Hard to believe this was the next to last soap challenge! November’s technique was specifically created for the Soap Challenge Club by guest teacher Joanne Watkins of Nature’s Potion Handmade Soaps. As both a soapmaker and acrylic paint artist, Joanne found a way to safely re-create the dirty fluid pour technique for acrylic paint with soap.

As you will see, there are some stunning results from this technique! The challenge was divided into a juried category, sponsored by Elements Bath & Body and a voted category, sponsored by Custom Soap Stamps. The winners of the juried category were chosen by four jury members including Tatiana Serko of Creative Soap by Steso, Jelena Vasiljeva of SoapTechniques, Kenna Cote of Modern Soapmaking, and myself. The winners of the voted category were determined by the votes of those who registered for the Challenge Club this month.

Let’s start with the winners in the juried category. This may have been the most difficult challenge we have juried as the abstract nature of the designs from this technique is so subjective in its appeal. The guidelines of the challenge stated that “flowing, beautiful colors are the goal” and “creating cells in the soap is desirable, but not necessary.” Entries were scored based on these 7 categories: technique, difficulty, effort, skill/talent, uniqueness, presentation, and overall aesthetics. Each jury member scored their top 10 picks out of the 20 entries that were submitted. After considerable discussion, here are our winners:

Grand prize goes to Elena Childers of Mysteria Soap in Texas. This was Elena’s first time participating in the Challenge Club, and she was the only one to really step outside of the box with her design by using various cylinders that ranged in size from a drinking straw to much larger chipboard tubing while utilizing a full rainbow of colors:

Elena’s prize is a $100 gift certificate from Elements Bath & Body, Your One Stop Shop for Wholesale Soap Making Supplies! Congratulations! Please click on Elena’s soap photo to read more about her inspiration and how she created her soap on her blog.

In second place we have Lisa Norris of Kangaroo Apple Soap Studio in Australia. Her signature rainbow palette is a gorgeous rendition of this fluid pour technique. The colors are bright, yet well-balanced with the white and well-defined swirls in addition to beautiful cells:

Lisa wins a $75 gift certificate from Elements! After three and half years of participating in the challenges, her list of prizes is quite extensive! Congratulations once again, Lisa! Click on the photo to read more about her soap in her Facebook album.

Our third place winner is Jamie Reddinger of Lathering Lotus in Pennsylvania, and her second time placing in the top three!! Her bright, contrasting colors are a vision of flowing design and beautiful cell drips:

Congratulations to Jamie for winning a $50 gift certificate from Elements!! Check out her soap in the mold as well by clicking on the photo to see her post in Instagram.

Finally Tammy Tivis, owner of Elements Bath & Body, has chosen Karen Harvey’s Dirty Pour Cosmos Soap to receive the Sponsor’s Choice prize. She says, “The contrast of the purple, blue and marigold really “pop” and we just love the vibrant mix. Overall, the blend creates well-balanced and absolutely beautiful bars.”

Karen receives a $25 gift certificate from Elements. She has been a long-time member of the Challenge Club and this is the first time she has received a prize! I’m so happy for her! Click on her photo to read more about how she created her soap in her blog post.

Before I announce the winners in the voted category, I want to say how proud I am of all of them as each one is a first-time winner, and some have been participating for quite some time! We did have one clear winner for first place. Grand prize goes to Peech Keller in Colorado for her stunning “Taken for Granite” soap. And it truly does resemble slabs of marbled stone! Check it out:

Peech has been participating in the challenges for a year and a half and she wins a $100 gift certificate from Custom Soap Stamps! (Alex Kelly makes way more than just stamps; tools like cutters, beveler/planers, and molds are also available in his shop!)

Second and third place were just one vote apart!! Sara Hart of 4 Harts Farm in Kentucky came away with the second place finish. She has been participating in the challenges since July this year and her winning Autumn Fig soap is bursting with gorgeous, flowing color:

Sara wins a $75 gift certificate from Custom Soap Stamps! Feel free to click on the photo of her soap to read more about her process on her blog.

Third place goes to Leilani Olsen of Gingerleaf Creative in Colorado, a long-time member of the Challenge Club!!! Congratulations, Leilani!! She created a beautiful Earl Grey Tea soap, inspired by a fused glass pendant, practically glowing with bright turquoise and accented with brown and navy:

Leilani’s prize is a $50 gift certificate from Custom Soap Stamps! You will want to check out her Facebook post by clicking on the photo of her soap!

Alex Kelly of Custom Soap Stamps has chosen Ritza Reina’s soap to receive his Sponsor’s Choice prize. He says, “I liked the Autumn Harvest. I like the use of colors, which make each bar look like an abstract painting.” So true! Check it out:

Ritza wins a $25 gift certificate – woo hoo!

If you’d like to see the rest of the entries from this month’s challenge, check out the voted category entries HERE, and the juried category entries HERE (which includes the list of the top 10 winners!).

Registration for our FINAL CHALLENGE in December opens Monday, November 27!! We are doing Straight Line Designs with guest teacher Toni Watt of White Milk Soap & Candles. She has put together a fantastic tutorial for you! Here is the soap she created for the video:

Click on the photo above to see the Current Challenge page with all the deadlines, and check out the amazing prizes we will have:

Grand Prize: $100 gift certificate from Bramble Berry
Second place: $75 gift certificate from Symphony Scents
Third place: $50 gift certificate from Majestic Mountain Sage
Fourth place: $25 gift certificate from For Craft’s Sake

You will also receive the following prizes just for entering a soap in the challenge: $10 off shipping coupon from Bramble Berry, plus a 10% discount code and a special mystery prize from Majestic Mountain Sage.

Not signed up for notifications for the Challenge Club yet? Here you go: