4th of July Carved Soap June 18, 2016 09:47 14 Comments

I am getting ready for the 4th of July, it's one of my favorite holidays.  I wanted to do something special for customers who love this holiday as well. I'm feeling patriotic and  I love to be creative and learn new techniques as well so I started searching. I came across a chip wood carving tutorial on Youtube.  Wow!  Now that is really neat looking. I was so surprised at what they can do with a piece of bass wood, totally turning it into a work of art all with mainly one knife and it really looked like fun.   I just might pick it up as a new hobby. 

I decided to apply the same technique of wood chip carving, but do it to the soaps.  I got out my old trusty 4 lb silicone mold, my soap recipe and my colors.  I chose klien blue mica and firecraker red mica, both are from Nurture Soap.  I also used titanium dioxide (white).  Now all my colors are ready and waiting for me to make the soap.

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 

Once I had the soap to trace I divided it into three bowls and added the colors, mixed then in a larger bowl I began pouring.  First red, then white, then the blue, just small amounts on top of each other over and over until there was no more soap.  I poured it into the flat mold trying to keep the stripes all the same way.  I used a fondant textures to make the bumpy lines on the bottom (which is the top that you see in the picture.

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap

I let the soap set in the mold for two whole days.  I wanted to be sure that it was hard enough and I would be able to remove it from the mold easily.  Once out of the mold I cut it into to bars and let it sit for a few more days before I started carving. 

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap

 I needed to find some wood chip patterns and some tools to do the job.  I have a craft knife set that I knew I would use, but I also borrow clay tools from my mom.  I found some free patterns online.  Below is an example of one of them.

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap

 Once I decided on which design I was going to do, I used a piece of wax paper and traced over the top with a fine tip permanent marker.  I cut the wax paper to fit my soap so that I wouldn't be fighting with it when I trace it on.

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 

To make an imprint on my soap, I traced over the top of the template that I made with a ball point pen.  Take note not to push to hard as you can ruin your template and poke holes in the soap.  I went over the template a couple of times to make sure I could see the pattern well enough.

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap

Pattern transferred, on to carving.  Pictured below was the first soap.  I took pictures in stages so that you could see the progress.  The tool I used the most was a craft knife from the set I own and a clay tool that has a sharp needle point on one end.  I like how this one looks like a flag background. 

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 

I made a total of eleven carved soaps, one was my practice bar and will end up being a sample for a customer.  Here are the rest of them a long with the pattern that I traced and used.  I made my own templates for the borders.

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 

I guess I must have gotten to wrapped up in carving because I forgot to take pictures of two of them with their patterns.  Below are pictures of all of them cleaned, beveled and pretty.

4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap 4th of July Carved Soap

This was a great project.  I had so much fun carving these patriotic soaps.  Which one is your favorite?  I'm still deciding.  I will definitely do soap carving in the future.  The creativity is endless with it, holidays and special events would be great inspiration for carving a beautiful soap.  I do plan to learn on wood and really perfect my skills of wood chip carving as well.   I hope  everyone feels inspired and crafty now.  Go out and create something awesome.  :)

 

Until next time,

 

My best!

 

Lisa