Blue rice?

[davidrei]

I've decided to attempt one of those 'tutti fruiti' pens made of dyed rice cast in PR. I put the rice in an alcohol based dye (Solar Lux), the yellow came out yellow, the red came out red, the green came out green, but the blue also came out green. Has anyone found a way to get blue rice?

 

[Johnathan]

Blue, who needs blue![] Just make sure you have Little Richard playing in the backgroud when turning the pen. []

Maybe it just needs a little longer for the color to set.

 

[davidrei]

I wanted to make sure I got color all the way through the rice, so I let it soak for almost an hour. The color went all the way through like I wanted and is very uniform, so I don't think soaking it longer would have helped. I'm wondering now if maybe soaking for a shorter time might help?

While Little Richard would be appropriate for the tutti fruiti part, I think a little B.B. King would be more appropriate. If I can't have blues in my pen, at least I can hear it [8D]

 

[PatLawson]

Originally posted by davidrei
<br />...the yellow came out yellow, the red came out red, the green came out green, but the blue also came out green. Has anyone found a way to get blue rice?&lt;

Dave, After I read your post, I went back and looked at Kurt Hurtzog's rice pen from a few years back to see if his had any blue in it and it looks like it does. Looks like it has blue and also purple. Contact Kurt and ask him what he did to get the blues and violets. Here's a link to his rice penclick on the first photo on the page:
http://www.penmakersguild.com/browse.php?gallery=hertzogk&page=0

You could try mixing a little red into your blue dye and see if you get closer to blue that way.

Pat

 

[PatLawson]

PS:
One more thought I had:
If the blue is turning out green, it could be because your rice is not white enough. If your rice has any yellowish cast to it, then putting blue over the yellow is going to look green.
Soooo, you could soak your rice in a 50/50 solution of Clorox bleach and water for a while, then let it dry out, and then try your blue dye.

Pat

 

[Butcher]

The wife and I use regular food coloring and warm water and let that soak for about 20 minutes or so.

So far the rice has been the colors we wanted. With the water, it hasn't soaked all the way through on some colors, so you may have a little white in with it.

Rinse it real well, let it dry and cast it.

We are still waiting for the pressure paint pot to come in before we make some more (get teh bubbles out.

Hope this helps.

 

[davidrei]

Pat, excellent suggestions, thanks.

Butch, one reason I want to stay with the Solar Lux is that it has some UV protection, so I'll keep plugging with that. I have been using a pressure pot with good success. The only tricky thing I found so far is that the PR goes from liquid to gel & beyond much faster after taking it out of the pot. So If you want to mix colors in the gel state, you have to keep a close eye on it or you'll miss it. Thanks for the idea though!