The Joy and Frustration of Soap Carving: A Reluctant Beginner's Journey

As I sat at my workbench, surrounded by various tools and materials, I couldn't help but feel a sense of trepidation. My team had challenged me to try soap carving for the first time, and I was determined to give it a shot. Little did I know that this would be an adventure in itself.

The white soap bar lay before me, its surface gleaming in the light. I carefully trimmed off the top layer, using a toothpick to create a gentle curve. Ah, the paper templates were adorable - especially the little dog template, which I just couldn't resist tracing onto the soap's surface. The soft, smooth texture of the soap was a welcome change from my usual work with harder materials.

But as I began to carve out the dog's features, I quickly realized that this wasn't going to be a straightforward process. The soap seemed to want to resist my every move, and I found myself struggling to make progress. I tried to freehand some of the details, but it was clear that I needed a bit more practice. After all, as one of the soap carvers out there, you'd think they'd have a few tricks up their sleeve.

I decided to take a step back and re-evaluate my approach. The book came with templates for various shapes and designs - including a beautiful little wiener dog. I carefully placed the template on top of the soap bar and began to cut along its edges, using a small tool to create the desired shape. This part was actually quite relaxing, and I found myself enjoying the process of working with the soft, pliable soap.

But as I moved on to the next stage - removing the soap from the mold - things started to go awry. I took off some large chunks of soap, which sent me into a panic. Oops, it seemed I'd cut off part of the dog's head! I tried again, this time taking a more gentle approach. Unfortunately, my second attempt didn't fare much better, and I found myself covered in soap shavings.

At this point, I was starting to feel a bit frustrated. What was supposed to be a fun and relaxing activity had turned into a messy disaster zone. But then, something unexpected happened - the smell of the soap wafted up to my nose, reminding me that it was actually quite pleasant. I started to enjoy the sensation of scraping curls of soap off the bar, feeling the stress melt away as I worked.

As I finally finished (sort of) my creation, a little dog-like creature gazed up at me from the bowl in front of me. It wasn't perfect, but it was mine - and that was all that mattered. I learned that soap carving isn't for everyone, but it's definitely an acquired skill. And who knows? Maybe one day I'll master it.

The experience left me with a newfound appreciation for the people who make soap carving look effortless. Mokiko, for example, is truly a wizard - her creations are breathtakingly beautiful and intricate. But even she didn't inspire fear in me; rather, she showed that there's always room to learn and improve.

As I packed away my tools and put an end to this little adventure, I realized that the most valuable part of the experience wasn't the finished product itself - but the process of trying something new. And who knows? Maybe Sparky (or Sudsy) will make an appearance again someday.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enis it just me or were december and january like as long as 17 years the end of the year was crazy and and i like so many of us thought 2021 we're gonna be off to a great start spoiler alert january was just as crazy but here i am i'm back i did my hair i'm not wearing sweatpants it's time to make another handmade video but here's the problem i'm out of ideas guys i've been doing this for a long time like a really long time in fact if you guys really scroll back to the beginning of this channel you're gonna see a real evolution in my hair and face and fashion and everything in fact maybe you should let me know like like leave a comment below with the first video i ever did on handmade hey guys happy valentine's day today i'm taking three of my family's favorite breakfast and putting a special spin on them to celebrate the holiday actually don't i don't think i want to see but anyway i'm out of ideas and it's just hard right it's hard to make craft videos month after month after month and constantly come up with fresh and exciting ideas for you guys so i did what any normal human being would do and i challenged my team to come up with a craft project for me and when i say they accepted this challenge with glee i mean they were so excited and now i'm scared what if it's another pinata i hate making pinatas hey guys this is marianne for hgtv.com and on today's weekday afternoon we're making a beehive pinata i left this on my front porch for me and inside is it smells weird i can smell it smells like my grandmother's bathroom they met they came up with a project idea for me please don't let this be soap that's what it smells like it smells like soap if we sent her like a soap making kit oh no there's too many ways to mess it up okay we're opening it are you guys ready i don't think i'm ready wait