Mantra Swirls - 2021

I took a bit of a break from Amy Warden's Soap Challenge Club the last few months, but here we are again! 

This month's technique is the Mantra Swirl, or Marbled Mantra Swirl, and both of these have been taught in the past.  I made a version a long time ago, so thought it would be fun to give it another go.

Here are pictures of Amy's tutorial soaps...

Original Mantra Swirl by Amy

Mantra Marbles by Amy

This technique can certainly create some beautiful soaps!

I decided to make one batch autumn-y and for the other I was thinking winter - it snowed here yesterday!!!

For the autumn soap, I colored soap batter using clays, indigo and annatto.  I tried to have one side moroccan red clay and yellow, the other side french pink clay and yellow, with the middle a combination of indigo and white.  I scented these with orange & ginger...very lovely!  I didn't get any pictures of the batter or the pour, but here it is in the mold.

Here they are out of the mold...

Top of Loaf

Bottom of Loaf

For this technique, the original mantra swirl, the design is brought out when you cut the bars horizontally.  So the loaf was cut into bar sized chunks, then cut horizontally.

Not too bad, and very fall-esque!

The next batch was more of a winter soap, with white on the sides and indigo in the center.  I tried to swirl a light and a dark indigo, which kind of came through.  This one is scented with eucalyptus, fir and clove.  Got a picture of the swirling this time!

I should have known better than to add that clove, as it started getting thick pretty quick.  But, I got it in, swirled and a picture - woohoo!

And, here's the final photo for this batch...

Loving this technique, as it resulted in some gorgeous bars!