There is a technique in soap making where you use a thick wire (or a hangar, more on that in a minute) to make designs in the soap. The neatest part of soaps made using a hangar (and drop swirl pouring the batter) are the patterns that emerge when you put to soaps next to each other that were adjacent in the mold. Sometimes a butterfly emerges. Sometimes a face. And with each set of soaps, the pattern is unique and different. Here are a few soaps I have made recently and I would bet that in many cases, we all see something different.
If you make soap and want to try this out, you may think you need to buy a soapmaking tool – which you can but they are expensive and will only fit one size of mold. A much easier and cheaper alternative is to use a gear tie (you can get them on Amazon) which is a flexible cord that can be bent to fit any size old. A hangar works but is really not thick enough so if you go that route, wrap it several times in masking tape.
Happy Soaping!
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Wow! Beautiful butterflies, nice color/fragrance pairings. Bravo!
Did you use a gear-tie in your lovely pictured soaps?It the great tie I used want rigid enough, perhaps the raw soap was too traced.
Dave, my airplane-building-husband, escorted me to the hanger, and in a half hour we produced two swirl tools from one galvanized rod (Lowe’s). We (meaning he) used a tape measure, wire cutter, a vice, and some muscle. He finished off the dangerously sharp edges with quarter inch, plastic tubing. It was aviation oxgyen-mask tubing, but I bet you can snag the same tubing at Winco’s fish department.
I’d love to hear how you use your gear tie swirl tool!
Happy soaping, and thank you for the great post,
Leela
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Hi Leela – I made the soaps in this post with both a gear tie and an official hangar swirl tool that I got with my tall skinny mold. I did not know about the gear tie option until after I got that tool. However, it only fits that one mold, so for everything else I use the gear tie. The gear tie is a rubber coated bendy stick that you can bend into a 3 sided square, or a U with sharp corners. It works just as well as the official tool and can be used for any size mold. I agree that ideal trace helps – too thick and it is a gloppy mess and if too thine, everything mixes together. I made a soap yesterday with a lilac fragrance oil that accelerated like crazy and my swirls did not come out nearly as well as I had hoped. Thanks for the comment and for stopping by!!
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Beautiful job!!!!!
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Thank you so much Diana!
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