what is soap carving like you carve soap into little shapes look at this turtle that's really cute isn't that cute that's adorable ultimate soap carving did you know that this was a thing at first i was really scared that it was going to be like making soap because i've watched so many videos of people making soap and something always goes wrong i'm specifically thinking of sofia nygaard when she has attempted soap making it just looks hard it looks messy um and then i feel like the actual soap experts like come for you and i just i'm not here for that i'm not welcoming criticism into my life i can do that myself but this is not that this is carving soap which i've literally never heard of oh my gosh look at those little donuts well this is cute guys i guess we're just gonna go through this book this looks this looks hard i'm not gonna lie i'm up for it i'm up for the challenge oh my gosh that one has a light inside it people are doing things with soap we are going to carve some soap i guess i have watched like 17 soap carving videos and i've been reading this book and here's my takeaway so far i totally get but why people think this is relaxing to watch it's there's something very satisfying about slicing into the soap there's there's like some asmr kind of vibes what i'm not getting is why it's any fun to do it i think something relaxing would be nice that's what i'm a little anxious about i've been reading i've been watching like at this point i'm just kind of ready to to start cutting up some soap like i think it's kind of time to put your money where your mouth is you shouldn't put money in your mouth at all sturdy you shouldn't put soap in your mouth either there's a lot of conversation about picking the right kind of soap i am just going to assume that my sweet lovely team picked these particular soaps for me because they are the right kind of soap it also said to really make sure it was fresh that it was like wrapped in plastic these were like triple wrapped in some cases um it does say you can like microwave the soap and stuff but it also says the soap could explode if you microwave it i'm just going to open one of these and just experiment with the tools i'm just gonna okay okay makiko in the book i mean i feel like she mostly uses just like a knife it's not that sharp it does say in the book that this is a good activity to do with kids because you know soap is a lot softer obviously than wood you know because this is basically very clean whittling i also grabbed a paring knife just from my knife drawer um because it seemed like i might want like a bigger blade okay so we're gonna start by taking off this first layer i don't know i feel like this is the kind of thing that my husband and kids are gonna walk in and be like mom do you need a nap this soap is the one this is the business like it's really behaving the way it's supposed to i don't know guys so this one is olive oil so this is like this is like much nicer so i oh not like that i guess that worked this is still not nearly as enjoyable to work with as the white one and it smells terrible i think the white soap is the winner i cut out the little dog template look at that little buddy he's so cute so i don't know um i'm just going to dive in i'm kind of tired of researching the more i read the harder it seems so i'm just gonna go for it first thing we're supposed to do is just carefully trim off the surface of the soap this is probably my favorite part now the book comes with these adorable templates i just really like this little wiener dog i think he's so cute and the nice thing about soap is the paper kind of sticks to it i mean sorry about the white template on the white soap guys it's you know i found out i was doing this this morning it says you can use a toothpick i'm going to use this tool it's just like i don't know mr pointy and i'm going to trace the outline of our pepper this soap is so soft and like satisfying to work with i really appreciate the um the templates here because honestly i don't i think it would be really hard to freehand this to be honest so there we have it all right set the template aside because we're going to need it again for the ear and now i'm a little this is the part i'm a little nervous about removing the soap right i'm just going to take off some like big chunks oh it was kind of part of his head oops can i fix that i think i just cut off part of the dog's head oh no i messed up already i think something relaxing would be nice let's try that again all right so we learned can't just go crazy cutting cutting away the soap so i'm going to be a little more gentle i just feel like all of the veteran soap carvers out there are like girl what are you doing that is not the right tool for a craft made out of soap this is like shockingly messy i have to say is that a dog yet this side doesn't look like a dog at all i just don't know what's happening on the back here this looks terrible um let's just ignore the back for now all right i'm gonna clean up again there's soap everywhere i have stuff in my mouth i have soap in my eye looks like it's like what