Gardening Times

This time of year I am torn by many loves.  I feel a huge pull to be outside, play in the mountains, ride my bicycle and get my hands in the dirt.  Spending time in the garden brought me to trying this soap that was inspired by a post I found on  pinterest from bbee's soapsite entitled "Feed the Bunny".  Very cute soaps!  I have asked, and am waiting for permission to add a picture of her soaps here, but you can visit her website.   Her blog is in German - just a warning for fellow English speakers - which has also been part of the inspiration for me to start learning a new language, but that is another story!

Anyway, I thought that the current Great Cakes Soapworks' soap challenge would be a perfect opportunity to give this a whirl, as the technique is Ombre soapmaking.  Many root vegetables have a gradual change of color, so I set out making the vegetables first.

I started with the easy ones, carrots and parsnips, since they are one color.  Paprika was used to color the carrot, and I left the parsnip natural.  I decided to try to add a little bit of lines with a sprinkle of chocolate a few times, which is another technique I've never done.  The scent throughout the entire process was a convulted mixture of all things garden (basil, rosemary, anise, bay, lime, etc.  Very similar to my Gardener's Companion, if you've ever used that one. Spicy and earthy!)

Next in line was the turnip, which would be an ombre from pink (mixture of rose clay and alkanet infused oil) to white.  I wanted a very gradual color change, so I divided my soap batter up into 12 equal cups.  I made one cup a bit darker than the color I wanted at the top of the turnip, and then, not so scientifically, made an eleven color gradient by adding a bit of that color to each cup and eyeballing it until I was satisfied with the color changes.  I apologize for the pictures, they are not a good representation of the colors, but I was scrambling to get them in the mold before they set up on me :)

Then I started to "pour" my layers.  In actuality, it was more like spreading out the layers, as they were a bit thick, on purpose.  I've had issues with pouring layers and having them mix more than intended - I just can't seem to control the batter with a spatula the way I see others do it.  

And for those of you looking at my mold setup, yes, it was funky.  Tried something new with foam board separaters taped to my freezer paper, but I didn't tape the sides, so they were falling over and needed support, hence the essential oil bottle and wood block :)  Not sure I'd do this again, at least not without taking the time to tape the sides.  They didn't leak like I thought they might, because the batter was so thick, but definitely had issues with holding the shape.

I was debating on how I wanted to do the radish.  Most pictures of radishes were all red on the outside of the root, a few were white on the bottom and red on top with a little mix in the middle, but I couldn't find any that were a real gradient.  So, as my energy was fading at this point in the day, I decided to pour natural on the bottom and dark pink (rose clay) on the top.  I then did a bit of a hanger swirl and hoped for the best.  No picture of that pour, oops!  Again, testifying to the fact that I was getting tired.

The next day, I unmolded.  Here are progress pictures.

Now I needed to shape the logs into the proper shape, in my opinion the hardest part of this project, but I feel they came out all right.

Radish

Turnip

Parsnip

Carrot

I was starting to get really excited at this point, because I could start to see the end product.  The ombre turned out beautiful in the turnip.

Next step was to embed these into a brown soap batter to give the look of soil.  Since the challenge called for most of the soap to be ombre, I decided to make an ombre soil as well.  I made up the soap batter essentially the same way as for the turnip, using cocoa powder for the colorant.  The soil was not going all the way to white, so it was a lighter brown to dark brown on top.  I had some little rock colored bits of soap from a previous project sitting around, so I added them to the bottom layer of the turnip - didn't have enough for all of them.

Looking at bbee's "Feed the Bunny" soaps, I see that she took some green soap cuts and stuck them in the batter on the top.  I decided to pipe some leaves on the top instead, especially since I had some left over batter that was starting to stiffen up.  I have to say that throughout this whole pour, the batter cooperated beautifully and did not set up as quickly as the turnip did.  This was great for the soil part, but after letting the remaining batter set up another hour or two, it still was not thick enough for what I really wanted to do for the leaves and they ended up a bit limp.  I think that it sufficed however, and the soil was setting up nicely, so I wasn't concerned that it wouldn't firm up eventually.

Cutting Time!!!!  I was so excited, and still am, as they came out so beautifully!

The soil ombre, although not quite as good as the turnip, turned out amazing!

Cut into logs...

Then into bars...

I love, love, LOVE them!!!  My favorite is probably the parsnip, mostly because of the contrast, and I also love the effect of the cocoa lines.  My second would be the turnip, as it turned out just as I had hoped.  The swirl in the radish is perfect, I just wish I had made the embed a little smaller - they are awfully large for radishes, meaning very hot on the tongue!  The carrots, being the first ones I shaped, did not have the perfect carrot shape.  To me they look more like sweet potato?  Anyway, they look like food in the ground :) 

Overall, this was a great project!  A big THANK YOU to Amy Warden at Great Cakes Soapworks for kicking me into gear :)  I can't wait to share them with my customers!!!