Last week I posted about my difficulties trying to make a pretty Mantra swirl soap. I like to think I am a "fixer" of sorts and will always try to find a more efficient way to do something. So I decided to see what I could devise that would make my life easier but also result in a pretty soap. This week I will show you what I came up with.
I love this technique so I really wanted to make it work.
These are the tools/ props I used:
- Cheap, thin chopping board - you do get thick ones but they are hard to cut
- Hacksaw
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Epoxy glue( if your mould is smaller than mine and the board bigger then you may not need the epoxy)
- Correx or cardboard
Method:
One: Measure your mould and make sure the chopping board is big enough to fit inside it. Mine was the right size if I cut it in half lengthwise
Two: Draw a line with the pencil along the board where you want to cut it
Three: Use the hacksaw to cut carefully along the line until the board is in 2 pieces
Four: Because the cut out handle made my board too short in one section I needed to "fill" the section in so that I had a rectangle with a "lip/ handle" on one side. The lip was not planned but the board was too long so i thought it would be good the have this lip to "hang" over the edge of the mould (you can see this below right). The actual board was too long so I cut the extra off. (middle photo above)
Five: Cut the Extra section out and fit it into handle area (above right and below left)
Six: Fit the cut out board into the main board (above middle). Epoxy in place
Seven: Once dry, cut the excess so that you now have a complete rectangle with 90 degrees.
Eight:: Place your cut chopping board dividers into your lined mould and measure how far apart you want them to be spaced
Nine: Take your cardboard or Correx and cut pieces the size of the gaps you want and place/ wedge them into the sides holding your chopping board dividers in place ensuring they don't move. Ideally you want even spacing between your boards - as I only had one chopping board I could only make 2 dividers but in reality I needed 3 so that I had 4 cavities to fill with soap. So you can see the gap in the middle is bigger than the two on the sides.I also ran out of Correx so I used a piece of cardboard in the larger middle section... nothing goes according to plan. Well actually there wasn't much of a plan so what could I expect!
So now you have your mould ready and the dividers are standing up on their own, you can make Mantra swirl soap to your hearts content with ease.
