Friday, February 20, 2015

DNA Helix Swirl Soap, (the ones that didn't make the cut for the soap challenge)

I spoke with Amy B, second place winner of the Great Cakes Soapworks combing swirl challenge, and she suggested trying a DNA swirl, with a twist! I poured the rows free handed from disposable cups, and laid out the colors beginning on the sides, and going in towards the center. The color rows were thick in width. Having never done the mantra swirl before, I made a go at it. I was disappointed in that I made the width too far apart. I then twisted the entire soap in a forceful spin multiple times to get the batter to turn in the mold. I liked the results, but it was not quite what I had envisioned.




I then decided to use teal, blue, pale blue, sea moss green, black and white for an underwater theme. I put dots on with squirt bottles, and made tails with a skewer. The end result was really cute, and I got the technique down much better, but it didn't "pop" as much as I was hoping.





My next attempt was a failure. I tried to prevent soda ash by laying saran wrap on top, but unfortunately the mold was filled pretty high and the saran dipped into the pretty fuchsia, teal, black and white DNA swirl, and it blurred it.

Before (bad lighting, sorry!)



After




Completely out of soap at that point, I tried to color glycerin and use it to redo the tops. Well it pulls into itself when used in high amounts. Lets just say I had to scrape off the tops and drizzle a very small amount of colored glycerin onto the tops, and swirl texture them too, to make it look like descent soap. Sigh. Lesson learned.

Now...




On a side note, I really, really love how this turned out! The ash and the glycerin leftovers, as well as the glycerin drizzles of popping colors, made for a rocklike organic feel. I also am in love with the scent- Toffee Sugar Crunch by Daystar as well.



So all this means I had to crank out a last minute DNA swirl the day the link up began. See here for final result. 

4 comments:

  1. I love the blue one with the pink and yellow fish!

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    1. Thanks! The DNA turned out the way I had hoped, but it as a whole wasn't quite bright and cheery enough for this purpose. They are cuties, though, I think:-)

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  2. You weren't kidding about how cute the fish DNA swirl is - awesome job! Kinda looks like the goldfish snack cracker on top of beautifully swirled soap. Love this!

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