A while back, I made some soap dough* colored with turquoise mica (The mica in question I do not remember, but it was either Synergy mica or Sea green mica from Nurture Soap).  For the longest time, I did not know what to make with it.  So I ended up using most of it for a failed sky project, then some for the hippos in the drunk hippo soap.  It was not until it was almost all gone that I thought I could make turquoise gemstones with it.

I originally learned the technique during a polymer class.  And since soap dough behaves in several ways like polymer clay, I decided to try it.  The process is fairly simple, and I after trying the same technique for lapis lazuli, I think I found an even better way to do it than I did in the video.

Making faux turquoise stones with soap dough

Materials:

• Turquoise soap dough (1 oz at least)  (If  I remember correctly, I made mine with Sea Green Mica from Nurture Soap
• white soap dough
• black pigment powder
• gold mica

Tools:

• Work surface (I use a tile)
• flat brush
• rubbing alcohol (I used 70% alcohol)
• blade or knife
• plastic sheet

Process:

1. Divide your soap dough in half.
2. Mix one half with a small amount of white soap dough. You need to knead and roll and mix together until there are no color streaks.  You will have then a lighter teal soap dough and your regular turquoise soap dough. Or you could just have it all one tone.
3. Cut both soap dough into smaller pieces, like this:
4. Mix the two colors of pieces so they are randomly placed. (Skip if you are doing one color alone). Then divide them into two groups. Some for the golden effect turquoise and some for the black.
5. We will start with the gold vein turquoise. Mix a few drops of the alcohol with the gold mica and paint these pieces.
6. Wait about 30 seconds, and press all of these pieces together, forming a thick log (the thickness of it will determine the size of your “gemstones”
7. with the blade or knife, slice thick pieces from the log.  These are your turquoise stones
8. Repeat the same process for the black oxide powder.
9. For a curved edge, cover each stone with the plastic sheet and run your finger around the edge, this will give it the edges a curved, softer finish.
10. You can rinse them quickly to remove excess gold mica from the edges
11. That’s it, your are done!  Let them dry and cure, you can then use them as top embeds.  Or if you make them super big, as soap themselves.

Click here to watch the video 

*Soap dough is saponified soap, uncured, protected from air exposure by being wrapped with plastic, and it remains soft.  You can buy it already made or get a free recipe for at sorcerysoaps.com when you sign up for her newsletter.

Update 3/26/2020:

I used leftover soap (which was like soft soap dough) and was able to make turquoise embeds again, without chopping it, but rather flattening it. Here is the video: