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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

December 2015 Challenge - Impression Mat Soap

December 2015 Challenge - Impression Mat Soaps

Inspired by Amy Warden Soap Challenges!
Here is my final Entry !!!
Beach Soaps
 I actually started preparing 2 weeks ago. My first attempt at making a silicone mold I used a 100% silicone made by GE I purchased from Lowes.
 I was able to get the silicone to harden up enough to work with in the soapy water. I happened to use Ajax dish soap since it's all I had on hand at the time. I use quite a heavy dose of it, so the water was very sudsy.
(here are some links to helpful videos on the subject of diy silicone molds: (you may have to copy/paste)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6z3_dcP1_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlptOsHth_s 
(I added glycerin to a second soap & silicone attempt later & it helped it set up much faster!)

 I pressed & worked my silicone into a tile square I had picked up from Lowes for less than $5.00 (I like to experiment cheap!). I then set it aside to cure. Well the next morning my saran wrap had gotten blow over onto the top, so I then had to leave it in place or risk destroying my mat. It was still VERY soft and sticky!!! I was having doubts about success at that point. 3 days later I pulled the still tacky silicone from my tiles, I figured it had to come off one way or the other - so I hurried the process a bit. I really thought it was a lost cause on this try! surprisingly it was (mostly) intact. 
 After sitting it on the fridge for several days the silicone finally cured! I trimmed the mat to make usable portions. It was very thin, but super flexible so I am excited to try it!
***FYI the smooth glass tiles worked great to create a mold - the silicone didn't stick to it.

 Since the 1st Silicone mat didn't appear at first to be an option to use for the challenge - I had moved ahead with getting a mold kit from Michael's (%40 off coupon - yay!) This kit was super easy to use and worked wonderfully! It was called "Amazing Mold Rubber" I chose it over the other kit as this has a longer working time.
I use as my mold fodder a selection of seashells and pebbles I had around. I happened to use bubble wrap as my material to hot glue them to. In hindsight this was NOT the greatest idea. I had the idea the bubbles would add interest, but even though I used a lot of hot glue on my items, there were still several gaps that allowed my mold rubber underneath. I was able to clean it up, but it took a lot of careful work with a sharp razor blade!
 I wanted a sandy color with some slight grainy texture. I didn't have any actual sand so I chose to color with Coffee as my Lye liquid. I boiled in in a pan then used a sieve to filter out only the large grounds. The silty coffee specks stayed in my liquid. I added 1 tsp course sea salt to my lye water before adding the lye. (2 lb. soap recipe). I chose natural colors, with some gold mica in oil to dab on in places.
I didn't get photos, of the in-between, but I put spots of color in the rocks and shells to give variety to the look. I made two loaves, one with my tile line silicone mold and one with my Beach themed rubber mold.

 After 13 hours I was able to gently remove my loaves from the main mold. I let them sit about 4 hours more before attempting to pull the impression mats from the loaves.
* The tile line mat made from silicone was easy to remove. I just took my time. I like the rustic look of it.
**The Beach themed mat was trickier. Even tho I had used salt in my lye water, the soap was still soft enough that a couple of my rocks wanted to break. All and all I am very pleased with the look of it! I plan on experimenting more with darker/more colors with this one! Melt and pour is good in this, as I experimented with that first as a trial run. I did trim a couple of trouble areason the rubber mold to make CP come out better next time. Also a harder recipe is in order.

 I am so excited to see what everyone else came up with!
Thank you again to Amy Warden for such a fun and helpful Challenge! I definitely recommend them to any Soaper wanted to really learn from others and be pushed to try new things!
I hope the Best to all - Have a fantastic day! : )
Eva



15 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us, Eva! I love the tile idea. It came out pretty neat too, but the beach theme definitely has more interest. I like how you used the coffee to give the effect of sand - great idea!

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  2. Thank you very much Amy! There are some neat tile mats available, plus they can easily come apart to create other designs ... so many ideas! I hadn't tried coffee liquid before so i'm stoked with the results. Thanks for everything!

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  3. I love the beach one! I would like to do that in the future also.

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    1. Thank you Toni! I've also seen that using something soft like modeling clay works to press shells etc into for prouring your own mould. I want to try that when I have some. This was really fun!

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  4. I love how both of your soaps turned out! I never thought of tiles, I'll have to try them next time. This is one challenge that has made me look at my surroundings in a different light - I'm constantly finding myself looking at everything saying "ooh, wouldn't that make a neat texture?" LOL!

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    1. Thank you Debi! Lol, I totally agree about looking at everything for texture. This really set my imagination on fire! I was not even looking for tiles when I was in the store, it just caught my eye & I had try it!

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    2. ))) Debi, I did it all the way too))) What to give under that silicon)))

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  5. Very nice beach soap, Eva. It looks very rustic and natural like rea beach))) I want to go to some place that sea or at least river)

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    1. Thank you Nasťa! I love beaches, ocean or river! I hope you get to visit the Ocean is truly awesome :)

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  6. The shells are so pretty and realistic. I am looking at the shells my daughter collects on the shore, and yours look identical!

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    1. Thank you! I'm so glad you think it looks realistic! The 'Amazing mold rubber' worked really well to pick up all the details of the rocks and shells. I would like to make future soaps a bit more colorful tho. making our own impressions was awesome, and I'm learning tons from everyone else!

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  7. This is sooo realistic! What a great job!

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  8. Thank you Anna! This has been a super fun challenge. :)

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  9. Those shells and rocks really do look real! Very nice job, Eva! Thanks for sharing about your experience with the silicone from the store, too. That was interesting.

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    1. Thank you Penny! I loved this opportunity to try new things, and I have learned so much too! :)

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