Soap Sculptures

One of the children's art workshops I've done for the Letchworth Arts Centre is making small sculptures inspired by Inuit art. Looking at images of their sculptures made of bone I realised I could achieve a similar look with soap.

I bought the cheapest bar of soap Home Bargains had to try out this technique.

I'd googled soap carving and found it's best to have a pot of water to keep dipping your carving tools in.

I started by roughly drawing out my sculpture image on to the soap.

And then I got to carving. I used a plastic knife and a lino cutting tool but found that the plastic knife alone is probably enough - which is good as that's less of a health and safety concern!

You can use bits of discard soap from the water pot to add to the sculpture, which I did to shape the little man's hood. I used a cocktail stick to make the face, and was able to smooth the soap with wet fingers.

The older children in the group really got the hang of it and happily sat for over an hour carving away.

This one started off as a deer but ended up as a dog. That's the way it goes sometimes!