The pipe divider swirl is a technique created by Tania from Soapish. She received inspiration from Clara Lindberg and Pasito a Pasito, and developed her own idea to use PVC pipe couplings to create dividers in a slab mold, holding them in place with melted beeswax (and later cocoa butter). This was such a fun technique, and definitely not as complicated as some other techniques we’ve done recently, but has really stunning results!

Huge thanks goes to our sponsor this month, Nature’s Garden! They have been so supportive of the Challenge Club since the beginning and were very generous with their prizes once again.

I’m very excited to announce to you that our grand prize winner is Lina Neufeld of Cobble Hill Soap from British Columbia, Canada! Lina has been doing challenges for less than a year and this is the first time she has placed. Her work is marked by soft colors and lines, and her winning soap easily fits those categories with stunning yellow and lavender swirls:

Lina wins a $100 gift certificate from Nature’s Garden! Congratulations!!

In second place is Lisa Rapp from Florida who joined us for the very first time last month! Lisa’s soap has lovely bright red “tulips” outlined in copper with black and white swirls:

Congratulations to Lisa! She wins a $75 gift certificate from Nature’s Garden! Please click on the photo to read about Lisa’s process and the other soap she made with this technique.

Third place goes to the very talented Vivian Sullivan of Selah Artisan Soaps in North Carolina! Vivian took second place in the January Challenge this year, and now she’s back as a top three finalist with her totally gorgeous Poinsettia soap made with the pipe divider swirl:

Vivian wins a $50 gift certificate from Nature’s Garden! Way to go!

The Sponsor’s Choice prize goes to Margo Long of Bearprint Soaps in Oregon. Margo is a long-time member of the Challenge Club and has placed twice before. Her soap this month is a lovely two-toned “raspberry” pink with delicate green and white swirls. Deborah Ward, owner of Nature’s Garden, was drawn to the soft color palette and beautiful swirls. She says, “I just think it is pretty!” It definitely is!

Congratulations to Margo who wins a $25 gift certificate from Nature’s Garden! Be sure to click on the photo to see more pics of her process in her Facebook album.

Check out the rest of the entries HERE. They are fabulous!!

Registration opens this TUESDAY, July 26 for the August Challenge. We will be doing the Dancing Funnel technique, taught by Tatsiana Serko of Creative Soaps by Steso. I am so grateful that she is willing to share her knowledge with us!! The challenge will be divided between soaps made with all natural ingredients, and those made with synthetic colors and/or scents. Here’s the all-natural soap that Tatsiana made with natural ingredients from one of our sponsors, Majestic Mountain Sage, for her video tutorial:

I just finished making my soap with synthetic ingredients from our other sponsor: Rustic Escentuals.

If you get really ambitious, you can even make a soap with more than two colors:

To find out exactly when registration opens, sign up for notifications about the Challenge Club here: