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Welcome to crafts around the world. today were going to be traveling North America and the polar regions, the Arctic and Antarctic. We are not going to be carving ivory like the Inuits or the soapstone that they, they carve. Or ice sculptures or wood. Ice sculptures and some of the other polar regions like Canada. We're going to actually carve with Soap! And so with your supplies, You will need ,to do the simple carvings in soap, and you can use a variety of colors, different types of soap, even home made soap. And you will need your tools. There's a variety of tools that you can use for carving. You can even use, for texture, an old toothbrush. You can use some, maybe pumpkin carving tools that you have. You can get some fancy clay carving tools. Or just some, some silverware. You can even use things like a toothpick. which is very handy for if your soap breaks, to hold the pieces together. Cookie cutters. You can even use a toothpick And I had found that even bobby pins are really good to use with carving your, your soap. So, experiment, do the art and science, and ask some questions and make some discoveries on what works really well with carving your soap and getting the look and feel that you want. You want to come up with a design. And you can either draw, one down onto some paper or you can download a template that maybe you find on the internet. It could be an arctic animal It could be a whale or a walrus or something simple like that. The simpler your design is, the easier it is to carve. You can be very abstract. This I just, I did a, a 2D, a flat design carved into it. And then I made it into a 3D design. Were you can see it all the way around. So you also want sponges. They help, if you get them wet to smooth your your soap out. And I always put plastic down because this can be messy. So you'll have your plastic. You have to decide first what you're going to design. So I'm looking at my bar of soap here. and I'm thinking I am going to do something very simple, just a shell. I'm going to free-form this design. So I thinking first, a nice round shell, so I'm scratching my shell designing in here. and if you want to do a template, you would normally just put your template on and then scratch through, pressing very hard, to get your design onto your soap. Now that I have this, I want to get the big edges off. To do that. I'm going to just use my knife and cut the big chunks off. And I always save the shavings or the pieces. Because you can wet them mold them into more soap to use. Or like with this one, I liked using the colored soap to fill in my grooves, in my design to make it little colorful and more interesting. You'll find different soaps or easier or harder to carve Once you get the big pieces off continue smoothing and take rough corners off to get the design that you want. Say good bye to the Ivory logo on there. One thing I'm noticing with using this butter knife is it really gives kind of a neat scratching design in there. I might just keep that rather than using my sponge and washing it off And as you carve, you may change your mind. You can do that! Its your design, your creation. As I look at this, I might think, hmm , I don't know if I like this as a shell, I might like it as a heart and change it into a heart. or even a turtle shell. Looks kind of like a turtle shell almost ,too. And if a piece breaks off, As I said, you can use a toothpick, and you would stick it in and stick a piece that broke off on there or if you want to make it. Well, let's, let's do that. Let's make this one to a, a turtle. So I want to add a head. So I'll just put my toothpick in there. Here we go, looks a little like a head. and stick that on There, I have a head on there Now my shell has turned into a turtle. that is where then you will use some other tools. So, I might use this dowel, and drill some holes. Because now I going to start some of the detail work And these holes, I am hoping will become eyes. So thats where I can take some of those other color soaps that I talked about and stick that in there, give them little, little eyes. I grab my bobby pin, and cut some deep grooves into my soap. And I go across, add a pattern. This is where you can use a toothbrush, or paint brush. get that extra out of there. Take a little bit more of my other colored soap and push that in there. Make its back just a little bit more colorful. When you look at it, If you are happy with it or if you want to use some other tools you have around your house. Add a few more things, give him a couple little holes He needs to breathe. And there is my turtle! Its not perfect, but it's mine and I'm happy with it. Hopefully you're happy with your creation. You can give it as a gift. Use them to wash your hands. Whatever creative ideas you have with your soap carving. Eventually maybe you'll advance up to carving wood or ice or soapstone. Who knows? The learning is endless. Have fun! (music "Enthusiasm” by Jay Man is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Arctic Region of North America: Soap Carving Final

From Janis Brinn March 31st, 2021  

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