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Soap carving is the artform of carving soap with a variety of tools to create sculptures and images. In the United States, it has its roots in a Procter & Gamble competition from the 1920s. In Thailand, it has artistic roots in local practices of Thai fruit and vegetable carving.

Origins

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During Great Depression era of the 1920s and 1930s, Procter & Gamble held soap carving contests to help advertise their soap, with the National Soap Sculpture Competition in White Soap being announced in 1924.[1] The competition drew in over five hundred submissions across roughly two hundred and fifty applicants. An exhibition of the soap carving sculptures were showcased at the Art Center, New York, from December 1924 to January 1925. First prize brought in a reward of $250 to sculptor Brenda Putnam for a work called "The Vamp". Putnam was quoted by The American Magazine of Art to have wanted to "lift the soap carving out of the amateur and into the professional field," as she believed it had advantages over other, more popularly used mediums.[2] Putnam was amongst the earliest advocates for soap carving, and a section of her 1939 book The Sculptor's Way is dedicated to soap carving.[3] Some of Putnam's soap carving work is in a collection at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.[4] In 1932, the competition received four thousand entries, with first prize fetching $500 as an award, and winning pieces were exhibited at the Gimbel Brothers' New York store.[5] Judges for the competition include sculptor Lorado Taft, who wished to spread art to wider groups, and additionally served as a jurist at annual schoolchildren soap carving contests,[6] as he had carved soap himself.[7] Other prominent National Soap Sculpture Competition in White Soap judges include Charles Dana Gibson, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Gutzon Borglum, Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, Leo Lentelli, Alexander Archipenko, and Robert Laurent.[8]

Soap carving in Thailand is an art developed from the artistic background of sculpting fruits and vegetables in Thai culture, which originates from the time of the Sukhothai Kingdom. Soap as a medium for Thai carvings began sometime before the 1932 Siamese revolution. Soap carving is now a local craft, and artists create elaborate soap carving sculptures such as dragons and scented flowers out of soap carving. Modern day local artists have claimed to have personally been doing soap carvings since at least the 1990s.[9][10]

Through the 1930s to at least the 1940s, there was a group called the National Soap Sculpture Committee.[11][12] Sculptor Lester Gaba, whose soap carvings have been exhibited at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum Gallery,[13] worked alongside the National Soap Sculpture Committee to publish a book on soap carving techniques.[14] The National Soap Sculpture Committee also provided booklets such as "Soap Sculpture. A Digest of Soap Carving: Its History - Its Uses - Its Value in Art and Education".[15] In the 1950s, the Colorado State Art Association also published pamphlets available for purchase on soap carving as part of a series on art education.[16] The rise of soap carving popularity in the United Kingdom was noted in 1940.[17]

Soap carving classes and exhibitions have been historically held at schools and museums such as at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago by the Chicago Art Student's League,[18] the Corcoran Art school,[19] the Art Institute of Chicago,[20][21] and the Milwaukee Art Museum.[22] Exhibitions have also appeared at the National Sculpture Society in San Francisco in 1929[19] and the Nurses' Hobby Show at Rochester General Hospital.[23]

Soap carving has been broadly used as an activity at a range of places, from camps[24] to elementary schools[25][26] to handicap rehabilitation facilities[27] to prisons,[28] across the country from the 1940s through the 1980s. Soap carving also appeared in the 1970s as the subject of another art medium, poetry, in The Centennial Review by the Michigan State University Press which was written in tribute to Sylvia Plath.[29]

Techniques

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The Milwaukee Art Museum mentions the possibility of carving soap with pen knives, sticks, and hair pins to create scenes, images, or sculptures historically.[22]

For the museum competition at the Chemung County Historical Society, contestants were given a 4 ounce block of Ivory soap, and were allowed to carve and sculpt with any tool available, as long as the original soap had not been altered with added materials, colored, or molded.[30] At an event held at Beltrami County Historical Society, the use of safety carving tools to carve soap is mentioned.[31]

In online tutorials, the University of Mississippi Museum talks about using a plastic utensil or a stylus as a carving tool,[32] Kimbell Art Museum suggests a paperclip and pencil,[33] the Georgia Museum of Art suggests a popsicle stick or butter knife,[34] and the Tampa Bay History Center suggests a popsicle stick and pencil.[35]

Sources suggest cutting out or drawing a pattern and replicating the design while carving the soap,[31][33] or simply free-handing the design or sculpture as one carves the soap.[34]

Thai soap carving is influenced by historical and cultural Thai fruit and vegetable carving, and pulls techniques from this legacy.[9]

Modern soap carving

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Soap carving demonstrations, competitions, exhibitions, and history lessons have appeared more recently in the 21st century at places such as the Beltrami County Historical Society,[31] the Chemung County Historical Society,[36][30] the Spartanburg Art Museum,[37] and the Tampa Bay History Center.[35]

Soap carving is a hobby of the titular character in 2005 novel Becoming Naomi León, as the author once did it herself as a child.[38]

Artist Meekyoung Shin uses soap carving extensively in her classically inspired sculptures.[39]

Thai soap carving classes of varying sizes and skills are available in the current day at the Thai Art & Cultural Center in Bangkok alongside fruit and vegetable carving classes.[40]

Prominent soap carving artists

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List of instructional books

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  • Lester (1940). Soap Carving, Cinderella of sculpture (Hardcover). The Studio Publications. ISBN 0670655007, 978-0670655007.
  • Putnam (1939). The Sculptor's Way: A Guide to Modelling and Sculpture (hardcover). NY: Farrer & Rinehart, Inc. ISBN 0486423131, 978-0486423135.
[edit]
  • Soap carving of lilies
    Soap carving of lilies
  • Soap carving of a rose
    Soap carving of a rose
  • Soap carving of a tulip
    Soap carving of a tulip
  • Meekyoung Shin and some of her soap sculptures
    Meekyoung Shin and some of her soap sculptures
  • Soap sculpture carving progress of Les Retraites pacifiques by Frédérique Nalbandian, 2017[41]
    Soap sculpture carving progress of Les Retraites pacifiques by Frédérique Nalbandian, 2017[41]
  • Soap carving assortment in Mexico
    Soap carving assortment in Mexico
  • Soap carving of a cat
    Soap carving of a cat
  • Soap carving of a fish
    Soap carving of a fish

