Solid color blank Vendors

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PatrickR

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I use a lot of solid colors (alumilite) and the supplier that I have been using appears to be having issues (SW).
Hopefully they work through whatever is going on but I need to find a back-up.
I know most vendors have a few solids, usually sold as accent blanks. I'm looking for a vendor with dozens of solids.
I had seen one on IG that is in the UK, but am having trouble finding them again.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
 
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Here at Bullseye Turning Supply, we keep a few solid colors in stock but for the most part cast them to-order. We often get requests for particular shades and it's a lot to keep up with to keep them all in stock so we started just doing solid colors as custom orders.

Our friend Robert at https://crosscutcreations.com/ keeps a good amount of solid colors in stock as well
 
If you want a wide variety, BearToothWoods has a pretty good selection of solid colors. They are in the acrylic blank section (I would link, but, his site often runs a bit slow and its not loading at the moment.) I generally use BTW for solid color blanks, particularly black, white and gray which I use most often, as his prices are some of the best around. If I can't find the solid color I need with BTW, then I tend to use Beaufort Ink as linked above.

All that said, I have had a lot of projects I've wanted to do that I put on hold, as I just couldn't find a wide enough variety of solid-color blanks in general, even across all the various sellers. Usually they are bright solids...prime red, green and blue, bright solid yellow, pink, orange, etc. I have a lot of ideas for pens that would need other colors, so I decided I would make my own solid colors. I spent some time (even asked a few questions here) and ended up finding Divine Pigments:

divinepensplus.com

Divine Pigments

A divine collection of opaque, solid color casting pigments!
divinepensplus.com divinepensplus.com

These include some of the colors I wanted that I couldn't find in ready-made solid color blanks. I also figured since they are simple liquid pigments, I could do some experimentation, figure out formulations (i.e. ratios) to mix other colors I wanted, and should be able to mix as many colors as I wanted. These are nice, flat solid color pigments as well. The only outstanding question I had was: How much would be necessary to make a nice, thick, OPAQUE solid color blank... The opaqueness is a key question, and it might become prohibitively expensive if it requires a lot of dye per blank.

I've had to deal with some other things lately, and ended up switching to turning other things, so these projects are all still on hold, and I haven't done enough experimentation to know for sure just how much pigment is really required. I also wondered if the solid white colored Alumilite resin might help with opacity, even though I'm quite sure it will affect the mix as well (i.e. white base + pigment may well require MORE pigment?)
 
jrista said:
If you want a wide variety, BearToothWoods has a pretty good selection of solid colors. They are in the acrylic blank section (I would link, but, his site often runs a bit slow and its not loading at the moment.) I generally use BTW for solid color blanks, particularly black, white and gray which I use most often, as his prices are some of the best around. If I can't find the solid color I need with BTW, then I tend to use Beaufort Ink as linked above.

All that said, I have had a lot of projects I've wanted to do that I put on hold, as I just couldn't find a wide enough variety of solid-color blanks in general, even across all the various sellers. Usually they are bright solids...prime red, green and blue, bright solid yellow, pink, orange, etc. I have a lot of ideas for pens that would need other colors, so I decided I would make my own solid colors. I spent some time (even asked a few questions here) and ended up finding Divine Pigments:

divinepensplus.com

Divine Pigments

A divine collection of opaque, solid color casting pigments!
divinepensplus.com divinepensplus.com

These include some of the colors I wanted that I couldn't find in ready-made solid color blanks. I also figured since they are simple liquid pigments, I could do some experimentation, figure out formulations (i.e. ratios) to mix other colors I wanted, and should be able to mix as many colors as I wanted. These are nice, flat solid color pigments as well. The only outstanding question I had was: How much would be necessary to make a nice, thick, OPAQUE solid color blank... The opaqueness is a key question, and it might become prohibitively expensive if it requires a lot of dye per blank.

I've had to deal with some other things lately, and ended up switching to turning other things, so these projects are all still on hold, and I haven't done enough experimentation to know for sure just how much pigment is really required. I also wondered if the solid white colored Alumilite resin might help with opacity, even though I'm quite sure it will affect the mix as well (i.e. white base + pigment may well require MORE pigment?)
Click to expand...
I use some Divine Pigments and typically make small batches of blanks for my own personal use. I use the Alumilite Clear Slow and find it actually takes very little dye to get a nice opaque blank. I can't really say how much as it's hard to squeeze a single drop out, but I can say it's a small amount. You need to shake them because they are pigments, but they are very easy to use and the results are true to the colors you see in the bottle. Black and white are quite saturated and of course you can mix your own colors as well.
 
