molds Archives - Page 5 of 6

Celebration Soap Project – Instructions

January 11, 2008 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Melt & Pour Soap

As promised in the KVOS post, here are instructions for making Celebration Soap. I’ll post photos and a description of the final Vocation Vacation day (including the amazing exploding microwave mess) tomorrow.

This is a simple project, suitable for children and soapmakers of all skill levels. You’ll need the following supplies to make Celebration Soap:

clear melt and pour
white melt and pour
(non-bleeding) blue liquid pigment
Champagne fragrance oil
Milky Way Oval Mold
Silver Glitter
Rubber Star Mold
Pyrex container
Spoons
Rubbing Alcohol in a spritzer bottle

Part One – Make the Stars

1. Melt 4 ounces white melt and pour soap in the microwave
2. Add 2 drops of non-bleeding blue color
3. Stir well.
4. Pour into Molds
5. Spritz with alcohol (to break up bubbles)
6. Wait 45 minutes before popping out stars

Part Two – Overpour

1. Melt 14 ounces of clear melt and pour soap in the microwave
2. Add 1/2 teaspoon of silver glitter
3. Stir Well
4. Keep stirring.
5. Stop stirring for 30 seconds. Observe the glitter. If it is sinking to the bottom of your glass, keep stirring. The goal is to suspend the glitter. This requires the soap to be of a medium viscosity, dense enough to support the large particles of sparkle.
6. Add .3-.5 ounces of Champagne fragrance
7. Carefully lay the stars down on the bottom of the mold.
8. Pour in clear silver glitter soap, over the stars.
9. Spray a finishing spritz of rubbing alcohol on the soap to ensure that all bubbles are dissipated.

I’ll cover some variations on the Celebration Soap over the next few days so you can use your new soap molds with different (and easy!) color combinations.

Coming Soon! New Molds!

January 3, 2008 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Just to whet your appetites, these molds are coming soon (soon = late next week):

Ounces per bar: 4
Dimensions: 2.625″ x 2.6265″ x 1.25″

Cavities: 4
Ounces Per Bar: 3
Dimensions: 2.75″ diameter x 1″

The three below are stamps. For instructions on how to stamp your soap, click here.

Dimensions: 1.25” X .825”
Dimensions: 1.5” X 1.25”
Dimensions: 1.375” X 1”

Used Birchwood Molds for Sale – Deep Discounts

December 28, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

While going through inventory today, we came across some Birchwood Molds that had been returned to Bramble Berry. They have been used used once or twice but are definitely still useable.

There are 2 small molds and 4 large molds. We’re selling these very funcational (and also currently sold out molds) for $25 (small) and $40 large. Buyer pays shipping.

If you’d like a great deal on these molds, just email me (info at brambleberry dot com).

Update: These are all spoken for now. Wow! You flooded the email box and I’m still sorting out the time/date stamps! =)

Holiday 3-D Soaps

December 28, 2007 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

A few weeks ago, I made Holiday 3-D soaps for the Skincare Naturals Gift Guide. The soap in the top photo is colored with Opalescent Green Mica, Non Bleeding Red and a opaque soap and scented with Christmas Spice. In the bottom photo, the round is colored with Merlot Mica and Super Pearly White in clear soap.

I know it’s post-Christmas but the photos turned out so good that I wanted to share the cute final project.

If you missed the week of 3-D soap mold posts, here’s the final poston coloring and layering 3-D soap mold projects.

Bubblewrap as Soap Liner

November 28, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

What an ingenious idea from All My Soap – bubble wrap as the mold liner. It adds texture and depth and gives us all something to do with the copious amounts of shipping material we’ll receive this holiday season.

Puzzling Soap Problems

November 23, 2007 Filed Under: Personal Ramblings

Duane and Nancy from Nature’s Best Soaps had the niftiest custom soap molds made. The molds are designed to mimic a potato. Why a potato? Duane and Nancy live in Idaho. Idaho is famous for its spuds! So, Duane and Nancy make a great soap that they sell all over Idaho. I know the soap is great because I bought a spudbar at the Boise, Idaho airport a few years ago.

These new potato molds are producing some puzzling looking soap though. If you think you can help diagnose their soap problem, head over to their blog Squeeky Clean!and offer your helpful suggestions.

New Molds at BB

November 6, 2007 Filed Under: Bramble Berry News

Bramble Berry has some fun new molds for the Guest Mold (Heavy Duty Mold) section. Here are a couple of them. They’ll be up for sale tonight or tomorrow morning.

The Party Stars would be ideal for New Years. I see it with glitter, a clear Labcolor to allow the glitter to shine through and Champagne Fragrance Oil.

Baby Footprint molds? Sweet! I love babies. I love soap. What’s not to adore about these molds? They are perfect for gifts for new moms (belly balm lotion bars, anyone?) or for favor bags after a baby shower.

Details for both molds: price: $6.00
size: 2″x2″x.875″
6 cavity – 1.25 oz each

Clear Instructions for Layering CP Soap

October 31, 2007 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Playing With Soap has a helpful post, complete with photos, on layering Cold Process Soap. Click here to see it.

I do layers the same way: pour at a very pudding thick trace and try to work quickly.

I’ve heard other soapmakers actually make three batches (rather than separating one big batch into three parts), one right after another. The time in between batches allows the layers to harden enough to support the next layer.

Swirling Day 3 photos

September 10, 2007 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Watch the video for a better example of the spatula swirling method. The movement is a swirling up, down, and around in an “S” shape.

Putting the Sunnybrook soap mold dividers into the mold is easy if you squeeze the outside two plastic pieces to hold the entire puzzle of inserts together.

