ARTIST'S STATEMENT: Of all the projects I constructed throughout this semester, the soap hippo carvings were the most challenging. I wanted to chose an animal that was unique and sturdy, but also challenging to carve, as the hippo certainly proved to be. The texture of the lemon and rose soaps varied in their consistency and would react differently when I used carving tools on them, so adjusting to these changes as I switched between them was difficult. The strong scent from rose-scented soap in particular caused me to gain an allergic reaction while working with it for extended periods of time, which provided an additional challenge when working with the piece.
After working with the Masking Tape Shoes, I figured that the best way to go about this project would be to plan out my method of carving before I fully divulged into my work. I placed the hippo model I used for reference on a rotating table so that I could view the contour of its body from all angles as I worked with the soap. Instead of carving the soap replicas one at a time, I would take turns between work on them, so that what I learned while carving out a particular negative shape on one, I could apply to the other.
My biggest regret on this project was in the soaps I chose to carve with. My allergic reaction to the rose soap prevented me from being able to put quite as much detail as I would have liked into it. While I gave myself breaks between work sessions to recover, I still had trouble achieving the effect I wanted to with the piece. I felt it was lackluster in comparison to my hippo carving with the lemon soap, which I could devote longer periods of time to. As a result, I chose the pink carving as my subject for the Soap Carving Changes project that followed.
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