Botanical Bas-Relief

Another Great Cakes Soap Challenge is underway!  This month we learned how to create a bas-relief from plants to create beautiful soaps from guest instructor, Elena Nedachina.  This was a multi step process and definitely put emphasis on the word "challenge" for me this month.

The first challenge was to find plant material.  Here in Colorado, it is winter, with a blanket of snow everywhere, so the pickings were a bit slim.  On the other side was the fact that plants that were available tended to have quite a bit of texture, which is what I was going for.  I did want to experiment a bit so I did so by also using a favorite houseplant, and some fresh rosemary and mint found at the grocery store.

The next step was to press the plant material into some clay to make an impression.  From this impression, I made a plaster cast, followed up by making a silicone mold from the casting.  The silicone mold was then used to make a soap bar.  Here is a timeline in pictures.

Rolled clay out between two stacks of paper - to ensure an even slab

Pressed the plant into the clay

Roll the plant into the clay, deep enough to start covering the plant

Gently pull plant away from clay

Trim the clay to the size of the mold

Carefully move the clay to the mold

Press the clay into the mold

Pour plaster over the clay

Allow to dry, remove the clay and clean up the casts

Pour silicone mold material over cast

Casts and silicone discs

Silicone discs in mold - pour top contrast soap into the mold

Pour bottom soap batter over the silicone mat

Let cure overnight

Unmold

Clean them up

Several things were learned throughout this journey that I'd like to share. 

The dried up plant material that was available outside worked, but tended to crumble when applying the pressure needed to get the impression - so it took more time to clean up the dried bits out of the clay.  This process compromised the final impression, in my opinion, as I had to work with a toothpick to get the pieces out and left unintended marks upon the clay. 

The fresh items from the grocery store worked beautifully, as they lifted up easily from the clay.  Leaves were a challenge, as you really needed to get them pressed in well to obtain the delicate features.  Some of mine were awesome, some not so great.  My shamrock was an example of this.  The image barely came up on both the clay and the silicone mat, but I decided to complete the process through to the end.  I could just see the shamrock leaf on the soap, but when I added a bit of mica "paint" to the image, it popped!  I was really happy with the outcome, it was perfect.  So, just because the impression isn't the best, it doesn't mean it won't turn out well if you use your imagination.

I absolutely love the plaster casts I made, aside from the shamrocks which were lackluster.  I haven't tried them yet, but would like to see how they would work as a stamp on softer soap.

The resulting silicone mats, although made from the mold I was ultimately using, seemed to be too big.  Some of this may be that silicone on silicone just doesn't slide easily.  The problem that I had was that I could not get the mat to lay flat on the bottom of the mold before pouring the soap batter into them, they kind of poofed up.  This followed through to the final product, in which the soaps ended up being a little domed.  I suppose it worked out ok, as while cleaning up the image, I scraped a lot of that dome out.   In the future, I will trim them down or make them just a tad smaller somehow.  I'll have to ponder on how to avoid this.

All in all, these soaps turned out stunning, and even though this project was a lot of work, and involved quite a bit of time, I really enjoyed the process.  I will definitely repeat it - especially after spring and summer flowers arrive with all of the variety that can be added.  The ideas are limitless for making your own molds and creating a truly unique bar of soap - new ideas are forming in my mind for my garden this year!!!