How to Carve Soap

Decorative soap carving can be an excellent and inexpensive arts and crafts project for a lazy weekend afternoon. Soap carving is popular in different forms all over the world. Use the following steps to get started.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. 
   bath soap

   To start out, purchase your craft supplies. All you need is a carving knife and a softer, fresh, block of bath soap to practice with. If the bath soap is soft enough, you may even be able to use a popscicle stick or an orangewood cuticle stick to carve with. You can cut the tip of your stick to an angle to give yourself additional maneuverability. Choose an oval bar of bath soap if you have a rounder shape in mind and a rectangular bar if your design would work better with that shape.

2. 
   decorative soap

   Choose a design for your first carving. Some good starter designs are simple flowers, animals, disney characters or shapes that appeal to you. You can choose simple pictures from children's coloring pages online.

3. Take your popscicle stick and scrape off the logo on top of your bath soap so you have a clear canvas. Take a lead pencil and draw your design lightly onto a piece of paper. Now take the paper and place it on the block of bath soap. Trace the design on the piece of paper while pressing gently so that the imprint of your design is visible on your block of bath soap.

4. Use your carving knife or popscicle stick to shave off the soap around your design. Shave off small pieces of bath soap at a time. Smooth out and round the edges by pressing down on them gently. Add in details to your design such as eyes or decorative patterns with your orange stick or a toothpick. Once you are done with your carving, use a piece of cloth to buff your carved decorative soap gently so that it is smooth from all angles. You are now done with your arts and crafts project and have a beautifully carved decorative soap to display!

Tips & Warnings

• If you don't plan on using your decorative soap, you can take your arts and crafts project one step further by painting your soap carving.
• Take your bath soap scrap remnants and wet them and pack them together to make a usable piece of hand soap. If they are too hard to mold and work with melt them down and pour them into small, different shaped containers that can act as molds.
• Be careful when using a knife. Always point away from yourself. You should ideally be working with a softer bar of bath soap so you can use an orange stick or popscicle stick for carving.

Resources

• How to Make Handmade Gifts Using Irish Sayings
• How to Make Edible Arrangements Simply
• How to Make Fall Decorations
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[mweise]

on 10/1/2009 You really laid out the process of how to carve soap so well! I am going to give this a try. 5*

[mattsaboy]

on 9/11/2009 Great article 5 stars and a recommendation...

[survivoryea]

on 9/10/2009 Really interesting - looking forward to seeing photos! 5*

[deedavis]

on 9/10/2009 Very good article. This is a talent. Thanks for sharing.