technique question - a smudgy effect

[Orla]

Hi all, and thanks for any advice at all. I'm trying to get smudgy colours - I mean two colours kind of blending into eachother a bit
I stumbled on a discussion on this site about this, and I remember someone submitted a photo of soap that had this kind of indistinct mix between two colours - merging in and out of each other.
I can't even work out what search terms I could use to find an answer - and I absolutely cannot find the discussion I looked at a few days ago.
This is just a photo of the sky I can see from my window! But it gives the effect I'm looking for. If I had very liquid batter with two colours and I kind of gently moved them around, perhaps that would do it? Would this technique have a name by any chance? Thank you again for any suggestions. Best wishes to all, Orla

 

[DeeAnna]

I'd call that colorway an "ombre" or "gradient". You'll see tutorials for ombre/gradient soap with distinct layers of color and others with that cloudy look that you like.

A quick google search gave me this example of a cloud-like ombre --

I'm sure there are many other tutorials out there that might be even better.

 

[Orla]

Thank you DeeAnna, funny I didn't think of that. I don't want ombre (it's not a gradient of colour I'm looking for as such) but if I study that technique a bit more I'll probably be able to work out how to get different tints over a surface. Thank you. (I'm a member of your fan-club by the way! When I have an idle moment I put your name in the search to read through your posts!!!)

 

[glendam]

If you only want the smudging over the top, it might work to treat the soap batter as paint and manually blend it in. I tried once to smudge colors inside a loaf mold (at the transition point where two layers meet) but didn’t get the results I wanted. I used a swirling tool if I remember correctly. I will put below the blog post that has a picture of the result. I think my soap batter was too thick for it. However, the ombré technique Dee Anna mentioned might give you the result needed even if not going for that. I saw a rainbow soap in which colors transitioned nicely with that. I will see if I can find it.

https://soapsbyglenda.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/alice-in-wonderland-soap/

 

[glendam]

This is the video, the second soap with transition colors start around 5:18 time mark, her soap batter looks very fluid

 

[Orla]

This is the video, the second soap with transition colors start around 5:18 time mark, her soap batter looks very fluid

Thank you Glendam! Yes, I agree: I am going to have to play around with very liquid batter to see what I can come up with (in tiny quantities!). Thank you for the video link!

 

[Megan]

I'd call that colorway an "ombre" or "gradient". You'll see tutorials for ombre/gradient soap with distinct layers of color and others with that cloudy look that you like.

A quick google search gave me this example of a cloud-like ombre --

I'm sure there are many other tutorials out there that might be even better.

I love her work. That result is superb...I might need to watch that video to get a feel for her technique. I've never done a successful ombre/gradient.

 

[TheGecko]

Sounds like you are looking for what [accidently] happens when your trying to do an ITP swirl and your batter is too thin and so your colors get 'muddled' together.

 

[DeeAnna]

Good point, @TheGecko -- I've done that a time or two myself.

 

[atiz]

Oh, this is my favorite technique I have achieved it unintentionally many times when I was going for distinct patterns It happens when you try to swirl too thin, and your colors are relatively close to each other. Like this. And this wasn't even an ITP swirl. (The yellow has since faded quite a bit so it is much smudgier...)