Saturday, July 27, 2013

Sunflowers

Let's talk about how challenging it is to pipe soap and HOW MUCH I admiration I have for soapers that make soaps with flower piping, soap balls, cup cakes, etc.  It takes quite a lot of patience and much pre-planning. 

My recent soap I think I came pretty close to breaking.  I have been envisioning a sunflower embed soap.  I wanted the nice bright yellow and a beautiful deep blue background.  I wanted to call it Sunflower Sky...I had it all planned out. 

I watched You Tube videos.  I ordered my sunflower fragrance.  It was going to use goats milk and also some Aloe Vera liquid that I have on hand.  It was going to be great.

He he...fast forward to my flower piping. 

Lesson #1 - don't use fragrance.  I was thinking that I wanted to use the fragrance so that I did not have to wait a long time for the soap to start thicken.  The first flowers turned out OK, the rest where not as good.  My soap started thickening up so fast that I had to find a small container to rest the piping nail so I could use both hands to squeeze out the soap.  It was really bad.  I kept kneading the bag, hoping to soften the batter and it was not working.  I was getting pretty frustrated and started to ask myself why in the world would I think I was ready to do this!  ha!

Lesson #2 - Do this in a cool place, with the air conditioner running or in the middle of Winter.  There is nothing like doing it in a hot day, getting frustrated because it's not going the way you want to.  I think it was getting hotter and hotter by the minute :0/

Lesson #3 - Make sure your space is clear of items you will not need.  I was starting to run out of room as I was quickly piping there flowers.  I accidentally dropped two on the floor as I push some aside to make room.  Grrr....

But, I must say that the following day when I made the actual soap batch, I was so in love with my blue.  I just recently purchased a new slab mold and I don't have my measurements correct in my soaping software.  My bars a pretty thick!  I need do adjust the height :)


 
I really like how the gold mica play with the ultramarine blue :)  Very pretty!
 
Below you can see the difference in flowers.  The one in the middle was one of the first I made.  The one on the left is as my soap was getting pretty hard.  The petals look pretty rough and almost rustic.
 
 
 
Here is a pic of the soap in the mold.  I realized as I was taking the picture that I should have taken it before I made marks on the soap :(
 
 
Here are the final bars...a little thick.  Much thicker than what I was going for.  I just need to adjust the volume in my software for this slab mold.
 
As you can see, some of my flowers look a little rough. 
Overall I am pretty happy with how this batch came out :)
I am curious to see how the aloe will feel as soon as it is ready to use.
 
 
 
 
Thanks for checking out my blog!
 
HAPPY SOAPING!!!
ROXANA
 
 

23 comments:

  1. Gorgeous!! Oh I wish I had the nerves and skill to make soap flowers. I especially like these sunflowers and the idea of a blue background so the flowers "pop" out from the background.

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    1. Thank you Marika! I got to tell you, I have never tried piping until I started to soap. You should give it a try. You may be pleasantly surprised :)

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  2. Oh gosh, those are SO pretty Roxana! I really am in love with those sunflowers and you picked the perfect background color for them. It's hard to believe this was your first time doing them, they look so pro!

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  3. Adorbs, Roxana! Glitter fixes everything!

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    1. Thank you Laura! Can you believe that I am running out of glitter! LOL!!!

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  4. I love your sunflowers! Have never tried making them ahead of time but I think I'll try these for my next batch of lavender sunflower soap!

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    1. You should try! Just make sure that the soap does not get too hard on you

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  5. WOW I love, love,,love this soap!!!!
    Wonderful colors and cute sunflowers!

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  6. Your sunflowers look very pretty, Roxana! You did a great job with the piping. I haven't tried piping soap yet - I don't know if I would have the patience or the skill! I like the swirly blue, green, and gold in your soap, too.

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  7. So very pretty! Kyme is going to have everyone piping out flowers. Amazing job!

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  8. You're totally right! I think the biggest thing to do is not using fragrance. it makes such a difference! Great post! xoxo Katie <3

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  9. Wow! Those look amazing, you always do such a great job on the piping. =)

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  10. This beautiful soap makes me think of Van Gogh's paintings. It's got the sunflowers, which he painted, in the starry night colours. Very cool!

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  11. Wow, Roxana! those are gorgeous!

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    1. Thank you Natalia! They smell pretty nice too :)

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  12. These look great :-) I also admire those who can do tricky piping work. I have yet to attempt it. I can only pipe bath bombs with royal icing lol.

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