Mixing 2 or more colors

[mwenman]

Just dusted off my lathe, built a pressure pot, a few "cutting board" molds and am ready to start turning again after a 4 or 5 year break... Anyway. I purchased some Castin' Craft Clear Resin and a handful of assorted pigments and all set to go...or so I thought.....

I attempted to do a 50/50 blend of black and yellow and ended up with some funky sort of green that had a few black and yellow hi-lites in it...made 1 bottle stopper which my sister took pitty on me and bought cuz she thought it looked awesome.... regardless, I think I fell asleep in class regarding mixing techniques.

Sooo.... my question is this. For those of you who "successfully" mix two different colors for those nice looking swirls etc, at what point do you do it? Wait about 10 mins or so for the first color to start to gel before stirring in the second color?

thanks for your assistance.

 

[armchi]

There are two articles in the library that deal with PR casting. I did try my hand in mixing color a long time ago and had similar effect, but I was also not using a pressure pot either. In this case, I used a 5.5 x 3 x 1 mould, but most of my other casts, I used 3/4" copper pipes cut to 5" lengths with an endcap on one end.

I don't exactly whether I read an article or where I got the idea, but I poured several thin lines of white PR on wax paper and let it dry for a while. I removed it when it was still pliable and wrapped it around a dowel or stick to create a swirl. Once it was fully dried, I took a few pieces to make some twists and swirls before placing them in the mould. I then filled the mould with black PR. The result looks like a black rod, but once I turned it, it exposed the white streaks, giving it a somewhat nice pattern.

I also had a similar idea, which I have not gotten around of trying. That's to make thin sheets of PR of different colors. Once dried, break them into different size pieces and mix them in with another solid color. Either that or create multiple-size drops of PR and do the same. The drops look like miniature domes when I created them.

Another idea I thought off but never got around to trying it was to collect the shavings (not the sawdust) or wood chips from different turnings and cast them in PR.

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

I mix and add hardner to the colors seperatly, pour the first color about half way, then gently drizzle the second color in. Here is an example of two blues: