At last count, I believe I made 6 attempts at the Ebru Soap Challenge this month. Thankfully, I was happy enough with my last batch. Even though I didn’t prove to be very adept at Ebru Soap painting, it really was a lot of fun. :)
I think perhaps my biggest problem was that I watched way too many Ebru painting videos on YouTube. I mean for hours. Those videos are addicting and SO relaxing with all that beautiful spa music playing while swirly paints are dropped and turned into intricate designs. But all those videos gave me way too many ideas. And a ridiculous confidence that I could do the same with soap. I’m sure someone out there can turn soap drops into beautiful swirly birds and intricate flowers. But I do not have that ability, apparently. With my last 4 Ebru attempts, I decided to stop with the birds and flowers and just do a marbled paper type design. I figured I could handle going back and forth with the stick. But it still took me 3 more attempts to finally come up with my final (and 6th) batch.
My inspiration was a video on Ebru Marbling by Sue Zajac. I decided to swirl mine a bit more. Here’s a photo of her painting, too.
With my many attempts, I tried all kinds of colorants – from clays to micas. In the batch I’m submitting for the challenge, I chose Indigo Root Powder, Cocoa Powder, Charcoal, and Kaolin Clay. I made a swirled base and then applied the Ebru technique to the top. I used a homemade 8″ x 8″ mold made from a cardboard box lined with wax paper.
Here’s my recipe. It worked perfectly for all 6 batches. Trace definitely wasn’t my problem. So at least I had that going for me. ;)
Olive Oil – 50%
Coconut Oil – 25%
Palm Oil (Organic, Sustainable) – 12%
Sunflower Oil (High Oleic) – 10%
Avocado Oil – 3%
For my distilled water amount, I used 2.4 x the amount of Lye.
Essential oil blend – Lavandin (6 parts), Rosemary (4 parts), and Peppermint (1 part).
Here’s the video I made of me making the soap…
My color inspiration was my dog, Hank. He has a black, blue, white, and tan swirly coat. :)
Thanks for reading my blog!
Holly :)
Kápia Méra 
Love it!! I had such a hard time narrowing down the videos to share with you all as well. I love watching those fancy techniques and wish the soap would stay fluid like that also!! Great job using all natural colorants and scents – your soap turned out beautifully!!
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Thank you so much, Amy! :)
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Beautiful soap and dog – what a sweet inspiration 😊
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Thank you so much, Yvonne! :)
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Really beautiful! I love your colour choices and Hank is super cool too! :-)
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Thank you, Frances! :)
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I love your soap. I love your dog. I love your blog post. It is so funny because I was sort of the opposite. I kept trying to do what I thought would be “simple” type calico flower type patterns (although, I too, spent a long time watching videos and being mesmerized and inspired into confidence) and over and over again failed. I had first thought of a pretty intricate painting of my daughter’s to try to translate into soap, but kept thinking, “No, too complicated. Don’t do it.” Then after failing three times on flowers, I decided to go for koi fish. That’s the one that finally came out okay enough to enter, and right in time! Again, I LOVE the colors and pattern of your soap! Great job. I’m glad neither one of us gave up. :)
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Thank you so much, Penny! I have just been amazed at all the entries and the beautiful art created by everyone in this month’s challenge. Your Koi fish is just beautiful!! :)
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Thanks, Holly!
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Reblogged this on EARTHY AROMAS and commented:
I would love to buy a bar. Do you sell them?
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Reblogged this on EARTHY AROMAS and commented:
I would love to buy a bar. Do you sell them?
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