Dancing Bubbles

This month's soap club challenge is the Dancing Funnel, which is basically a series of overlapping circles. It looks really easy to do, but, like so many others, turns out not to be.

Tatsiana presented the technique using a super thin, hand-stirred batter that I wasn't able to master. When I tried it, the colors ran together and the circles distorted into odd shapes.

I was trying a much softer recipe than I usually use:

• 40% Costco Mediterranean Blend
• 38% Lard 
• 20% Coconut Oil
• 2%   Castor Oil

Plus 28% water and 1t ppo of my go-to decelerating fragrance oil (White Tea & Ginger from Nature's Garden). 

It seemed like it took forever to harden -- I'm used to unmolding after 4-6 hours -- and the circle definition was terrible.

For the next batch, I dropped the water to 22%, and switched to a neutral accelerating FO (White Tea & Ginger from Crafter's Choice). This worked much better, as it started to set up as I went, allowing better definition as I got to the top:

I intended this to look like bubbles, so the circles are small and monochromatic, and colored with different intensity levels of the same blue mica.

(My daughter, Maddy, says she loves this soap, but pointed out that bubbles aren't actually blue. So, next time, I'll be sure to make them transparent... ;)

FWIW, the color levels I used (of Tropical Teal from Nurture Soap Supplies) were:

• Dark: 1 t/ppo
• Medium: 1/2 t/ppo
• Light: 1/4 t/ppo

One of the best things about this technique (IMO) is that the design goes all the way through the bar, which always makes me happy.

On the sides, the circles are flattened and look a bit like chrysanthemum petals. Even the back looks pretty cool, which doesn't often happen:

I wish I had had more time with this technique, but summer vacation followed immediately by back-to-school prep on top of work made it hard to squeeze it in.

I'm not making excuses, though.

OK, I clearly am, but still! :)

I hadn't been planning to submit this, as I felt I could have done better, but my husband pointed out that I was being a big baby, so here it is!