Color Tinting...Clear VS Solid Colors

Its an art.  Why? 

Beyond the delicate amounts of color used, different resins react differently when color is introduced.

A Standard white resin requires a great amount of color.  The color needs to overpower the white of the resin.  If you don't add enough color,  the white will bleach the color into what I can only describe as a pastel color.

Clear urethane resins only require a pin drop of color because the color is fighting nothing.

When working with solid colors, you need to make all parts from one pour to achieve exactly the same color throughout the resin.

Clear resins are different.  Because light can pass through clear resins, smaller parts made from the same pour will appear lighter than larger parts because more light is able to pass through them.  So you will end up with various shades of the same color with only like size parts being the same in color.  You will need to have several pours,  adjusting the amount of color used in each pour to match the shades up or the larger parts will be darker compared to the smaller parts and look out of place.

Tinting and Physics

Is it physics or science?   Amazing the things we retain from school that we thought we'd never need or use.

Tinting is an art unto itself.  Do what you want here.  I don't believe recording results on paper will help.

Tinting is different for different types of resins.  For the clear urethane resins, a tiny pin drop of resin is too  much.  The light blue you wanted is now midnight blue.  If you are using a white resin, you need to over power the white or your navy blue comes out as a light sky blue.  Regular colors are more akin to pastels.  So you might use a couple of rain drops of resin.

And then there is the laws of Physics.  The laws of Cohesion and Adhesion.  These laws basically state that a liquid will "cling" to its container and grab it.  If you look at a spoon with water in it, you can actually overfill the spoon to almost twice its capacity.  The water grabs the edge of the spoon and starts to bubble up in the center . In a container, it ''climbs'' the side of and gives a "U" impression with the sides higher in the jar/container than in the middle.

So when you squeeze the bottle of dye, the drop is never the same.  Sure the hole size in the tip of the bottle never changes, but if you squeeze slowly, you can virtually create a drop of dye any size you want.  And if Im working with urethane and need only a smidge... how do you halve a pin drop?

Well enter my darling wife to the rescue.  My wife is not one of the fashion boutique women who spends all day getting her nails done, but she is VERY smart.  And she recommended these nail polish painter balls.

They are small balls of different sizes attached to a pencil like shaft.  You use these to put the paint on in controlled amounts.  So I made a few at work and will use them to try and get more control over the amount of dye Im adding.

Otherwise, you could (I have) end up making 7 casts or more or less before you get the color you are trying to match.  Its trial and error and very hit and miss.

Pics Coming in a bit...