Monday, October 13, 2008

A Funneling Tutorial

If you haven't been following the talents of Corrie at Lomond Soap in Scotland, than you might not know about The Art Of Funneling. I have never seen this type of design work in soap making, so I asked Miss Corrie if she would come up with a detailed tutorial to share with the rest of the world. She so generously created this step by step process for you to follow. This is no layering, no whisking...this is OUT OF THIS WORLD funneling!


FUNNEL SWIRLS

How they’re done!

1. Set up your mould, fully lined. You will need to rig up a device to hold your funnel in place. Mine is 4 chopsticks tied together with bag ties! So long as it doesn’t fall over whilst pouring, anything will do. For this technique I find that soaping cool to cold gives you the time to separate, colour & fragrance your batch. You can always put it on the radiator once you’re done to kick start the gel.


2. Make up your soap base as normal. Stickblend enough to combine your oils & lye. You want thin trace not thick! (If it’s too thick it won’t flow through the funnel).


3. Split your soap batter into 2 halves, colour & fragrance each one. Again, only stir enough to combine the additives well. You do not want a thick batter. If you are adventurous you could try 3 or 4 colours.

In the pic below I’m adding Titanium Dioxide powder to this half.


In the next I’m adding a green colour to the other half.


4. Ok, so now you’ve got 2 pots of coloured batter. Pour those into 2 jugs ready for pouring. Don’t hang around whilst doing this. Have everything ready before you start.


5. Start pouring first one colour, into the funnel, then the other.
The amount you pour of each colour will affect the final look, it’s trial and error in this part.

The pic below shows the mould about half full, you can see how the swirls are building up.


6. Pour till all your batter is used up. And you’re finished!

7. The one I made above is called “Yo! Limey” and turned out like this.

It’s fun, no 2 bars look the same. For those like me who are swirly challenged, give it a try!



You can see more of my funnel swirl soaps on my blog at www.lomondsoap.blogspot.com or on my website at http://lomondsoap.com/

Thank you, Corrie!! I hope The Soap Bar readers try this and send loads of photos of their funnel soaping attempts so we can all share the fun and experience. Your soaps are gorgeous!

Thank you
Thank you
Thank you

19 comments:

dalene said...

That is so cool! Thanks for the tutorial. I need to get my husband to build me a mold like that and give it a try!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for this tutorial! As soon as I kick myself into gear and make soap again, I will definitely try this.

Patrice-The Soap Seduction said...

You must have been reading my mind! I've been scouring the web for a tutorial. Thanks!

egassner said...

I saw a tutorial for this a few weeks ago and need to give it a try! How very cool!

Unknown said...

What a great post!! I've admired this on the soap dish and now I can try it, thank you for sharing =o)

Ginger's Garden said...

Thank you! One of these days I will have to try it.
Irena
www.gingersgarden.com

Me said...

Great tutorial! I am definitely "swirly challenged" so maybe this will help:)

Kim said...

Awesome result! I love it!

Sherrie said...

Thanks for sharing, Joanna! What a great idea - Corrie is brilliant! I'll have to add that to my list of techniques to try. :)

Marr Williams said...

Woohoo! Thank you both for sharing this! I can't wait to try it.

Anonymous said...

Neat-O! Can't try it yet...not up to snuff on the cp technique. But, thanks for sharing it, Joanna and Corrie!

Michelle said...

Fantastic idea, thank you so much for the tutorial.

Anonymous said...

ooh I can't wait to try this. Thank you for posting!!

dcyrill said...

This is definitely doable for the swirly challenged like myself. ;)

FuturePrimitive Soap Co. said...

I'm gonna have a go! That's so simple, yet how it's done had me baffled for ages!

Tincan Crafter said...

this looks fabulous - I'm gonna try do it with melt & pour and see what happens!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Oh so cool! I can't wait to try it!! Glad I found your blog!

Nessie said...

Good evening,
Thank you very much for this tutorial, it is really very interesting and your soaps are superb.

beautiful evening