My knee high with soap in it hanging from the faucet.

What you will need:
Knee-High Nylons
Several bars of soap of your choice

Open your nylon. Drop a bar of soap in the nylon. Tie a knot in the end nylon and tie it on your outside faucet. Tada! Now you will always know where your wonderful garden soaps are!

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Now before I get too far into how to make a wrapped soap, I will explain some of the terms. Roving is fiber that has been carded, and top is combed. Top and roving felt differently because of the arrangement of the fibers. Sliver is roving or top that is split length wise. In top, the fibers are parallel making it harder for them to grip each other and felt. In roving, the fibers are every which way allowing them to grip each other and felt more readily. When you are getting your wool you will want to get roving, not top. You will also want to make sure you get plain wool roving and not a wool blend. This will insure that as your bar shrinks, the wool shrinks with it.

If you don’t have wool around the house, but want to try this project, order some thrums from Spinderellas. http://www.spinderellas.com/thrums.html will show you a nice offering of colors in 4 ounce to 1 lb increments. The Spinderellas thrums make beautiful soaps.

You will need:
Wool Roving
Several bars of soap of your choice
Warm water bath

Take a long length of your roving, about 18 inches. Split it length wise. Fan out the fibers to make a wide strip, about 1.5 inches wide. The wool should have a somewhat lacey appearance, it should not be thick and dense. It is better to have more layers of fanned wool, than it is to have a big chunk of roving as the wrapping. Holding your soap in one hand, wrap your bar of soap starting from one corner and continue to the other corner. Do not twist the wool when you wrap around the bar soap, fold the fan at each 90 degree angle, and continue. This action will appear as more of rolling the soap around the wool, that twisting the wool around the soap. It is very important that the wool strip lays flat against the soap.

When you get to the opposite corner, turn your bar of soap a quarter turn counter clockwise (clockwise if you are wrapping left handed) and wrap the soap again. Make sure that the corners are well covered. Repeat until you have a thick layer of wool wrapped evenly around the bar. Wrap all of your soaps so you are ready to wash/felt them in a single session.

Now that all of your soaps are wrapped we can felt them. Fill a large sink with hot water. Take one of your wrapped soaps and submerge it. Bring it out of the water and squeeze your soap gently. Don’t rub so that your roving comes off. Squeeze the soap repeatedly, turning and re-dunking the soap until the roving feels dense and no longer like a soft fuzzball. The roving has now felted enough so it will not move freely. Now you can rub vigourously so the wool creates a firm blanket around your soap. Once the wool is completely felted, place the felted soap on a cookie rack so it is able to dry completely. Repeat the washing sequence with the rest of your soaps.

Happy felting!

Wool and soap.

Splitting the wool to create sliver.

Fanning the wool.

The wool is completely fanned out. See the lacey appearance?

Starting to wrap the fanned wool around the soap. Wrapping the corners of the soap. Thin sliver ready to wrap around the soap. Finishing wrapping the soap with the colored sliver. Gently squishing the soap. This wool has not felted much. Rubbing the soap. Wrap the wool around the soap in this direction first, slightly overlapping the previous layer with each new wrap.

Continuing to wrap the soap. The soap is completely wrapped. Wrapping the colored sliver around the soap. Imersing the wool wrapped soap in hot water. Can you see the colored sliver sticking to my hand? This soap is just about ready to be rubbed. The finished soap. Wrap the wool around the soap in this direction second. Watch the corners!

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To transport my soap I wrap it in a dry wash cloth, that so it can breathe. I once used plastic bags but my soap would become wet and slimy. I keep that specific wash cloth dry during my travels so I don’t chance mildew beginning to grow.

I want to see how everyone else travels with their soap. Therefore, I have a challenge for everyone. Write a description and send some photos on how you travel with your soap. I will post them next Thursday so everyone else can see your ideas. I am so excited! I am sure I can find some gifts for those that send in ideas.

My soap and washcloth.

Place the soap in the center of the washcloth. The soap in the middle of a tri-folded washcloth. Folding the trifolded washcloth over the other side of the soap.

Folding the washcloth over the soap. Folding the trifolded washcloth over one side of the soap. Finished wrapping my soap.

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My soap curls in the refrigerator.

Make your inserts. Place them in a bowl or place and put them in the refrigerator. Wait over night. Pull them out the next day. The refrigerator will have pulled water out of your soap inserts. This will make them less likely to melt. It will also make things easier for you when you are arranging them in the mold. They will be less likely to stick to each other. Depending on how much soap is in each individual insert will depending how much water is lost.
During my experiments, I discovered I could lose 8% to 29% in weight from water. The smaller and thinner my inserts were, the more water I was able to lose. In my experiments, the inserts that lost the most amount of water were easier to work with and they were less likely to melt if I had soap that was a little too hot. I also discovered the larger inserts lost more water the longer I left them in the refrigerator. You can do some testing of your own to determine how long you should leave your inserts in the refrigerator based on your climate, type of soap, and style of refrigerator.

