Circling Monarch

Oh how I've missed these challenges! Since I've gone back to work, I've had no time to make soap, but I was determined to participate this time nonetheless.

My Circling Taiwan Swirl entry was inspired by the Monarch Butterfly.

Aren't they pretty? Of course I just had to add some purple...

I'll spare you my previous attempts, mostly because I didn't bother to photograph them. This one I happened to capture because I liked the colors:

We were limited to exactly 3 dividers, so I had to swirl the orange/yellow and purple/blue into their sections, which was a bit of a challenge.

I used foam core for my dividers with rubber bands to keep them from floating up and away when I poured. Lesson learned the hard way!

Pulling them out is such a mess! I tried taking them out one at a tine, slowly, scraping off the excess, making a bar of it, etc., but in the end a quick yank of the whole thing over into the sink worked best.

I purposely varied my swirl as my previous attempts looked too robotic, and I was going for a more natural pattern.

I did another little swirl just on the top, as I knew it wouldn't show in the final version. Turns out this was my favorite part of it!

The part I struggled the most with shows quite clearly, as I couldn't seem to cut these straight. I really envy Amy's ability to just wipe out her knife and slice then perfectly -- what gives? I've tried a ruler, various knives, my wire cutter, etc., in previous challenges, but I'm just terrible at it. 

I'm really looking forward to Tatsiana's upcoming round soap tutorial, as I'm hoping it includes making her fabulous multi-purpose soap cutter which would probably help.

This is the point where I usually list my colors, recipes, etc., but it's Friday night and the challenge closes in the morning, so this will have to do.