Carving a Rose in Soap (turtles and More)

This Instructables shows us how to carve or sculpt a rose from soap and includes some templates for other sculpted shapes.

Beware these knives are sharp.

Supplies

You will need :

- wood carving tools

- a simple scalpel/hobby knife

- a cake of soap (Note: not all soaps carve the same. Some are quite crumbly, you may need to experiment with different types. I like the results I get from these Palmolive bars, they work best for me).

Step 1: Step 1: Remove Manufactured Words and Symbols

Using the flat eged tool scrape off the name from the soap.

Step 2: Step 2 : the Bud, Part 1

Mark roughly where you want the centre of your rose to be by gently scratching a little x.

Using the hobby knife, cut a small circle around the x, making sure the knife is upright so the cut is vertical. This is the centre bud of your rose.

Make a second cut with the hobby knife at a deep angle toward the first circle in order to bevel out some soap, as shown in picture 1.

Step 3: Step 3: the Bud, Part 2

Now cut a crescent shape for a 'petal' into the circle as shown, and bevel as before. The petal should take up just over a quarter of the boundary space and leave enough centre for 2 more layers of petals.

Work your way around the circle repeating with 3 more petals and bevelling each to finish this step.

Step 4: Step 4: the Bud, Part 3

Repeat step 3 inside the 1st layer of petals. You should have a gap for the 3rd layer of petals.

For the 3rd layer of petals, simply cut the petal line but don't bevel to prevent the small pieces crumbling off. As shown.

Step 5: Step 5: the Outer Petals

To create the first layer of outer petals cut a semicircle and bevel.

Repeat 3 more petals in this layer.

Step 6: Step 6: Further Layers of Outer Petals

Repeat step 5 twice around the 1st and 2nd outer petal layer.

On the largest 4 petals do 2 bevelled decorative cuts at right angles to the row infront into the centre part of each petal as shown in the second picture.