Hi everybody! You may have recently seen Anne-Marie's post about my Bicycle Soap which I made just for the Soaper's Showcase at the HSMG Conference in Denver earlier this month. I wanted to use as many techniques as I could to wow the crowd, and I'm thrilled to say it did win for Best M&P Appearance (thank you, Conference attendees for your votes!!), and now I will show you how I did it.
First I printed out a bicycle graphic on soap embed paper using a laser printer. I neatly cut it out, leaving about 1/16" of white space all around. It doesn't have to be perfect since the white paper becomes translucent in the soap.
I poured 1/8" layer of clear soap base into a basic square mold. With a small, flat paintbrush, I mixed green chrome oxide with a drop of liquid glycerin. I painted wispy grass on the hardened layer of clear soap. I let it dry completely.
Next I poured about 1/8" layer of clear soap onto the painted layer and placed my bicycle into the hot soap. I allowed that to harden then painted more grass. To embed my marbled clouds (I used pearly white mica and clear soap to make a marbled soap sheet then cut out clouds using some fondant cutters), I poured another thin layer of clear soap and put my clouds in. For more dimension I let that set, then set another layer of clouds in yet another layer of clear. (How many layers are we up to now? I lost count!)
At last, we're ready to make the sky. I mixed blue non-bleeding colorant with pearl mica and stirred it into clear soap base. I poured 1/8" layer into the mold, then propped one side onto a notepad to make the sky only cover 1/2 of the mold. Finally I topped it off with white scented soap on a level surface. Voila!
This is certainly an "art piece" and not one that I would make to sell. I made another to give to a celebrity designer that I might meet this week which will probably be my last one. But I'm thinking about some variations - this diorama idea has so many possibilities! Can you tell I'm addicted to glycerin soap? I love it!!
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