How It's Done: Rainy Day Sunrise Part 2

This is Rainy Day Sunrise Part 2. In case you missed Part 1, you can catch up here.

So as you'll remember from yesterday, I reserved a jug from the pan containing the main body of the soap, which is orange, but will turn yellow as the curing stage gets underway. I've now got a smaller jug and I'm splitting it in half and setting both aside. This is still a thin trace. I need it thin like this so I can play later.

Here we have the main body of the soap sitting in the mold. I helped the trace thicken a little bit by stick blending the turmeric when I added it to the pan. The main body has sat for about ten minutes while it thickened even more. To the right is the jug of creamy white soap I reserved at the very beginning before I added the color. This too has thickened.

At this point I made a snap decision against the dark orange stripe I originally intended for the bar, and went straight to the next layer. My Art House soaps develop as they go along, often into something I could have never put on paper. My original drawing serves as just a guide to keep the creativity reigned in, yet allowing my mind to run free.

Here I am carefully pouring the white soap on top of the main body, over the back of a spatula spoon. I have the spoon very low to stop the white from sinking into the orange. This is a really fun stage and I love it.



I'm working around the sides of the mold here until eventually I end up in the center. I'm trying to keep it level without being perfect about it. It's really like pouring cream on top of black coffee, but on a bigger scale. I always loved doing that as a kid.

For this next stage I'm using the great complicated tool otherwise known as a barbecue skewer. I'm pushing it through the soap, dragging a little of the white through the orange, in a straight line. I'm hoping this will give a nice "trickle" effect inside the cut soap.

Now it's feeling good! Evidence. I can see that it's worked. If there's orange being dragged out at the end of every line, that means I've pushed a little of the white down. I've not even started to play yet, and already my excitement levels are up.

And this is what I leave you with today. We've still got another half to a quarter inch of the mold left to get really creative with. It's looking nice and level (thank you new workbench!) and the soap has really behaved itself. I already know it's gonna feel great to use.

So, what have we got now? We're down to two jugs of orange soap that I split in half from the one big jug that I poured off from the pan way back at the beginning. Tomorrow I'll be getting my little artist beret on while I start to paint. I'll see you then...

Oooh, look! Part 3 can be found right here.