Rose between the thorns
The March challenge for the Soap Challenge Club was the Clam Shell Technique taught by Tree Marie Soapworks. It’s a variation on the cosmic shimmy, with three pours done from the corners and centre of the short side of a log mould.
I struck it lucky, getting the trace consistency just right for my first attempt. I also wanted to play with colours a little, so I used black and white for the corner pours and a pink and green for the centre pour - hoping for a rose between the thorns look.
To balance to look, I poured my black and white soap batter in halves into two jugs with the black on opposite sides (relative to the handle that I would hold for pouring) so that I could have black on the outside for both pours.
I used soap dividers as supports under the back of my log mould to create an angle and started the pour. The idea is to wiggle the batter as you pour to get a wavy look. As the mould fills you remove some of the height under the far end to reduce the angle while pouring. Banging the mould affects the pattern…
After the first six pours. A few annoying air bubbles, but so far so good.
A whole lot more pours later. What a fun technique!
Setting up and about to be popped into my dehydrator for an oven process finish.
Here it is popped out the mould with a few other soaps, and some quick cuts aiming at the regular category.
I I also had a second attempt but my batter was cooler and it fooled me a little, and ended up too runny to really work well… but here’s the result of that… This is a vertical cut as for the advanced category.
Here is my final entry photo.