Framed Art Soaps - Part 1

I had planned, for my first real post, to start at the beginning and talk about some of the soaps I made when I first started photographing my projects a couple months ago. I have to postpone the old projects, though, because I had a super soaping day on Sunday (yes, super soaping Sunday = bliss) and I'm pretty darn proud of the outcome:


Framed Leaves soap bars:
-hemp and goat's milk soaps
-oak moss fragrance oil
-no, your eyes are not tricking you. Those are copper (mica) leaves and BROWN (oxide) frames (...and a stain in the table runner I'm using in the background- crap!)



I'm fairly new to this whole blogging business, but since becoming a mad soaper, there are a couple blogs I've been keeping my eye on. My favorite is the Soap Queen (aka Anne-Marie Faiola of Bramble Berry). My inspiration for these framed soaps came from a Valentine's themed rubber stamping tutorial she posted last month. I really liked her final products but her stamps were a bit different from the ones I already had. Mine have a square-shaped rubber border surrounding the edges of the design which ends up making a ridge in the finished soap bar, contributing to the frame effect.












I really like the framing effect here and the way the copper (stamped) leaves shine and shimmer in contrast with the white. In that last photo especially, though, you can see that I made these bars in three separate pours. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, but I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the stripes on the side. (Mainly because the imperfections bug me.)

I have to admit I'm really proud of these two (and the Peek-a-Boo Bamboo I made at the same time). They're the first soaps I've made that really make me want to go back through all my other projects and marvel at how far I've come :P

What do you guys think?