Cutting soap with curls in it

by Janell
(Tyrone, PA)

This could be a very short question--or maybe not. I'm just looking for clarification.

The pictures of your soaps on your site are gorgeous. I am wanting to make the anise one with white curls.

The picture of your form is a square filled with the soap curls. Below that, you have a diagram of a rectangle showing the finished soap and how to cut it.

Here is where I am confused: Why is there a picture of a square mold, but a diagram of the rectangle one?

More confusion: If the soap curls are lying flat, how do you keep from covering them with the second soap when you pour it in?

I guess I always assumed you would cut it, jelly-roll style, but it would be almost impossible to suspend the rolls in the new soap!

Thanks!

Janell

Answer:

Sorry for the delay in answering your question.

This cutting technique does take some mental gymnastics to get the idea straight in your head before you start to cut. Sorry about that!

I have numerous soap moulds but most often use double wide ones like the square mould you see filled with the soap curls.

Most people tend to use a soap log mould so I made the example to reflect that.

No matter what type of soap mould you use, the soap curls stand straight up so that you can pour the soap batter into and over them. And yes the soap curls will be covered. The design gets uncovered in the cuts.

Once the soap has hardened, you would unmould it.

If you used a block mould, you would need to cut the soap into logs first. My small square soap mould requires that I first cut the block in half so I have two mini logs.

Once you have your soap logs, you will need to cut them into double thick bars as indicated in the first picture. That picture is shown from the perspective of looking straight down on the top of the soap log. Technically you wouldn't really see the curls if you have poured enough soap to completely cover them which I often do. With the picture I wanted to make sure that everyone knew which way to place the soap log for that cut.

Next you would turn each double thick bar on its side and cut them so that they are now two bars of soap each showing the curl design. It is that last cut edge that displays the curl design.

Hope that makes sense!

Cathy