In order to determine how much water is lost during a period of time, weigh your cutouts and record that amount. Place your bowl on the scale and record how much it weighs. Place your cutouts in your bowl and put it in the refrigerator and wait at least 12 hours. Weigh the entire bowl with your cutouts. Record and subtract how much your bowl weighs from your initial total weight. Now divide your finished cutout weight by your original cut out weight. That will give you a percentage of how much weight in water was lost during the period of time you left it in your refrigerator. Now you can plan ahead so you know your cutouts are ready for your melt and pour soaps.

Happy Soapmaking!

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You will need:

Curls and Cutouts
Translucent Melt and Pour Soap, Scented
Soap Molds
Alcohol Spray (70% or 91% Rubbing Alcohol)

Place your mold on a flat surface. Fill your mold with your curls and cutouts. Arrange them until you are satisfied. Remember, you are looking at your soap from the bottem. Spray your curls and cutouts with alcohol so bubbles do not form on them inside your soap.

Slowly pour your cooled melt and pour soap into the mold. You will want to do it gently otherwise your carefully arranged pattern will move and you may not like the result.  Once you have filled the mold, allow the soap to cool. Now you have an incredibly classy soap. You can use it for everything from bridal showers to birthday parties!

Note: You will want to be cautious because if your melt and pour soap is too hot it will melt your curls and cutouts and make them swirl. It is an interesting effect but one you may not want.

Don’t miss Melt and Pour Mishaps, Pouring Techniques and Scientific Analysis next week!

Pouring soap into the mold.

Placing star into the melted soap.

Using a toothpick to move the star. Finished soap.

Placing a star.

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You will need:

Melt and Pour Soap of your choice (Transparent, White and Olive)
A Baking pan or Flat Mold
Parchment, Waxed Paper or Silicon Spray
Miniature Cookie Cutters
Knife
Container for melting soap
Lavender Fields Color
Cinnamon Bear Fragrance Oil
Tooth Pick

Line your baking sheet or mold with parchment, waxed paper, or a silicon spray for easy removal. Melt the soap designated for your cutouts. Color and scent as desired. Remember, do not use a dye as it will bleed through your finished bar of soap. In this example, I used the fragrance Cinnamon Bear and the pigment Lavender Fields. Pour the soap on your baking sheet and allow to cool. Pour in enough soap to create the thickness you want your cutouts to be. Once cool and firm, you can use miniature cookie cutters, a knife, or a toothpick to create and cutout your designs. It is recommended that you cut your designs when your soap is firm.

If your soap cutouts are extremely thin, they will curl. Should you desire that effect, pour your soap so you have a small thin sheet. If you do not want it to curl, pour your soap sheet so it is thicker.

If you don’t want the trouble of trying to keep to two cookie cutter sets separate, you can trace your design on paper or directly on the surface of your soap with a knife or toothpick. Then you can cut it out. TADA! Now you are already to put your cutouts in a bar of soap.

Don’t miss the blog tomorrow for how to place curls and cutouts in soap.

A small collection of cookie cutters.

Different shapes I have made.

Extra soap that can be melted again.

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Soap Curls. Wow! Where should I begin? Soap curls are fun, elegant and most of all, simple! They are used as adornments in bars of soap. They can also be used as quick one time-use soap like the soap petals made yesterday. They are adorable!

You will need:

Vegetable peeler
Pre-poured bar of melt and pour soap

Make your soap. You will need to select a mold that will give you a bar the height of your desired curls. Color and fragrance soap as desired. Allow to firm completely. Look at your beautiful soap! Now we are ready to make our curls.

Hold your bar of soap in one hand. Run the vegetable peeler along a flat side of your bar of soap. The soap will begin to curl. The thinner you peel your soap, the more it will curl. Do not put excessive pressure on the peeler. You do not want to injure yourself.

If you want to show more color, you can stripe or swirl your soap curls bar of soap. You can make event specific curls by the colors you use. You can make orange curls for Halloween, green for Saint Patricks, or blue for the Fourth of July. Just make sure you use a pigment for coloring your soap. Dyes will migrate through your finished soap. Have fun! Your imagination is the limit!

Don’t miss making soap cutouts tomorrow and how to place curls and cutouts on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Bar of soap and vegetable peelers.

Starting to peel the soap.

Curl starting to form. Shaping a curl.

Finished curls.

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