Bee Sweet!!!

Time for another soap challenge hosted by Amy Warden, and I certainly had fun making this one!

The technique this month is called Inlaid Design, taught by guest instructor Carmen Iclodean of Earth's Raw Beauty, and you could make it with or without an embed.  I added an embed, and...as I needed to make some Bumblebee soap for the summer anyway, I decided to go with that theme.

To begin things, I needed to make a yellow loaf for my embed.  I colored this one with annatto seed infused oil and added just a bit of cocoa to tone it down a little.

I then cut the loaf into two (so I can make two batches of this - yay!) and textured the sides with a clay cutting tool.

The next step was to make the loaf for the actual soap.  I divided it in the center to have a brown side and a "blue" side.  I used cocoa for the brown and alkanet infused oils for the blue, although it will probably turn more purpley as time goes on.  We will see....

Now it's time to lay the embed in.  Gently, gently....

I was trying to get a branch look, so I poured brown over the top of the hive and layered blue for sky.  I kind of messed this up a bit, so I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out.

These actually looked pretty good cut, and I took a couple of bars from the center to play with my design.  I wanted to have the brown represent a tree trunk, have a bit of brown come across the top for a branch, and have some blue surrounding the hive for the sky.  The hive could have been a little smaller, but overall I was very happy with the results.

I used clay carving tools, fondant "cookie" cutters, and piping tips to get the shapes and to achieve my vision.

I want to add a little bit more detail to the image, and hopefully they will end up with a dot in the center of the flower and darker green veins in the leaves.  I'm still working on the bee image as well.  I might do smaller bees?  But, these are what I have at the moment for my entry this month.