you think you're ordering and then what what comes in the mail from like wish or something we are just going to soldier on guys i'm just gonna i'm gonna take a break from the body of the dog and work and work on the ear i think there's a cardinal banging on my window i have just about had it with this carton i'm done well that's something i mean it's not not a dog several hours later and i have a dog-like creature and a bowl full of soap scraps to show for my efforts i can't say i'm gonna be leaving it all behind and starting a new career as a soap carver but what i did learn is that it's very satisfying to cut soap i mean honestly the most fun i had was just scraping curls of soap off of the bar it was great stress reliever but i also learned something well more like i confirmed something i already knew about myself which is that i don't love sculpting things whittling with soap is really not that much more fun than whittling with wood something i tried in summer camp once and almost cut my thumbnail off i got a little dog to show for it and i am very inspired and impressed by the people who are actually good at carving soap like mokiko here she is truly a wizard makiko don't worry i'm not coming for your throne anytime soon what i am thankful for is that my team came up with a challenge for me and you know what it's always fun to try to learn something new i want to hear from you guys did you guys like the format of this video we kind of changed things up a little bit have you ever tried soap carving i'm sure you're all better at it than i am be kind to me i tried my best he's pretty cute i'm gonna name him sparky or sudsy that's a cute name for a soap dog it's a weird thing i never thought i'd say before anyway let me know down in the comments below if you guys like this video and if you want my team to come up with some more challenges for me because that part of this was the most fun part getting a mystery box of items and wondering what the hell i'm supposed to do with all of this anyway don't forget to give us a thumbs up and subscribe and tell all your friends let's watch this old lady trying to cut up some soap what else do we have to do right i'll see you guys next timeis it just me or were december and january like as long as 17 years the end of the year was crazy and and i like so many of us thought 2021 we're gonna be off to a great start spoiler alert january was just as crazy but here i am i'm back i did my hair i'm not wearing sweatpants it's time to make another handmade video but here's the problem i'm out of ideas guys i've been doing this for a long time like a really long time in fact if you guys really scroll back to the beginning of this channel you're gonna see a real evolution in my hair and face and fashion and everything in fact maybe you should let me know like like leave a comment below with the first video i ever did on handmade hey guys happy valentine's day today i'm taking three of my family's favorite breakfast and putting a special spin on them to celebrate the holiday actually don't i don't think i want to see but anyway i'm out of ideas and it's just hard right it's hard to make craft videos month after month after month and constantly come up with fresh and exciting ideas for you guys so i did what any normal human being would do and i challenged my team to come up with a craft project for me and when i say they accepted this challenge with glee i mean they were so excited and now i'm scared what if it's another pinata i hate making pinatas hey guys this is marianne for hgtv.com and on today's weekday afternoon we're making a beehive pinata i left this on my front porch for me and inside is it smells weird i can smell it smells like my grandmother's bathroom they met they came up with a project idea for me please don't let this be soap that's what it smells like it smells like soap if we sent her like a soap making kit oh no there's too many ways to mess it up okay we're opening it are you guys ready i don't think i'm ready wait what is soap carving like you carve soap into little shapes look at this turtle that's really cute isn't that cute that's adorable ultimate soap carving did you know that this was a thing at first i was really scared that it was going to be like making soap because i've watched so many videos of people making soap and something always goes wrong i'm specifically thinking of sofia nygaard when she has attempted soap making it just looks hard it looks messy um and then i feel like the actual soap experts like come for you and i just i'm not here for that i'm not welcoming criticism into my life i can do that myself but this is not that this is carving soap which i've literally never heard of oh my gosh look at those little donuts well this is cute guys i guess we're just gonna go through this book this looks this looks hard i'm not gonna lie i'm up for it i'm up for the challenge oh my gosh that one has a light inside it people are doing things with soap we are going to carve some soap i guess i have watched like 17 soap carving videos and i've been reading this book and here's my takeaway so far i totally get but why people think this is relaxing to watch it's there's something very satisfying about slicing into the soap there's there's like some asmr kind of vibes what i'm not getting is why it's any fun to do it i think something relaxing would be nice that's what i'm a little anxious about i've been reading i've been watching like at this point i'm just kind of ready to to start cutting up some soap like i think it's kind of time to put your money where your mouth is you shouldn't put money in your mouth at all sturdy you shouldn't put soap in your mouth either there's a lot of conversation about picking the right kind of soap i am just going to assume that my sweet lovely team picked these particular soaps for me because they are the right kind of soap it also said to really make sure it was fresh that it was like wrapped in plastic these were like triple wrapped in some cases um it does say you can like microwave the soap and stuff but it also says the soap could explode if you microwave it i'm just going to open one of these and just experiment with the tools i'm just gonna okay okay makiko in the book i mean i feel like she mostly uses just like a knife it's not that sharp it does say in the book that this is a good activity to do with kids because you know soap is a lot softer obviously than wood you know because this is basically very clean whittling i also grabbed a paring knife just from my knife drawer um because it seemed like i might want like a bigger blade okay so we're gonna start by taking off this first layer i don't know i feel like this is the kind of thing that my husband and kids are gonna walk in and be like mom do you need a nap this soap is the one this is the business like it's really behaving the way it's supposed to i don't know guys so this one is olive oil so this is like this is like much nicer so i oh not like that i guess that worked this is still not nearly as enjoyable to work with as the white one and it smells terrible i think the white soap is the winner i cut out the little dog template look at that little buddy he's so cute so i don't know um i'm just going to dive in i'm kind of tired of researching the more i read the harder it seems so i'm just gonna go for it first thing we're supposed to do is just carefully trim off the surface of the soap this is probably my favorite part now the book comes with these adorable templates i just really like this little wiener dog i think he's so cute and the nice thing about soap is the paper kind of sticks to it i mean sorry about the white template on the white soap guys it's you know i found out i was doing this this morning it says you can use a toothpick i'm going to use this tool it's just like i don't know mr pointy and i'm going to trace the outline of our pepper this soap is so soft and like satisfying to work with i really appreciate the um the templates here because honestly i don't i think it would be really hard to freehand this to be honest so there we have it all right set the template aside because we're going to need it again for the ear and now i'm a little this is the part i'm a little nervous about removing the soap right i'm just going to take off some like big chunks oh it was kind of part of his head oops can i fix that i think i just cut off part of the dog's head oh no i messed up already i think something relaxing would be nice let's try that again all right so we learned can't just go crazy cutting cutting away the soap so i'm going to be a little more gentle i just feel like all of the veteran soap carvers out there are like girl what are you doing that is not the right tool for a craft made out of soap this is like shockingly messy i have to say is that a dog yet this side doesn't look like a dog at all i just don't know what's happening on the back here this looks terrible um let's just ignore the back for now all right i'm gonna clean up again there's soap everywhere i have stuff in my mouth i have soap in my eye looks like it's like what you think you're ordering and then what what comes in the mail from like wish or something we are just going to soldier on guys i'm just gonna i'm gonna take a break from the body of the dog and work and work on the ear i think there's a cardinal banging on my window i have just about had it with this carton i'm done well that's something i mean it's not not a dog several hours later and i have a dog-like creature and a bowl full of soap scraps to show for my efforts i can't say i'm gonna be leaving it all behind and starting a new career as a soap carver but what i did learn is that it's very satisfying to cut soap i mean honestly the most fun i had was just scraping curls of soap off of the bar it was great stress reliever but i also learned something well more like i confirmed something i already knew about myself which is that i don't love sculpting things whittling with soap is really not that much more fun than whittling with wood something i tried in summer camp once and almost cut my thumbnail off i got a little dog to show for it and i am very inspired and impressed by the people who are actually good at carving soap like mokiko here she is truly a wizard makiko don't worry i'm not coming for your throne anytime soon what i am thankful for is that my team came up with a challenge for me and you know what it's always fun to try to learn something new i want to hear from you guys did you guys like the format of this video we kind of changed things up a little bit have you ever tried soap carving i'm sure you're all better at it than i am be kind to me i tried my best he's pretty cute i'm gonna name him sparky or sudsy that's a cute name for a soap dog it's a weird thing i never thought i'd say before anyway let me know down in the comments below if you guys like this video and if you want my team to come up with some more challenges for me because that part of this was the most fun part getting a mystery box of items and wondering what the hell i'm supposed to do with all of this anyway don't forget to give us a thumbs up and subscribe and tell all your friends let's watch this old lady trying to cut up some soap what else do we have to do right i'll see you guys next timeis it just me or were december and january like as long as 17 years the end of the year was crazy and and i like so many of us thought 2021 we're gonna be off to a great start spoiler alert january was just as crazy but here i am i'm back i did my hair i'm not wearing sweatpants it's time to make another handmade video but here's the problem i'm out of ideas guys i've been doing this for a long time like a really long time in fact if you guys really scroll back to the beginning of this channel you're gonna see a real evolution in my hair and face and fashion and everything in fact maybe you should let me know like like leave a comment below with the first video i ever did on handmade hey guys happy valentine's day today i'm taking three of my family's favorite breakfast and putting a special spin on them to celebrate the holiday actually don't i don't think i want to see but anyway i'm out of ideas and it's just hard right it's hard to make craft videos month after month after month and constantly come up with fresh and exciting ideas for you guys so i did what any normal human being would do and i challenged my team to come up with a craft project for me and when i say they accepted this challenge with glee i mean they were so excited and now i'm scared what if it's another pinata i hate making pinatas hey guys this is marianne for hgtv.com and on today's weekday afternoon we're making a beehive pinata i left this on my front porch for me and inside is it smells weird i can smell it smells like my grandmother's bathroom they met they came up with a project idea for me please don't let this be soap that's what it smells like it smells like soap if we sent her like a soap making kit oh no there's too many ways to mess it up okay we're opening it are you guys ready i don't think i'm ready wait what is soap carving like you carve soap into little shapes look at this turtle that's really cute isn't that cute that's adorable ultimate soap carving did you know that this was a thing at first i was really scared that it was going to be like making soap because i've watched so many videos of people making soap and something always goes wrong i'm specifically thinking of sofia nygaard when she has attempted soap making it just looks hard it looks messy um and then i feel like the actual soap experts like come for you and i just i'm not here for that i'm not welcoming criticism into my life i can do that myself but this is not that this is carving soap which i've literally never heard of oh my gosh look at those little donuts well this is cute guys i guess we're just gonna go through this book this looks this looks hard i'm not gonna lie i'm up for it i'm up for the challenge oh my gosh that one has a light inside it people are doing things with soap we are going to carve some soap i guess i have watched like 17 soap carving videos and i've been reading this book and here's my takeaway so far i totally get but why people think this is relaxing to watch it's there's something very satisfying about slicing into the soap there's there's like some asmr kind of vibes what i'm not getting is why it's any fun to do it i think something relaxing would be nice that's what i'm a little anxious about i've been reading i've been watching like at this point i'm just kind of ready to to start cutting up some soap like i think it's kind of time to put your money where your mouth is you shouldn't put money in your mouth at all sturdy you shouldn't put soap in your mouth either there's a lot of conversation about picking the right kind of soap i am just going to assume that my sweet lovely team picked these particular soaps for me because they are the right kind of soap it also said to really make sure it was fresh that it was like wrapped in plastic these were like triple wrapped in some cases um it does say you can like microwave the soap and stuff but it also says the soap could explode if you microwave it i'm just going to open one of these and just experiment with the tools i'm just gonna