References

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  1. ^ Marshall, Jennifer Jane (2008). "Clean Cuts: Procter & Gamble's Depression-Era Soap-Carving Contests". Winterthur Portfolio. 42 (1): 56. doi:10.1086/528905. ISSN 0084-0416. JSTOR 10.1086/528905.
  2. ^ "Soap as a Medium for Sculpture". The American Magazine of Art. 16 (2): 105. 1925. ISSN 2151-254X. JSTOR 23929519.
  3. ^ Marshall, Jennifer Jane (2008). "Clean Cuts: Procter & Gamble's Depression-Era Soap-Carving Contests". Winterthur Portfolio. 42 (1): 55–56. doi:10.1086/528905. ISSN 0084-0416. JSTOR 10.1086/528905.
  4. ^ "[Soap carvings of hen and rooster by Brenda Putnam]". www.cartermuseum.org. Amon Carter Museum of American Art.
  5. ^ "Soap Sculpture". The American Magazine of Art. 25 (2): 128. 1932. ISSN 2151-254X. JSTOR 23936261.
  6. ^ Musacchio, Jacqueline Marie (2014). "Plaster Casts, Peepshows, and a Play: Lorado Taft's Humanized Art History for America's Schoolchildren". The Journal of Aesthetic Education. 48 (4): 19. doi:10.5406/jaesteduc.48.4.0017. ISSN 0021-8510. JSTOR 10.5406/jaesteduc.48.4.0017.
  7. ^ Richardson, Genevieve (1956). "Lorado Taft and Theater". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 49 (4): 368. ISSN 0019-2287. JSTOR 40189522.
  8. ^ Marshall, Jennifer Jane (2008). "Clean Cuts: Procter & Gamble's Depression-Era Soap-Carving Contests". Winterthur Portfolio. 42 (1): 61. doi:10.1086/528905. ISSN 0084-0416. JSTOR 10.1086/528905.
  9. ^ a b Stewart, Jessica (25 May 2017). "Traditional Thai Artist Carves Exquisitely Detailed Sculptures Out of Soap". mymodernmet.com. My Modern Met.
  10. ^ "The art of soap carving in northern Thailand". Tuoi Tre News. Tuoi Tre News. 19 October 2019.
  11. ^ "National Soap Sculpture Committee, 1931 | The Phillips Collection - ArchivesSpace". tpcarchives.lyrasistechnology.org. The Phillips Collection Archives.
  12. ^ "National Soap Sculpture Committee". si.edu. Smithsonian.
  13. ^ "Lester Gaba Exhibit". calendar.artsquincy.org. Quincy Society of Fine Arts.
  14. ^ "Lester Gaba: SOAP CARVING". dimidumo.be. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06.
  15. ^ "Materials". The Classical Outlook. 19 (4): 41. 1942. ISSN 0009-8361. JSTOR 44006225.
  16. ^ "Announcements". Art Education. 7 (4): 15. 1954. ISSN 0004-3125. JSTOR 3184029.
  17. ^ B., P. (1940). "Review of Soap Carving". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 89 (4575): 18. ISSN 0035-9114. JSTOR 41359685.
  18. ^ "Art Students' League of Chicago 24th Annual". artic.edu. The Art Institute of Chicago. 4 May 1917.
  19. ^ a b Marshall, Jennifer Jane (2008). "Clean Cuts: Procter & Gamble's Depression-Era Soap-Carving Contests". Winterthur Portfolio. 42 (1): 55. doi:10.1086/528905. ISSN 0084-0416. JSTOR 10.1086/528905.
  20. ^ "Classes of the James Nelson Raymond Lecture Fund for Children of Members and Public Schools". Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951). 24 (9): 127. 1930. ISSN 1935-6595. JSTOR 4103935.
  21. ^ "Lectures and Films for Members and Children of Members". Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951). 33 (3): 41–43. 1939. ISSN 1935-6595. JSTOR 4112081.
  22. ^ a b Winter, Heather (10 August 2012). "The Heady Appeal of Soap Sculpture Competitions". Milwaukee Art Museum Blog. Milwaukee Art Museum.
  23. ^ Parfitt, R. Eunice (1951). "Nurses' Hobby Show". The American Journal of Nursing. 51 (8): 521. doi:10.2307/3468126. ISSN 0002-936X. JSTOR 3468126.
  24. ^ Theroux, Alexander (2001). "Camp Cedar Crest". Conjunctions (37): 377. ISSN 0278-2324. JSTOR 24516360.
  25. ^ Swift, Mayme A. (1951). "An Experience in Public Relations". The Elementary School Journal. 51 (7): 390. doi:10.1086/459263. ISSN 0013-5984. JSTOR 998261.
  26. ^ DeCosta, Sandra B. (1984). "Not All Children Are Anglo and Middle Class: A Practical Beginning for the Elementary Teacher". Theory into Practice. 23 (2): 161. doi:10.1080/00405848409543107. ISSN 0040-5841. JSTOR 1476446.
  27. ^ Sallak, V. J. (1944). "A Community Approach to the Rehabilitation of the Handicapped". The Journal of Educational Sociology. 17 (6): 345. doi:10.2307/2262348. ISSN 0885-3525. JSTOR 2262348.
  28. ^ "Weekly Progress: Weekly Progress". Weekly Progress. 45 (15). 10 April 1964.
  29. ^ Forché, Carolyn (1972). "Soap Carvings". The Centennial Review. 16 (4): 361–362. ISSN 0162-0177. JSTOR 23737840.
  30. ^ a b Huggins, Kelli (25 January 2016). "Soap Sculpture in Elmira: How You Can Be a Part of Its History!". Chemung County Historical Society.
  31. ^ a b c Hudziak, Emma (Feb 25, 2022). "In Focus: Beltrami County History Center Hosting Soap Carving Class for Kids - Lakeland PBS". Lakeland PBS.
  32. ^ "Egyptian Soap Carving". University of Mississippi Museum Education Blog. University of Mississippi Museum.
  33. ^ a b "Amulet Soap Sculptures" (PDF). Kimbell Kids | Get Creative!. Kimbell Art Museum.
  34. ^ a b "Soap Carvings". georgiamuseum.org. The Georgia Museum of Art.
  35. ^ a b "Pioneer soap carving". Tampa Bay History Center. Tampa Bay History Center. 1 March 2023.
  36. ^ Gampel, Kelly. "Clean up at museum's soap-carving contest". Press & Sun-Bulletin.
  37. ^ "The Weird History of Soap Carving | Spartanburg Art Museum". Chapman Cultural Center.
  38. ^ Muñoz Ryan, Pam. "Author Interview about BECOMING NAOMI LEÓN" (PDF). pammunozryan.com.
  39. ^ Hughes, Jessica (22 July 2020). "The Classics in Soap: An Interview with Meekyoung Shin". The Jugaad Project.
  40. ^ "Classes: Soap Carving". www.itdacultural.com. Thai Art and Culture Center.
  41. ^ Braganti, Sophie (5 August 2019). "FRÉDÉRIQUE NALBANDIAN". Sophie Braganti et des artistes (in French).
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