What is flower confetti in soap making?
A flower confetti in soap making means an intricate confetti-size (less than 1.5cm in diameter) flower-shape decoration used in the making of handmade soap. It is usually handcrafted from soap clay. The term “flower confetti” was first used by Japanese soap artists who design their handmade soaps with these decorations to give the soap a 3D visual of delicate design. It is different from the “confetti soap” which refers to a bar soap that contains colourful soap shreds that look like pieces of confetti or sprinkles in the bar soap.
A confetti soap
Handmade soap designed with flower confetti is very popular in Japan thanks to its fine and detailed appearance that always makes people mistake a bar of soap as a small piece of beautiful cake. The unique techniques of making flower confetti have been available to Japanese only for many years because they demands for enormous patience, which is not lacking in most Japanese.
It is irresistible to any hardcore soap maker who has ever seen these lovely soaps. We are soap makers too. We fell in love with them at the first sight and instantly spent months of effort to master the techniques.
Now we are going to share what we have learned to the world. This might be the first time someone is sharing these techniques to the world outside of Japan! It will be totally worth it as we are able to see more soap makers around the world creating more pretty soaps with flower confetti :)
Basic techniques to make flower confetti
In general, making a flower confetti is very similar to making a cake decoration with fondant icing and clay modelling. Almost all fondant cake decorating and clay modelling techniques can be used to make flower confetti. The only huge difference is probably the size.
The size of flower confetti is smaller than most conventional soap moulds and yet intricate enough to make the smallest icing pipe looks too big for the job. The essential tools to perform the job are your fingers and eyes.
However, modelling and sculpting tools used in miniature clay modelling can be pretty helpful in making flower confetti. In fact, making a flower confetti is just like making a clay miniature. That’s why the material used is called soap clay as well.
Soap clay is a soap that has a clay-like texture. There are many ways of making soap clay, but making a “pure” soap clay without adding other materials such as clay or cornstarch is another story because the texture of soap by nature is not as pliable and stable as clay. Certain techniques are required to get the ideal texture and we will come back to this later.
We will now show you the steps to make a basic design of flower confetti - mini rose. It’s similar to making a rose flower with fondant, just that the size is much smaller.
Basic design of flower confetti - Mini rose
1. Roll 4 pieces of soap clay into 5mm-diameter balls.
2. Flatten the balls to become ovals.
3. Roll an oval from its longest side.
4. Roll it all the way to become a tube-shape petal.
5. Curve another oval to become a saddle-shape flower petal and stick it around the tube-shape petal.
6. Continue with the 3rd petal and stick it around the tube-shape petal by overlapping it with some part of the 2nd petal.
7. Finish with the 4th petal and you have a mini rose less than 1cm in diameter ready for use.
It may look simple and easy from the pictures, but the key to make a perfect flower confetti is to get the right texture of soap clay (not too hard, not too soft, not too wet and not too dry). Using soap clay with the right texture can save you a lot of time in making flower confetti. With the wrong texture, you may end up wasting valuable time for a failed attempt.
For soap makers who are interested in making flower confetti with their own “pure” soap clay, we have a comprehensive tutorial available for you to download here.
This tutorial includes the following must-know contents about making your own flower confetti with soap clay:
A palm-free base recipe and steps to make “pure” soap clay.
Essential tips on getting the perfect texture of soap clay for flower confetti making.
Basic techniques of making flower confetti.
Important tips on making flower confetti successfully in the shortest time.
Alternatively, you can join our step-by-step soap art class to have a hands-on learning experience and make your own flower confetti and art soaps in our cozy workshop with exclusive guidance from our friendly instructors.
Once you have mastered the basic techniques to make soap clay and flower confetti, you are able to create other miniatures with soap clay and upgrade your soap design from a conventional 2D design to a stunning 3D soap art!
To learn how to make more intricate and complex flower confetti, download our advanced tutorial here.
To learn how to design and make art soap with flower confetti, check out our soap art class here.
Happy soaping...
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