Green Wood - Wood Grain Soap Challenge October 9, 2016 12:23 30 Comments

This month's soap challenge is the wood grain technique and the guidelines are as follows.  The soap must be made from cold process soap only and must feature a wood grain technique.  Any shape or size mold is acceptable and the categories are split into all natural and synthetic.  I am entering the all natural category.  My inspiration for the soap I made actually came from a dream I had.  I am one of those soapers that dream vivid dreams about making soap and try recreating the image in my mind.  In my dream this piece of wood was barn wood that was old, sun bleached and weather damaged, almost petrified looking.  The next couple of days I began infusing olive oil with natural color powders of indigo, nettle leaf, and  alkanet root.  These would be three of the colors that I would be using, the other two were white kaolin clay and activated charcoal.  The next day with my natural colors ready to go, I lined my mold and gathered the rest of my supplies.

White rectangular storage box with wooden corner accents for Lisas Natural soap challenge Dark-colored powders and liquids in bottles and jars for Lisas Natural soap challenge using wood grain technique Three bottles of essential oils for Green Wood soap challenge using wood grain technique

I am using a blend of juniper berry, cassia, and peppermint essential oils.  

My soap batter consists of avocado, canola, castor, coconut, mango butter, hemp, extra virgin olive, palm kernel and shea butter.

Let the adventure begin!  I brought my soap to emulsification, separated it out into five portions and started to mix my colors.

White kitchen stand mixer with yellow mixture for Lisas Natural soap challenge using wood grain technique Pouring golden yellow liquid from a white bowl onto a silver scale for Lisa’s Natural soap challenge Yellow plastic measuring cup with red liquid for Lisa’s Natural soap challenge using wood grain technique 

Once I had my colors mixed to my liking, I added the essential oil blend that I had made that I mixed with some white kaolin clay.  The excitement was building almost ready to pour.

Two pitchers pouring liquid on wood surface for Lisa’s Natural soap challenge with wood grain technique Five pitchers of liquid soap in green and yellow shades for Lisas Natural soap challenge

I began pouring my soap one color at a time into my bowl, alternating until all the soap batter was gone, then poured into my mold.

Three pear-shaped pitchers with colored liquid for Lisas Natural soap challenge featuring wood grain technique Green bubbly liquid in white framed sieve for Lisas Natural soap challenge using wood grain technique

I covered the soap and put it into the oven on warm for approximately one hour, took it out, left it covered until the next day.  After I removed it from the mold, I split it into logs, then blocks then sliced it with my bar cutter.

 Large greenish layered soap showcasing wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge Three rectangular soap bars with green and brown wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge Tall rectangular soap block with wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge  Rough-cut olive green soap bars showcasing wood grain technique for Lisa’s Natural soap challenge Hand placing olive-green soap bar on white paper for Lisas Natural soap challenge with wood grain technique 

I tried keeping all the soaps in order for picture time.  Here are some of the nicer pieces put together how they were cut.

Marbled green and yellow soap bar with wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge 

Green wood grain soap block showcasing the soap challenge and wood grain technique by Lisas Natural

Swirled green and yellow marbled soap bar showcasing the wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge

Variegated green and yellow jade bar showcasing wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge

Marbled green and yellow soap bar showcasing wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge

Greenish-yellow variegated stone block showcasing wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge

For some reason, this last set of soaps I could not find the end that went with it.  I think I drove myself nutty trying to match them with the twenty-five other bars in this batch.

Polished jade-like stone showcasing green wood grain technique for Lisas Natural soap challenge

I like the colors that I achieved, the subtle green, blue and pinkish purple hues.

I had a great time making this soap and the essential oil blend smell amazing.  I look forward to using this technique with other natural colors and of course I will give it a try with some mica too.

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