Gently tapping on the counter to encourage air bubbles to rise to the surface is a good way to make sure you don’t get white bubbles in your finished bars. Remember to keep your eye protection on for this step.

Click here for Day One – Preparing the Color
Click here for Day Two – Pouring the First Layer
Click here for Day Two – Video
Click here for Day Three -Video
Click here for Day Three – Swirling

Swirling Day 2

September 9, 2007 Filed Under: Cold Process Soap

Pouring lightly traced, fragranced soap into Sunnybrook mold.

The prepared blue color is added in an “S” shaped swirl pattern, first vertically and then horizontally.

This is the final ivory overpour. At this point in the swirl soap’s short life, there has been three ivory white pours and two blue pours (white, blue, white, blue, white).Look for a video of the swirling later today.Tomorrow, we will cover the final finishing touches for the swirled soap.

Instructions for Aloha Surf Shorts

August 7, 2007 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Instructions for making Aloha Surf Shorts:

1. Melt 1 ounce of white melt and pour in the microwave
2. Using a dropper, draw up some non-colored, white soap. Carefully dropper/color in the details on the Surf Shorts.
3. Wait for 5 minutes
4. Melt the remaining soap from step 1 and an additional 8 ounces of soap in the microwave. Prior to turning on heat, add 1/4 tsp Cellini Blue Mica.
5. Stir the melted soap to ensure that there are no unmelted Cellini Blue Mica bubbles. Spritz the top of the soap with Rubbing Alcohol to help break up mica bubbles. Cellini Blue is an oil soluble, lip safe colorant. It requires extra stirring to get it fully mixed in.
6. Add your fragrance (we used Ocean Rain)
6. Pour slowly and evenly into the Surf Short Mold.
7. Spritz the top of the soap with alcohol to ensure a smooth and even finish on the soap.
8. Allow to harden for a minimum of 4 hours. Gently pull away the sides of the mold from the soap. Do not force the soap out. The little strips of white color will not come with the soap if you push the soap out too quickly or harshly.
9. Wrap with Saran Wrap or some other breathable method. Label and you’re all done!

In the soap above, since Cellini Blue is an FD&C based color, the blue is morphing into the white lines making a sophisticated similar-hued accent stripe.

If you make the project, I want to see your photos. You can email them to me at info (at) brambleberry (dot) com.

Using 3-D Molds – Layering & Color Details

July 30, 2007 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

Here are the final photos of our 3-D molded soap project. More advanced techniques include layering and detailing the cut outs in the soap.

Instructions for coloring in the dragonfly: You will need a dropper, a glass of very hot water, alcohol spritzer and melted soap in a contrasting color.

Draw up the melted soap into your dropper. If it is too cool, it will clog your dropper. If it is too warm, it will melt your dropper. I just make sure that my soap is not steaming before I pull it up into the dropper.

With your dropper tip situated comfortably in the crevice of the design, push gently down on the bulb until the soap streams out in an even manner. Slowly fill in the crevices and use the alcohol to smooth out the surface of your design.

I use the hot water to clean out the dropper in between squirts and also in case the soap starts to harden up inside the dropper before I am able to use it.

Doing multiple layers requires nothing more than patience. My tip is to use the same brand of soap base for all the layers. I always use the Bramble Berry House brand for layering. It seems to stick better in my opinion. Pour your first layer and wait thirty minutes. Melt your second layer, pour the soap and wait for thirty minutes. Continue to do this until you are satisfied with your coloring combinations. The secret to getting the soap to stick together is to use the same brand of base and pour fairly quickly in between layers.

I hope you have enjoyed your tutorial and that you feel inspired to try these fun, unique soaps on your own now! Expect the contest winners to be announced later today!

Using 3-D Molds – Trimming & Color

July 26, 2007 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

3-D molded soap needs to be finished off to make the bars look professional. I have not figured out a way to make 3-Dsoap without needing to trim. The coral colored bar on the right is fully cleaned up. A general rule of thumb is: the hotter the soap is, the more runny and thin it is. The cooler your soap is, the more viscous and dense it will be. The more cool you pour your melted soap, the less trimming you need to do. But, you will still need to trim.

Using a non-serrated knife (such as a cheese knife or a paring knife), hold the soap firmly in your left hand and wield the knife with your right hand. Reverse the directions if you are left-handed. Slowly start to trim the soap by drawing the knife toward you – slowly, slowly, slowly and carefully. Blood ruins a great soaping afternoon.

In the photo below, the speckling is caused by improper colorant mixing. If the colorant had been pre-mixed in a little water, the speckles would have gone away. Or, if the colorant had been mixed more vigorously in the soap, the speckles would have disappeared.

Tomorrow’s final 3-D soap mold tutorial will include information on how to layer your 3-D soap molds and color-in details using soap.

Using 3-D Molds – Unmolding, Part 2

July 25, 2007 Filed Under: Melt & Pour Soap

This is what the unmolded 3-D soap looks like. Because the soap naturally squishes out over the edges, the finished soap does need to be trimmed. Thursday’s posts will touch on trimming and coloring your soapy 3-D creations.

If the soap does not fully harden, it will leak all over. It is difficult to see inside the mold and impatience is easy to give into. If you do accidentally pry open the soap mold too early, leaks will happen (hopefully not over carpet).

In this case, the middle was not full set up and liquid soap poured over the table and side of the mold. Thankfully, this error was easy to correct.

After scraping the soap off the sides of the mold, I snapped both sides of the mold back together and poured a new bit of soap through the open spigot. The soap turned out fine in the end.