What? Another Soap Video?

Another day, another soap video.

The weather has been very summery these last couple of days. We'll have a cold snap again before long and certainly more rain but for now it's been really quite nice. In any case I took advantage of a day off and made a new soap video. Better lighting this time, that is for certain.

In the video I called the soap my take on a droplet swirl but in truth the swirl doesn't have much in common with a droplet swirl other than you pour coloured batter into your mold that is already mostly filled with the main colour. The similarities end there. So I suppose I'm just going to call this the gravity swirl in all future uses. I can't imagine it's all that original. It's painfully simple but I like the effect so that is pretty much that. It's not unlike my in the mold swirl except that you pour the batter into the mold at different heights so the colours penetrate to different depths.

The soap is Neroli, Orange Peel, Bergamot and Chamomile. I have a certain love affair going on for those last two notes. I'm using them a lot lately. The soaps don't end up smelling the same or anything. It is the blender in me I suppose. I find notes I like and I use them in different ways to enjoy the notes.

In any case, Playing with Gravity:

Since I am entertained making these videos, and trying to improve on them, I'll probably post another one next week. For now I am giddily awaiting the next Soap Challenge.

Soap Challenge 2013 - Week 1 - The Tiger Stripe

For the first time I am participating in the Soap Challenge. The Challenge is hosted by Great Cakes Soapworks. Each week will have a new soap making method that all those involved in the challenge will attempt to create. This is week one. Before this year I had heard of the challenge but never really known how to participate, when it was held, ect. It's going to to be a lot of fun to try new methods. I love an excuse to experiment and of course to soap.

Week #1: The Tiger Stripe.

This technique was created by Kenna of Amathia Soapworks. Her results are beautiful and I am hoping that mine are in anyway close as good.

I let my soap get to too thick a trace for my first batch. However, it worked rather well.

Attempt #1 In the mold:

Attempt # 1 Cut:

As it happens, this soap glows in the dark, namely the lighter segments. I'll take a glow in the dark photo in the future when I am more comfortable manhandling the soap.

A Soap Video

Soaping one handed is not my forte. This has been proven once again as I just made a video of my process for my Youtube channel. It's nothing exciting, the lighting is horrible but I will share it anyway at the end of this post. I am not a coordinated person. Actually, I'm accident prone. So soaping one handed is awkward at best and clumsy at worst but how do we ever get better at anything with a lot of repetition, aka practice. The videos will only be filmed with batches that I've soaped during daylight hours given lighting and all. This will mean that only one or two batches a week will probably be possible to film. I have more “days” off my day job that are actually nights off so I tend to soap around 2am.

In any case, this is the video:

It's really shaky and I need to keep the camera where it is showing you something useful but for my first video, it could be a lot worse.

I still haven't finished my product photography. It's now become my morning after work project. Actually, that may not be a bad way to wind down.