Restoration Question- Resins and Pigments

[LabRatKing]

It came up in another thread, so I figure it might be worth discussing:

 

Let's talk resin pigments!

 

Personally, I never bother with coloring the actual epoxy putty, but only because I'm more familiar with painting. I have from time to time, mixed in colored clays or matrix powders, but this was more for texture than color. I've seen folks use mixed colors of polymer clays to achieve these effects, but to be frank, I have yet to see a polymer clay that is durable enough to meet my needs and standards.

 

However, I recently discovered that there are many inexpensive pigments/dyes specifically designed for epoxy resins.

The advent of UV resin 3D additive printing and the popularity of liquid resin casting for geegaws and doodads has made them numerous and cheap.

 

I'm curious. Do any of you use/have tried these with the putties (Apoxie/PaleoSculpt/etc.).

 

They are in fact designed for liquid resin use, but chemically, they should be compatible with the putties without sacrificing bond time and strength in theory. I also see many dry pigment powders for the same use, those being formulated specifically for putties.

 

I plan to buy some of the liquids for an "amber" project in the near future (I am NOT letting students play with real amber full of bugs and such when I can fake it in the name of inexpensive teaching aids!)

 

I suspect this may be the solution to the translucency in some fossils that is so difficult to recreate via paint.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

[jpc]

I have occasionally mixed in powdered rock and such to simulate the rock that might be missing.  I have no other input to your actual question.  

[rfarrar]

We use dried cement pigments for coloring epoxy putties. There are some liquid pigments for use in liquid resins available from some of the polyurethane resin distributors.

 

Bob

[Bob Saunders]

my only experience was years ago working extrusion mold machines and weighing powdered pigment for 50 lbs bags of pellets. But then I also would like to know how they encase things like a fine weed for a paperweight or suspend coins? 

[ParkerPaleo]

7 hours ago, Bob Saunders said:

my only experience was years ago working extrusion mold machines and weighing powdered pigment for 50 lbs bags of pellets. But then I also would like to know how they encase things like a fine weed for a paperweight or suspend coins? 

Objects in suspension are multi-part pours generally.

 

Pour resin, suspend object, let resin set a bit, pour rest of object.