Some time back, I made a blog post that included the photo shown below. It was a stock photo and really had to relevance to any of the molds that we stock at GoPlanetEarth. However, one of my customer's, Dawn, was intrigued by the shape of the soap shown forefront and wanted to know what mold she should purchase to obtain that same shape. Sadly, I had no clue since it was not one of our molds, though this very shape had been on the drawing board for a Mold Market mold. Unfortunately, some thermoforming issues related to release put a snag in the preliminary design.
I did some brainstorming and suggested to Dawn that using a piece of corrugated eavestroughing might achieve a similar shape. I wasn't sure it was a viable idea, but anything is worth a try, right?
Well, Dawn grabbed ahold of the idea and gave the eavestrough idea a whirl. She was kind enough to email her results to me and graciously consented to let me share those results with you. Thank you, Dawn! Below is Dawn's email to me.
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"I recently wrote to ask where to find the mold for soap like in a picture on your website and you wrote to say "Maybe a rain gutter?" So I tried it with a white vinyl rain gutter ($7 for a 12 foot piece at Home Depot) cut into 12 inch length, oiled the inside lightly with olive oil and then poured Aloe Vera cold process soap into the mold.
- First try, soap leaked all over the place, even though I meticulously taped one end shut with real sticky tape.
- Second try I used thick plastic with tightly wound wide rubber bands.
- Third try I used several layers of saran wrap with tightly wound wide rubber bands. The third time the soap still leaked out but did stop leaking soon without losing much soap. Then to get the soap out of the rain gutter was a problem. Today I noticed that the soap was shrinking from the sides more so I put the 12 inch piece back in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Then I laid it on it's side to thaw. A few hours later I noticed that the soap was sliding out one end! It rolled right on out! Beautiful!
So this mold is quite cheap and works great if you are patient, something I'm not!"
SIDEBAR: The soap leaked immediately when using tape... so tape DOES NOT work. So far, only saran wrap withwide ruber bands has worked. But the soap turns out so beautiful. I put the rain gutter with soap inside a flat bottomed bowl to catch any leakage, which wasn't much once I tried the saran wrap.
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If you want to try this and are looking for wide rubber bands, you can find them
here. You will want to order the Size 84.
The next trip my husband makes to Home Depot (which is almost every weekend), I am going to have him purchase a 12 ft section so I can try with Melt & Pour soap. Not so sure it will release as easily as the CP since MP soap doesn't have the same shrinkage as CP soap. But what the heck! It's worth a try. I'll let you know how it works out.
Does anyone remember this soap from the early 1960's? I had a customer email about it and promised to do a post. She is looking for information on what makes the fur. Is there a chemist out there that might help shed some light on what makes the fur appear?
With the winter storm blast we received late last night and early morning it left few options for getting to work on time (if at all!). Some employees opted to arrive by snowmobile.
I strung this clothesline in my family room for the grandkids. They arrive tomorrow morning for a surprise weekend at an indoor water park. The clothesline includes new shoes, swimsuits, and outfits for each grandkid. It's their Valentine gifts from NeeNee and Poppy.
Trying to get the ingredients to look realistic was a challenge. We think we've done a fairly good job our first go around. The cheese looks like cheddar and I was happy with the color.
Saturday was the annual chilli cook-off on our lake. The air was crisp and cold and the sky was a beautiful blue. The wind was a little biting at times, but tasting the 30 plus hot (and sometimes very spicy) chilli took the edge off the cold. Picture above is myself (center) and two of my long time employees.
I think the best part of the day was having my grandson on the ice with us. He had a blast sliding on the ice with all the other kids.
Every year we close out fragances to add new ones. This means moving these discontinued fragrances off the shelf to make room for new. Hence, great savings for you!
Those who follow my blog know that I lost my Dad to Cancer in September of 2008. I watched the devastating effects of prostate and bone cancer cripple a man full of strength and vigor. I now watch as my precious Mom endures the effects of this disease. This week, she had cancer removed from her nose (this is the 4th recurrence). The cancer was very invasive and reconstructive surgery was necessary.
You can purchase a printed tutorial that includes templates for several of the Mold Market basic shape molds. However, you can use many other Mold Market molds that are not included in the printed tutorial (such as the plain heart) by tracing the shape of the mold cavity onto plain paper. Cut out the traced shape and use as a template when printing your artwork onto the GPE paper. 
For those following my blog, you will remember my post about the corrugated eavestrough mold. For those of you just coming aboard, check out the first post here. Dawn graciously forwarded some photos of her finished soap using this mold.
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Valentine's Day will be here before you know it. These easy to make "Hugs & Kisses" soaps make great gifts for teachers, friends and anyone else that wants to indulge in some good, clean soapy fun. A short tutorial is in the works, so check the "Resource Project" section of our web site within the next few days.
