Adventures in Pencil Lines

This summer, I have had the time and opportunity to learn and try out new soap making techniques, and one of my favorites has been creating pencil lines in my soap!

What is a pencil line?
A pencil line is a thin line made in soap by using a powder, like mica, clay, or cocoa powder.

Wild muscadine soap with a pencil line made of cocoa

Pencil lines are made by sprinkling a thin layer of the powder along the top of the soap, then gently placing another layer of soap on the pencil line. You have to take care to make the line as solid as possible, but not making the line too thick. If the line is too thick, your layers may come apart!

Most of the pencil lines that I have seen are made with sparkling micas, but I have had success using both cocoa powder and clay, both of which I had on hand at the time. If you use a loaf mold, the process is straightforward. However, if you use a mold like the one I use (which is the 9 bar birchwood mold from Bramble berry), you can either make the pencil line and omit the dividers, or place the dividers, then make your pencil line, like I did in the video below.

Pencil lines are gorgeous details in soap! I cant wait to try it out again!