Korean/Japanese Household Items as Molds
I'm lucky to live a stone's throw from Oakland's Koreatown, and I always enjoy shopping there -- especially when on the hunt for soap molds. I found two possibilities in my last expedition I wanted to share with you.
This first one is called a "Kimchi Cutter". Kimchi is spicy, pickled cabbage eaten in Korean cuisine. But for soapmakers this cutter makes a smart little loaf mold. It measures about 11" long, 6" wide and 3" deep. It's especially nice because it comes with a lid and the cutting device stores flat inside the lid, making the whole thing very compact and perhaps a good way to transport loaf soaps to and from a craft show. At the store it cost me $9.99. Google Kimchi Cutter to find one of your own.
This next find looks like a kind of jello mold. Sorry I can't be specific about company brand or name of product, the entire package is in Japanese. For $4.99 I got three small loaf style molds: a half round, a square and a wavy bottom. All three have lids as well as some kind of a release lever to help get the jello out of the mold. The molds measure about 8" long and 2.5" deep and wide.
Another option to consider are sushi Molds. These come round and in triangles. Either way they make great bath bomb molds, as well as soap molds. I found these at buy4asianlife.com, but I image these are pretty easy to find online because sushi is so popular. In fact EKitron.com has flower-shaped sushi molds.
Well, hope you got some inspiration. I just got hungry!
Kaila Westerman
TKB Trading, LLC
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