Inspired by a scene in Tamil film Mozhi, Aswin Manikandan , then a student of class eight, rushed to buy a bar of soap. The reason? “In the movie, the heroine gifts the hero a soap carving of a violin. I liked the idea of creating something out of soap,” says Aswin. He managed to whittle a carrot out of the bar.
His interest in soap carving took a backseat till he entered college. The final-year BTech computer science student at Sastra University, Thanjavur, recalls wondering what to get his father as a birthday gift during his first year of college. He whittled an image of a person with his arm around another and the words ‘My Hero’ engraved below. The gift not only impressed his dad but also his friends and he began receiving orders for soap sculptures.
“With orders coming in from other States, I decided to start an Instagram page listing my works.”
The page, @c.e.l.e.b.r.a.t.i.o.n, has everything from heart-based gifts to shapes of musical instruments and automobiles. He also does miniatures and customised pieces for clients.
A model carved out of soap
Aswin says he has “more or less perfected the art of soap carving” through trial and error. “All soap carving videos that were available demonstrated how to carve models of flowers out of soap. I wanted to create something different, challenging, and so began experimenting,” says Aswin.
He began using toothpicks and pen caps to carve soaps. Now, he uses a proper soap carving tool set.
Initially, he would encourage his customers to store the carved pieces in plastic or glass cases. However, Aswin discovered that applying a coat of polymer paint after the work is complete not only gives his soap pieces a glossy look, but also helps preserve them.
The 21-year-old also does chalk carving, which he says, began as a means for him to “sit through classes” and thermocol models “that are fun to do, but tough to clean up after.”
One of his soap models, ‘War and Peace’, depicting a gun shooting out a dove like a bullet, won him an invite by Banditto Art, an art gallery in Tuscany, Italy, recently to submit the work for the Banditto Residency Prize.
A soap sculpture
“Keri James, the chief curator of the event, saw the work on my Instagram page and asked me to submit it,” he says. Aswin is now trying his hand at portrait sculptures.
Aswin was in the city in connection with a soap carving workshop organised by Space.
