I have done a little soap sculpture in years past while teaching art classes. Ivory soap is suppose to be the best. It is definitely a project for older children since knives are needed. Also tell kids to take off small pieces at a time since soap tends to split. Best recommendation is to paractice yourself and this will help you teach and do.

We used bars of Ivory soap cut to make crosses. ("takes away the sins of the world" etc)

The problem was that the soap bars kept cracking. Ivory is full of air -wonder if that was the problem?

Our solution: have plenty of spare bars and cut with light force.

Neil

Whittle or shave, don't make big cuts. Think ice sculptures and shaving layers off rather than carving and going right for the shape you want. I remember doing this as a kid for a school or scout project and keeping the soap cold -- was it so the warmth from your hands don't make it too soft as you work? There has to be some kind of heavy duty plastic tool out there that's not a knife but would work for this project ... maybe visit a local art store and ask around.

I'm thinking of getting some Ivory and trying this out, but I'm wondering if maybe a potato peeler or cheese slice might be a better tool than a knife. It might be safer too, though one could still take out a chunk of skin with the peeler.

An art teacher's book I have suggests using potato peelers for older kids but otherwise suggests plastic knives. Also says to use plastic dishwashing scrubbers to smooth the sculpture (they describe it as a lesson in making carved animals).
As others have suggested - the key is to not remove too much at a time. Suggests starting by invisioning what sort of animal is in the soap bar and scratching with toothpick to draw rough outlines on soap. As work - keep turning the soap to work all sides.

Am curious as to what story you're thinking of using this for?
--Carol

The suggestion with the soap crosses was to heat the soap just a little bit to make it more malleable. I am not sure it really helped - you'd have to have a microwave available to keep re-heating it - and if you overheat it, it makes a mess!

Thanks everyone!
In our curriculum planning meeting we were afraid of sharp tools and someone suggested soaking it ahead of time and molding soap goo instead of carving which seemed like a colossal mess, plus you'd have to have sloppy soap goo sitting around until next week while it sets up again. But the problem with cracking when you chop off too big of a piece is a concern. I'm going to have to think this through a little bit... some of our kids aren't all that patient and will definitely crack their soap.

Yeah, Carol, you do have to wonder how my mind works. This is for a Peter and Cornelius rotation and all the clean/unclean discussion surrounding it.

Peace,
Lisa

We made Ivory soap carved crosses many years ago also using plastic knives to shave off the shape. We had the kids use a sharp object (paper clip or paint brush pointed end(not the brush end) to trace the shape of the cross onto the bar first. Then they began shaving away from the outside in. Most of them turned out well without cracking.

Jaymie

HOw about making soap using molds? This is really fun to do and maybe you could find some cross molds or others that would be Christian symbols. Or just make plain bars and let the kids add objects to the soap mixture -- small cross beads or those little foam shapes do great! YOu can add scents and different colors to your soap mixture too.The biggest problem is only a few kids can work at a time so you might want to have something else going on at the same time.

Jaymie

Jaymie,
I think the idea of making soap. How do you do it? Does it take long for it to set?

Beth

It's really easy. YOu can buy soap and coloring at craft stores such as Michael's, Hobby Lobby or Wal-Mart. They also have all kinds of books that give you ideas and tell you step by step what to do. Basically you just heat up the soap blocks until they are melted using either a microwave or saucepan. (adult supervision) adult help). Next pour the liquid soap into the molds. If you want to add different color layers or objects, fill the mold only part way and allow a skin to form over the surface. Then place your object in or fill with a different color. Allow the liquid soap to cool and as it does it will harden. Takes about 15 minutes as I recall. We placed the molds near the A/C or open window (in winter) to faciliatate cooling. Then you pop the soap bars out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. OUr kids took theirs home that day. There are all kinds of neat designs you can make, too. These also make really nice gifts if you do a holiday craft night.

Jaymie

Follow up discovery,

Everyone kept mentioning cracking the soap so I did some additional searching and found that (supposedly ) the soap doesn't crack as easily if you hold it in your hand as you put pressure on it -- as opposed to lying in flat on the table where there's no "give." So we will be giving it a try in September. Will let you know.

Lisa

I remember doing this in school - I carved a duck and it's head came off. The teacher used unfolded paper clips to hold it together inside.

I do not want to necessarily stop anyone from doing this but I want you to be aware. I worked at a preschool and we did soap scrapping and I had such a horrible reaction to the scent of ivory soap, not a skin reaction, that I had to switch classrooms. Not sure if others have this but there was something about the ivory that irritated my lungs to unbearable and I know ivory is supposed to be very gentle. Keep the room well ventilated and possibly know if there are any children that are asthmatic.

Here's my promised soap sculpture update.

We used ivory soap.

If you keep the soap in your hand as you carve it really doesn't break We didn't have a single broken soap -- even with the littlest ones -- because our teacher kept reminding the kids to keep holding onto it and don't lay it on the table.

We used craft sticks to carve -- figured that was safer. I think that also might have saved us from breaking because nobody could bore a whole straight through.

The finished project? Honestly, most of them looked like soap dog bones (carved in the middle) but they got the message about not calling people unclean, which my daughter remembers everytime she washed up with her soap dog bone.

Peace,
Lisa

quote:

Originally posted by CreativeCarol:
An art teacher's book I have suggests using potato peelers for older kids but otherwise suggests plastic knives. Also says to use plastic dishwashing scrubbers to smooth the sculpture (they describe it as a lesson in making carved animals).
As others have suggested - the key is to not remove too much at a time. Suggests starting by invisioning what sort of animal is in the soap bar and scratching with toothpick to draw rough outlines on soap. As work - keep turning the soap to work all sides.

Am curious as to what story you're thinking of using this for?
--Carol

Well i went to www.christiancrafters.com and found a craft(soap crosses),a game and a cooking lessons for the theme of forgiveness it is really good! here it is!
A clean heart! go here!