Colouring Resin (Part 1)

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(Edited)

Resin art has gained popularity over the last few years.

When I first started using it 7 years ago there wasn't much information on how to use it, what you could use with it and what else you can do with it.

Orgonite making back then was highly experimental. A lot of us found ourselves in new territory every few weeks as we experimented with molds and techniques.

These days I feel like everywhere I look resin is used in art. Faux geodes, paintings, coasters, top coat for paintings.. the list keeps on growing every day.

And just as people experiment with different ways to use resin I experiment on colourants I can use with it.

These are the ones I've tried so far.

Mica Powder

Coloured with a combination of mica for soap/resin and cosmetics

Mica powder is an old, tried and tested, resin colourant. It's opaque in nature and can also be used to colour candles and make up. In fact, mica pigments marketed for cosmetics can be used in resin.

PSTF Transparent Resin Dye

Coloured with turquoise PSTF.

Another old, tried and tested colourant. The PSTF dyes are right up there in terms of quality, clarity and value for money. I got my turquoise bottle years ago and it's still going to this day.

Acrylic Paint

Coloured with Liquitex acrylic

Mostly used for resin paintings and geodes. Definitely opaque but it's lovely and vibrant.

Alcohol Ink

Coloured with Tim Holtz Pearl Alcohol ink. Left: Pink ink. Middle: Pink ink with a bit of white. Right: Yellow ink mixed with white.

Alcohol ink works well and will be transparent but must be used sparingly as it's alcohol based and too much can cause the resin to remain tacky and not set properly. That said, not enough ink and the colour will fade in sunlight very quickly. Adding a couple of drops of white will help the colour stay on even in sunlight but it will no longer be transparent.

Candle Dye

Bottom Row are coloured with liquid candle dye. The middle is the left one diluted. The right is coloured with minute amounts of green dye. Left to cure in full sun, you can see how much they faded.

There's two different ways to colour wax one is to use a dye block and the other is by using liquid dye. Candle dye is very thick and pigmented. So much so that only the tiniest drop is needed. Too much and it becomes opaque but too little and it will fade quickly in sunlight.

PC Dye

The purple layer is coloured with PC or soap dye.

PC Dye (Personal Care Dye) is used for body products like bath bombs and salts. Although it is well pigmented, it's not as concentrated as candle dye, but thick enough that with enough drops added, it becomes translucent. I've used it on so many pieces and it always comes out great. What's even better is that it does not fade.

Stamp Ink

The black/grey layer is coloured with a mix of stamp ink and white alcohol ink. If you look closely at base of all the lotuses, they are tinted with black stamp ink.

Stamp Ink refill! I tried this on a whim and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked. Unlike the alcohol ink, the stamp refill ink seemed oily ~ think how oil reacts in water. It required a lot of stirring but once it's mixed in it is nicely transparent.

There's a lot more experimenting to do and I'll cover those in part 2: mixing dyes.

Which colourant do you like best?

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5 comments
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Manually curated by blacklux 💡 from the Qurator Team. Keep up the good work!

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I like that round pyramid.

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Thanks Choo xx That's one of my faves. Haven't decided if I can part with it yet lol

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That PSTF stuff makes it look like one of those quartzy things out of caves :O

Don't have a best seeing as they all give very different and interesting looks XD

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