled heart is my entry for the bonus category. The heart was a complex design of joined soap dough and the yellow dots around the hearts were simple embeds.  This is a cold process soap scented with lemon myrtle and lemongrass essential oils. The heart toppings were cut using a cutter tool.  

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