A Personal Challenge

There was a challenge posted on Great Cakes Soapworks blog to make an elemental swirl soap.  This consisted of doing two three color in the pot swirls with different shades and a pencil line in between the two swirled areas.  Many of the soaps were done with elemental themes, such as fire and water or earth and sky.  I have to say that the soaps that were posted on the Soap Making Forum were amazing.  I wanted to try my hand at this, but I was having a hard time of figuring out which elements to chose.

In looking through photos on the forum yesterday, it suddenly hit me.  The element that struck me was to do the element of spirit.  I then had to figure out which element to do with it, or what would go with the theme, and inspiration was with me still as I realized I could do a soap based on Heart and Soul.  The challenge suggested that beginners do one color for each swirl plus the base color, but well, for me it was important that each swirl had three colors because of spiritual significance.  I believe that spirituality is a balance between body, mind and spirit and that all must be fed for spiritual health.  That is one of the threes, the other is that I am connected to a triple aspect goddess.

With this in mind, I planned my soap in its two sections.  The heart would be done in two shades of red plus the soaps base color.  I have a red mica and red oxide, so that worked for the two reds.  (They sort of blended together and can't really be distinguished in the soap at this point, that may or may not change as it cures)  I wanted the reds and base color to represent the heart both figuratively and literally.  As white and red blood cells moving through blood in the body in a literal sense, and as an emotional sense of vitality.  The soul or spirit section of the soap was done in black, grey and white as I wanted an ethereal feel of actual spirits.  For a fragrance, I chose the scent Eternity as it seemed fitting.  The pencil line was done in cinnamon mostly because it was what I had available.

As far as the process of the soap actually coming together, I did what I said I wasn't going to do and over blended it again before I started pouring and ended up with it being very thick again.  This was not then end of the world, but it did make it a bit more difficult to work with.  I also learned the valuable lesson of always mixing your colors after you pour them into their separate cups rather then waiting until right before you are going to use them, especially if your mixture is getting too thick already.  Let's just say that I had to stick blend the reds within an inch of their lives to get the colors blended.

I think for my first time doing something this complex, that it came out rather well.  I am also happy with my first pencil line.  I will try to once again remember my lesson on over blending and may even see about changing my recipe a bit to see about getting something that doesn't set up as quickly as was suggested to me.  So, this is the latest creation: