Making 3-D Soap-On-A-Rope is easy and produces a specialty bar that will retail for $7 – $10, depending on your local market and your unique differentiation.After you have your entire set up laid out, it’s easy to do melt and pour soap. Put your soap in a heat safe glass (I used a mug in the photo below) and microwave your soap on bursts of 30 seconds. You do not want your soap to boil. If it does, the soap is more prone to glycerin dew and takes on a more brittle texture.
Once your soap is melted, add your color (1 drop Labcolor per bar) and your fragrance (3 – 6 ml of fragrance per bar). Remember to only use utensils and glassware that you are happy to donate to the soaping craft. Fragrance generally sticks with your utensils and glasses long after the soap is made. Pour your soap slowly and evenly through the slot in the 3-D molds.
The molds have a natural fill level line. You’ll want to fill your soap just a little over the top of the soap and into the spigot. This is because soap naturally shrinks as it cools. If the soap is filled “perfectly” and not overfilled a little bit, the end result is a shrunken bar of soap that does not look entirely spherical. The bubbles at the top of the soap can be spritzed away with isopropyl“rubbing” alcohol.
Once your soap is poured, take the soap rope and slowly push it down into the mold, making sure to push down far enough that the soap rope is fully into the mold and not just in the spout. Using clear soap allows the soap rope to be seen inside the soap. While this is an okay look, using opaque soap produces a more professional bar.Check back tomorrow to learn about unmolding your soap rope creation. Posts to any of the entries for this week are automatically entered into the contest to win 5 3-D molds & a soapmaking DVD.
Hi Mary Helen –
You have a great suggestion. I had originally wanted only registered users to help keep flaming to a minimum but on second thought, the soaping community is a positive supportive group of people. My original worries don’t seem very valid anymore.
So, as of right now, anyone can post – even if they are not a registered Google/Blogspot user!
Thank you for the great suggestion.
Anne-Marie
I would suggest that you allow people with their own blogs to link in the comments (IOW allow people to post without Blogger/google accounts) – I know Blogger is sticky like that but networking is half the fun of blogging!
Hi! I have been a lurker for sometime, but contests are always sure to bring me out of hiding. I’m also directionally challenged but I suspect it has more to do with inate creative stobborn-ness than anything else. BTW I LOVED the cupcakes. They gave me so many good ideas that my head is still spinning.
Jaimie just wrote and couldn’t get her post to show up on the blog, and, she really wants int the contest! =)
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Thanks for your informative and fun blog, Anne-Marie! I love the photos–they really help us directionally-challenged folks!”