okay okay makiko in the book i mean i feel like she mostly uses just like a knife it's not that sharp it does say in the book that this is a good activity to do with kids because you know soap is a lot softer obviously than wood you know because this is basically very clean whittling i also grabbed a paring knife just from my knife drawer um because it seemed like i might want like a bigger blade okay so we're gonna start by taking off this first layer i don't know i feel like this is the kind of thing that my husband and kids are gonna walk in and be like mom do you need a nap this soap is the one this is the business like it's really behaving the way it's supposed to i don't know guys so this one is olive oil so this is like this is like much nicer so i oh not like that i guess that worked this is still not nearly as enjoyable to work with as the white one and it smells terrible i think the white soap is the winner i cut out the little dog template look at that little buddy he's so cute so i don't know um i'm just going to dive in i'm kind of tired of researching the more i read the harder it seems so i'm just gonna go for it first thing we're supposed to do is just carefully trim off the surface of the soap this is probably my favorite part now the book comes with these adorable templates i just really like this little wiener dog i think he's so cute and the nice thing about soap is the paper kind of sticks to it i mean sorry about the white template on the white soap guys it's you know i found out i was doing this this morning it says you can use a toothpick i'm going to use this tool it's just like i don't know mr pointy and i'm going to trace the outline of our pepper this soap is so soft and like satisfying to work with i really appreciate the um the templates here because honestly i don't i think it would be really hard to freehand this to be honest so there we have it all right set the template aside because we're going to need it again for the ear and now i'm a little this is the part i'm a little nervous about removing the soap right i'm just going to take off some like big chunks oh it was kind of part of his head oops can i fix that i think i just cut off part of the dog's head oh no i messed up already i think something relaxing would be nice let's try that again all right so we learned can't just go crazy cutting cutting away the soap so i'm going to be a little more gentle i just feel like all of the veteran soap carvers out there are like girl what are you doing that is not the right tool for a craft made out of soap this is like shockingly messy i have to say is that a dog yet this side doesn't look like a dog at all i just don't know what's happening on the back here this looks terrible um let's just ignore the back for now all right i'm gonna clean up again there's soap everywhere i have stuff in my mouth i have soap in my eye looks like it's like what you think you're ordering and then what what comes in the mail from like wish or something we are just going to soldier on guys i'm just gonna i'm gonna take a break from the body of the dog and work and work on the ear i think there's a cardinal banging on my window i have just about had it with this carton i'm done well that's something i mean it's not not a dog several hours later and i have a dog-like creature and a bowl full of soap scraps to show for my efforts i can't say i'm gonna be leaving it all behind and starting a new career as a soap carver but what i did learn is that it's very satisfying to cut soap i mean honestly the most fun i had was just scraping curls of soap off of the bar it was great stress reliever but i also learned something well more like i confirmed something i already knew about myself which is that i don't love sculpting things whittling with soap is really not that much more fun than whittling with wood something i tried in summer camp once and almost cut my thumbnail off i got a little dog to show for it and i am very inspired and impressed by the people who are actually good at carving soap like mokiko here she is truly a wizard makiko don't worry i'm not coming for your throne anytime soon what i am thankful for is that my team came up with a challenge for me and you know what it's always fun to try to learn something new i want to hear from you guys did you guys like the format of this video we kind of changed things up a little bit have you ever tried soap carving i'm sure you're all better at it than i am be kind to me i tried my best he's pretty cute i'm gonna name him sparky or sudsy that's a cute name for a soap dog it's a weird thing i never thought i'd say before anyway let me know down in the comments below if you guys like this video and if you want my team to come up with some more challenges for me because that part of this was the most fun part getting a mystery box of items and wondering what the hell i'm supposed to do with all of this anyway don't forget to give us a thumbs up and subscribe and tell all your friends let's watch this old lady trying to cut up some soap what else do we have to do right i'll see you guys next time\n"