A Little Bit Rusty

Welcome!

Welcome to the May 2017 edition for Amy Warden’s Soap Challenge Club! This month’s challenge was taught once again by guest teacher, Tatiana Serko of Creative Soaps by Steso, and featured one of my latest obsessions in soap making – soap dough! For those who may be unfamiliar with soap dough, it’s basically soap made using certain recipes that create a moldable dough. Once finished, the soap is allowed to cure and it can be used as you would any other homemade soap. Tatiana generously offered us four of her very own soap dough recipes as well as some wonderful tips to help us create anything our minds could imagine.

Oh, The Possibilities!

I learned of the magical possibilities of soap dough several months ago from a very creative and talented soap witch, Bee Iyata of Sorcery Soap. I have been completely enthralled with the endless possibilities ever since.

Bee has been a huge inspiration to the soaping world and has generously shared what she knows about soap dough and tips on how to create magic! You can visit her blog to read more about her enchanting world, tips on working with soap dough, and some fascinating interviews with different soap makers. Bee also has a store to purchase her spell-binding soaps as well as books to help further your soap dough journey!

I cannot tell you how many gloriously imaginative ideas I had for this challenge! Unfortunately, I also had an unbelievably hectic month, which significantly put a crimp in my ability to act on many of my ideas. Adding to that, if we wanted to use Tatiana’s ideal recipe, we were in for a long wait. The recipe she typically uses for her soap dough is made and then allowed to sit for 1-2 months before it is ideal to use. I really wanted to compare one of her recipes to my usual one so I made the dough right away. Unfortunately, whatever gene carries the skill for patience completely skipped me.  

I was absolutely dying to play so I used some of the dough I had on hand to practice covering a bar of soap. This is one of those creations:

Sadly, I spent quite a bit of time on an idea that ended up not panning out in the least bit. If I ever get it to work, I’ll share it in a future post. At least the time I wasted on this particular idea helped keep me occupied while I waited for Tatiana’s dough to be ready.

I had so many other ideas but I was quickly running out of time and had to choose something. A recent Pinterest Party* with a friend gave me my final inspiration. At that party, we gave bottles an aged/distressed/vintage/antique makeover. 

I loved the rusty, patina look and decided to try to recreate it. I wanted to make something that looked like rusted metal embedded in a background of patina.

* A Pinterest Party is an awesome gathering of friends to create a project found on Pinterest. Lots of snacks, lots of wine, and LOTS of fun! 

Go Forth And Conquer!

I honestly believe no obsession is complete without a massive amount of tools to go along with it. I have amassed an embarrassing amount of gadgets to use for soap dough. Between the raid on my own long-abandoned cake decorating supplies, a major thrift store score, and snatching up clearance fondant and clay sculpting tools from craft stores, I could possibly open my very own outlet! My favorite doodads are the texture tools. I have mats, wheels, embossers, you name it. I decided to create the soap using my small half-round molds since they were clear and I could easily assess the placement of the metal decorations.

I began by rolling out strips of dough. I then either rolled a texture wheel over the surface or placed a texture mat (or embosser) over the strip and pressed it with a rolling pin.

I used a clay extruder to make some ropes. Some of them I twisted into chains:

On some pieces, I rolled the dough over a texture mat and then cut out shapes using fondant cutters:

After I had several pieces, I brushed copper mica into the grooves to give everything a metallic sheen:

I placed each piece, face down in the bottom of the mold:

Close-up of pieces in mold

Dough placement from the underside of the mold

I chose to fill the mold with a patina-colored salt recipe to give it more of a texture – and to make it set up quicker since I was seriously running out of time! A few hours later, I removed them and brushed more copper mica in the crevices and on the surface of the bars. I then used a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol to disperse the mica and give it a more rusted appearance.

After they had dried completely, I brushed black mica over the surface, followed by a dusting of silver mica, giving the bars more definition and more of an aged appearance.

Close-up of mica detail

The Results

Although I am still a little bummed that my lack of time and crazy life prohibited me from diving in full force with this challenge, I am still very pleased with the results I did achieve.  I never imagined I would be so thrilled to say I created a hunk of rusted metal, but I am! I also very much enjoyed the opportunity to try a different soap dough recipe.

While I cannot disclose the actual recipes I used, I can say that Tatiana’s recipe gave a firmer dough than the one I typically use from Bee. They both have fabulous modeling capabilities, however, and provide the advantage of using different firmness to best suit the project you are creating. Whatever you can dream, you can create. Your only limits are your own imagination!

 Ta-Da!

My entry:

Soap Specs:

For Bee’s soap dough recipes, please check out her wonderful books here. She also offers a free basic soap dough recipe here to get you started.

For Tatiana’s recipes, you can purchase the tutorial from Amy Warden here.

Fragrance: 

Black Chamomile – Wholesale Supplies Plus 

Colorants

All from Steph’s Micas and More

 Metal Pieces

Shimmer Fuscous Brown

Cocoa Brown

Accent Colors

Pitch Black

Copper

Silver Graphite

Base Soap

Aqua Green

Cambridge Blue

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time…