Cheap bars of white soap. The proffered brand is the Jergans brand from Dollar Tree. It comes in 3-pack bars for only $1
Cheese Grater. Again it is best if you buy a new cheese grater from Dollar Tree instead of using one that your family uses on a regular basis
Aluminum Pan. A cake pan or a lasagna pan will work just fine. Get a small one at first; the bigger the pan, the more soap you have to buy
Large Mixing bowl.
Butter Knife or plastic knife.
Rubber Spatula
A Cup
Rubber Gloves (if you use food coloring)
Food Coloring or liquid watercolor (optional)
You will need a table to work in. Give yourself plenty of space
Figure out how much soap you will need. Place the soap bars inside of your aluminum container to see roughly how much soap you will need to shred.
Once you know how many soap bars will cover your container, figure out how deep you want to make your big block of soap. That might mean doubling your soap bars if you have a medium sized container.
Remove the paper or plastic cover on your soap bars
Use the cheese grater to grate your bars of soap to the smallest size shavings as possible. Do this for all the soap bars you will use
Deposit your soap shavings into the large mixing bowl.
After grating your soap, you will need to figure out your water to soap ratios.
Depending on your ratios, fill a cup with water
Heat the cup of water in the microwave until its really hot
Pour your hot water into the large mixing bowl with all your soap shavings
At this stage, put on your rubber gloves and open your bottle of food coloring or liquid watercolor.
Use the butter knife or plastic knife to cut your shavings down into smaller pieces and to mix your soap with the hot water.
Do this for a few minutes until your soap and water mixture is mushy and there are no large shavings visible
Your water by this point is warm but not boiling hot
Put your hands inside the large mixing bowl with your warm water and soap mixture
Squish and squeeze as much of the soap mush as you can
Do this for a while until everything looks like mashed potatoes
Add your food coloring or liquid water color. Just 2 or 3 small drops is all
Use your knife to mix the color in the bowl
Grab your spatula and your aluminum pan
With your spatula, transfer the soap mush into the aluminum pan
Squeeze your spatula down into your pan and distribute the soap evenly. Dont leave any gaps in the pan.
If you empty your whole bowl into the pan without using the spatula in layers, you could have gaps in your finished soap bars or air bubbles/pockets.
Make sure to squeeze your spatula down in between layers.
Use up as much of the soap mush as possible
Even the soap in the aluminum pan until you finish
Add some more liquid watercolor or food coloring as you see fit.
Once you are finished, let the soap in the aluminum pan cool off for at least a day
Your big block of soap is ready to carve!
The final step is to clean up your work space
3 small bars of soap to 1/2 cup of hot water
Use a microwave safe cup
DO NOT EVER PLACE ANY TYPE OF ALUMINUM MATERIAL IN THE MICROWAVE
Use a small lasagna pan or a small cake pan when first doing this.
Do not use the family cheese grater, buy a new one for this lesson.
Buy cheap soap. If you mess up or if you want to make more, its always great to have extra.
Play around with the food coloring patterns. You can do various layers with various colors
Don't forget to put the your gloves on AFTER you finish grating your soap. Have your gloves on when you are ready to mix your soap with water.
Have your food coloring or liquid watercolor bottles already open. Its hard to open them when your hands are covered in soap
Use your spatula to squeeze down your soap and to smooth out your soap. Try to avoid having air pockets.
Make sure to clean up your work space
Students will create their own large bar of soap for an upcoming bas-relief cameo-inspired sculpture
Once complete, students will take a picture of their large bar of soap
Submit the photograph to the google classroom
Clean up your work area
Dear students, don't be afraid to do something messy and weird. Please enjoy yourself!