Marble Frieze

What IS this? At first glance, it looks like a marble frieze in a classic building. But it's not. Kathy makes home-made soap. Not the heat and pour soap, but the made-from-scratch stuff, that is made from Sodium Hydroxide, Cocoanut Oil, Palm Oil and Olive Oil. Nasty stuff work with, but the soap is amazing because it is loaded with glycerine. So good for the skin! Anyhow, when everything is finally mixed together on the stove, its temperature is about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and is liquid. Then it has to be beaten until it thickens. You continue to beat the mixture until something called a "trace" appears, and then it is poured into a wooden mold lined with paper. The trace is this whitish relief on the top of the long block of soap. I saw this the morning after the soap was poured, and was amazed at the shapes and forms. I could begin to imagine all kinds of imaginary figures, and shapes within the soap trace.