HOW TO USE A 3-D MOLD

(Submitted to Soap Wizards http://www.soapwizards.com/ by Ela Heyn)

Here are my instructions for using a 3-D soap mold effectively. Of course, this is contingent upon the two halves of the soap mold fitting together correctly in the first place. So the first step would actually be to acquire a soap mold designed to be 3-D, or examine your soap mold to make sure that the two halves do, in fact, fit together to form a 3-D image.

Assuming that you've done this:

1. Prepare sufficient soap base for BOTH halves of the soap mold at once - adding both scent and color to it. This can be either clear soap base or opaque soap base, in either crafting soap base or molding soap base.

2. Fill ONE half of the soap mold with soap base; let it "set up". The rest of the soap base can be allowed to cool down in the meanwhile.

3. When that half is "set up", unmold it. Now, reheat the rest of the soap base, and fill the OTHER half of the soap mold with soap base.

4. Very quickly, before the soap base has a chance to cool, take the finished half, and SMOOSH the unfinished side down into the molten soap base in the other half of the soap mold. Make sure as much of the surface of the hardened soap touches the molten soap base as possible, to get the greatest adhesion possible. You might need to pour a little extra soap base around the edges, to fill in any gaps between the two halves.

5. Let set up, and then unmold. Very carefully, with a wet finger or the edge of a butter knife, rub the seam to smooth it out as much as possible. A perfect 3-D soap object! Note: It's important when making 3-D soap objects to prepare ALL of your soap base at once to ensure that the two halves of your finished soap match each other in texture, color, scent, etc!



Source: http://www.soapwizards.com/tek9.asp?pg=recipes#HOW%20TO%20USE%20A%203-D%20MOLD