How to Make Checkerboard Soap

Give homemade designer soap as gifts to friends and family.

Whether you make your own soap from scratch or use a pre-made soap base, you can craft the soap into various patterns or designs. One such design, the checkerboard pattern, resembles a checker or chess board with two different colors of alternating squares throughout the soap. Using the colors of your choice, you can make checkerboard soap easily. Designer soaps may cost a lot, but you can make them for less. Make your own decorative soap to give to friends as gifts, use yourself and save money.

Things You'll Need

• 5 pounds white soap base
• 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup
• Food coloring or mica
• 5 pound soap mold
• Knife
• Spoon
• Essential or fragrance oil
• Towels or blankets

Instructions

1. Obtain your soap base. You can make your own soap base (also called melt and pour soap) from scratch or purchase white glycerin soap base at your local craft store. Make sure you use a white soap base to ensure that your soap colors pop in your finished checkerboard soap.

2. Cut the block of soap base in half or otherwise divide the amount of soap you have in half. Place half aside and cut the other half into small cubes. Place the cubes into the 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup.

3. Microwave the soap base for one minute. Remove the measuring cup and stir. Replace the cup and microwave the soap for 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until you completely melt the soap. Remove the cup from the microwave.

4. Add a few drops of soap coloring, mica or food coloring to the melted soap. Stir and continue to add color until you have achieved the desired shade for one part of your checkerboard. Add 10 to 20 drops of essential oil or fragrance oil to scent your soap, and stir that in as well.

5. Pour the melted soap into the 5 pound soap mold and wrap it in towels or blankets. Leave the mold overnight to harden.

6. Remove the soap and cut it lengthwise into strips as long as the soap mold. Place these strips in a pattern starting with five evenly-spaced strips lengthwise along the bottom of the soap mold, followed by two strips across the five strips, one near the top and one near the bottom, then four strips lengthwise on top of the two strips across. Place the four strips over the empty spaces between strips on the bottom layer. Then place two strips across again and repeat this pattern until you use all of the strips (or almost all of them if you have extras that do not fit the pattern). If you use a rectangular shaped soap mold, you will need to trim the strips you place across to accommodate the difference in size (discard the pieces trimmed off or put them aside to use in another project). Put the soap mold with the completed strip arrangement aside.

7. Take the other half of your soap base and, using steps 2 through 4, melt, color, and fragrance this soap as you did with the first half. Choose a different color than you used the first time, as this color will represent your alternating checkerboard squares. Stir in either the same fragrance as you used for the first half or a complementary fragrance to that one.

8. Pour the soap into the soap mold with the layered strips, covering it completely. Wrap the mold in blankets or towels and leave it harden overnight.

9. Remove the soap from the mold and slice it into soap sized pieces across the block. Each piece will have a checkerboard pattern.

Tips & Warnings

• If making your soap from scratch, make one 2.5 pound batch, harden it, then slice that into the pattern described. Make another batch of 2.5 pounds of soap and pour it over the first soap when it reaches trace.

• Always use the same type of soap base for each part of the project. Different soap bases may not adhere correctly in the checkerboard pattern and could fall apart.

• When heated, the soap gets extremely hot; handle the hot soap with caution.

• Heat the soap base in the microwave in increments smaller than 30 seconds if it is almost completely melted to avoid overheating it.

References

• Soap Making Essentials: Soap Making Instructions: 'Checkerboard Soap'
• Happy Living: A Guide to Making Your Own Glycerin Soap at Home as well as Suggestions for How to "Personalize" Your Soap
• Pioneer Thinking: Soap Making for Beginners--Melt And Pour Process
• Cranberry Lane: Making Natural Soap From Scratch