If you know what you're looking for Im sure you wouldn't have any trouble getting any blank maker to pour them for you. Solid color casts are the easiest to make.
 
KateHarrow said:
Here at Bullseye Turning Supply, we keep a few solid colors in stock but for the most part cast them to-order. We often get requests for particular shades and it's a lot to keep up with to keep them all in stock so we started just doing solid colors as custom orders.

Our friend Robert at https://crosscutcreations.com/ keeps a good amount of solid colors in stock as well
Click to expand...
Thanks. I have crosscut bookmarked. They have more than most but not the variety I'm used to.
 
PatrickR said:
Thanks. I have crosscut bookmarked. They have more than most but not the variety I'm used to.
Click to expand...
90% of us professional casters are going to be more along the line of doing solids as customs because they're quick and because people always need the shade that you don't have in stock. I've attached a photo of some of the bullseye ones we currently have. @savannahharrow is our caster if you ever need anything
 

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KateHarrow said:
90% of us professional casters are going to be more along the line of doing solids as customs because they're quick and because people always need the shade that you don't have in stock. I've attached a photo of some of the bullseye ones we currently have. @savannahharrow is our caster if you ever need anything
Click to expand...
Thanks. Hopefully my usual one is okay and gets back at it. I'm leaning towards casting my own if I need to. It's just not high on my list.
 
KateHarrow said:
90% of us professional casters are going to be more along the line of doing solids as customs because they're quick and because people always need the shade that you don't have in stock. I've attached a photo of some of the bullseye ones we currently have. @savannahharrow is our caster if you ever need anything
Click to expand...

I'm curious if "solid" means different things to different people? I see some solid red blanks in there, but then I also see what I would call "single color mica pigment" blanks as well. Do other people consider the mica pigment blanks to also be "solid" color? Just wondering, as IMO, if single-color mica pigment blanks are considered the same as single-color flat pigment blanks, I think that would be confusing. I always thought of a SOLID color blank to be flat pigment, no mica, as with mica there is usually some element of variation and depth, even if it is a single color...and with that, I would have a hard time calling such a blank "solid."
 
jrista said:
I'm curious if "solid" means different things to different people? I see some solid red blanks in there, but then I also see what I would call "single color mica pigment" blanks as well. Do other people consider the mica pigment blanks to also be "solid" color? Just wondering, as IMO, if single-color mica pigment blanks are considered the same as single-color flat pigment blanks, I think that would be confusing. I always thought of a SOLID color blank to be flat pigment, no mica, as with mica there is usually some element of variation and depth, even if it is a single color...and with that, I would have a hard time calling such a blank "solid."
Click to expand...
We do both - again it's all about what the customer wants. Some of these are labeled as "single color" as opposed to solid so I guess maybe they weren't the best example for this thread. The neons at the bottom of the group are solids. They're all extras from previous custom batches
 
Thanks for the referrals above - we currently have around 40 solid colours in our Semplicita range, all of which are usually always in stock because we have them made in multiples of roughly 30 metres at a time. They are all flat with no pigment, and they include many pastels, not just bright, primary colours. Many of them have come about through customer requests, so of there is a shade that you particularly want that we don't have, it's always worth getting in touch, and we'll see what we can do.
www.beaufortink.co.uk

Semplicita single colour pen blanks

Large selection of single, high density colours in 150mm and 200mm lengths
www.beaufortink.co.uk www.beaufortink.co.uk
 
Phil Dart said:
Thanks for the referrals above - we currently have around 40 solid colours in our Semplicita range, all of which are usually always in stock because we have them made in multiples of roughly 30 metres at a time. They are all flat with no pigment, and they include many pastels, not just bright, primary colours. Many of them have come about through customer requests, so of there is a shade that you particularly want that we don't have, it's always worth getting in touch, and we'll see what we can do.
www.beaufortink.co.uk

Semplicita single colour pen blanks

Large selection of single, high density colours in 150mm and 200mm lengths
www.beaufortink.co.uk www.beaufortink.co.uk
Click to expand...
Thanks Phil, I didn't know that you had that many colors. I have purchased semplicita blanks from you in the past and really like them. You definitely have colors that I would use. These will be a good option for me in the future.
 
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