Pearl Ex Powdered Tints at Michaels

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Skye

Skye

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This is buried in another thread, thought I should make it more obvious:

kirkfranks said:
Since you can print another coupon go back to Michaels tomorrow.
In the rubber stamping area the have (at least mine does) a set of pearlex pigments.
It is a set of 12 colors. If I remember correctly they are about $24 standard price so use to 50% coupon. My store has two different sets of 12 so don't forget to go back on Saturday for the other one.

THese have some nice colors and they don't seem to mess up the cure or anything.
About two scoops with the end of a popsicle stick is good for 6 oz of resin. YMMV.
These will give you a good start. I am sure you can get the stuff cheaper from artstuff but this lets you see a little of each color.
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If you browse this forum you'll find the %50 off coupon, as well as this past Sunday paper.

I just went out a few hours ago and picked up a 12 pack myself. Looking forward to testing them out. There's only 3 grams in each tub, but it's enough to get the idea and to figure out what you want to order in a larger batch.
 
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Kit 1,2, or 3?

I stopped by on my way home and looked at them. I got pack number one but they had three different packages with different colors in each one. I guess I'll have to print off a couple more coupons and get them all
 
Sky and Flyingmelon, if you try 1/8th Teaspoon per OZ of resin you get a good saturation, every once in a while swirl it around or stir it. the Pearl-Ex will settle to the bottom of most molds in about 10 minutes, best to keep your colored mix in the mix container it will begin setup faster as the depth is increased. At least this is what I've found out with Polyester Resin like the Castin Craft or Silmar-41. watch out how much hardner you use, since temps are dropping into the mid 80s. I'm using 5 drops per OZ, for a 3/4 in thick mold, 3 drops per for bottle stoppers. it's taking about 25 minutes to gel on the blanks, Pearl-Ex is the shiz-nits.
 
flyingmelon said:
I stopped by on my way home and looked at them. I got pack number one but they had three different packages with different colors in each one. I guess I'll have to print off a couple more coupons and get them all
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Lucky:
My store only caries series 1 and series 2. I can never find #3.
 
#3

They only had one on the shelf. If it is still there tomorrow I can pick it up and send it to you for a trade or if you want to pay me.
 
Last night I cast a couple stopper blanks. Much easier than clear casting things, whole lot less things that can go wrong.

I haven't turned any of it yet but I'll tell ya now; That stuff is the bom-diggity-omb! I've tried things like paint, flour, food coloring, etc and this stuff is freakin great! I'm just hoping it looks as good once turned as it did when it was being mixed! Well worth the money and with the coupon, even more so. It'll really help you to decide just what colors you like and what you don't, to keep you from wasting money down the road.
 
For those that have used the Pearl-ex, I have a question.

Is this a coloring agent, or just a sparkly-izing agent? I know they're colored, but is JUST pearlex enough, or do I need to add regular powdercoat paint as well?

I've done zero casting yet. I want to do the rainbow rotini and coffee beans, both in white, for starters.
 
I'd never done a color casting either (don't think) till last night. I used just the pearlex, just a little on the end of a popcicle stick, and it was enough to entirely color the resin. I guess you could drop in a tinting agent first, but I don't think it'll be needed. This seems to mix so well, and is so powdery, that it completely infuses with the resin. Nothing else is needed.

Keep in mind, it never hurts to paint your pen tubes, just to be safe.

Alumelite, I've never used it, but I see no reason it wouldn't work.
 
Thanks. Looks like I'm headed backto Michaels to get some pearlex tonight.

I'll be trying your PVC coffee been poke-it-with-a-stick method. I'll see if it bites back and report. At the rate I work, I'll talk to ya in a month.
 
With pearlex you will need to paint the tubes.

The castings I've been doing are using acrylic paints (won't work with aluminite since it has water in it) and they are very opaque. I'll be posting a pen made from pure white in the next day or so. The tubes are unpainted and you can't see them (at least I can't), gotta turn the upper blank yet though.
 
Brandon25 said:
Well dang... first I hear you might not have to paint the tubes,
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Well, keep in mind, it's my first time with them and I'm turning bottle stopper blanks, which is another ball of wax. If you read the tutorial here (2005 library or 2006?) he makes blanks using nothing but the dust, if I remember correctly. Makes no mention of it being too thin. Was he using something different?
 
I have to just sit here and laugh at all you guys, and me included. We're running out buying all this stuff. We don't know what it will do, how it will work. Will it work in our alumilite, or PR. Yes, no, does, doesn't, lol. I don't know beans about casting, heck I had a pot on the floor for 6 months and just finally screwed it together. I do know one thing for sure about Pearl-Ex. You can mix it in clay, flatten out the clay, run the clay through a spaghetti machine and wrap that around a pen tube. Then you deffinitely do not need to paint the tubes, and you can still cast the tube ones your colored spaghetti strings are randomly placed on the tube. Might have to bake clay before casting though. I know this as a fact because it says so in the pamphlet of series 2 package, me adding the wrap around a tube idea. Just don't wrap it too thick, or else use it on a modified cigar with a larger home made transition ring! Bet that would be a cool clear cast.
 
More than likely. I can't remember what I got, I'll have to check, but I can tell ya it don't work in PR!
 
Pearl-ex are non-reactive, in some instances natural mineral, pigments. They do not melt. They are a fine particulate that when mixed into suspension create a colored resin, paint, and in some cases make-up.

Some are sparkeling agents and some are coloring agents and some are both. You have Mica's, Pearls and Metallics.
 
Yes the Pearl-Ex works well with Alumilite.Sometimes I will use an opaque blue or red liquid dye and add Pearl-Ex for for a Pearl effect.The macropearl gets a lot of use in my castings as it adds a nice pearl white effect.I have the 12 pack of 3 gram bottles of pearl-ex and they go a long way.This is an example of Castin Craft opaque blue and Pearl-Ex Macropearl in PR.

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Folks

Just about Every Casting I have done is with Pearlex and Alumilite.
Painting tubs just depends on the color and the concentration that you use.they Mix Well. the sparkle and it fun to use. You can get larger bottles of your favorite colors from art supply stores, Michaels tends to just have the sets of the small bottles. they do go along way! here is a hint, when mixing your color remember you will be duliting it with part b so make part a twice as dark as you want it to be, I have mixes some liquid tints in the part a side with out disasters but you dont want too much.
 
I've used the castin craft opaque dyes along with Pearl Ex if I want a more opaque blank. However if you do this and use a lot of the liquid dye you'll still get the pearlescence but it won't have the depth it has without the opaque. Make any sense?

I've also noticed that, yes a little of the Pearl Ex goes a long way .....but the less you use the less particles are suspended in the PR. So if you turn down close to the tube you WILL need to paint the tubes.

Connie and I have probably gone through 10 or 12 gallons of PR since we strated making our own blanks and I still don't know squat about making consistant colors. Oh I can make a few with a fair amount of consistancy but only because I've made those color combinations so much....Gotta love SEC football fans....lol.
I've started buying my mica platlets from Art Stuf They call them luster pigments I think and offer them in much larger sizes. Get your basis colors in Larger sizes and still use the smaller 3g Pearl Ex for other colors until you decide you like a certain color and then order it in a larger size.
Point is I'm always trying different combinations and different ways of mixing the colors. I normally make our blanks in the Wal'mart ice trays and as long as I've been doing this, just the other day made some 3/4 in blocks in some 4"X5" medical trays I picked up somewhere and I really like the control you have over the patterns and designs you can get with an open mold vs the ice tray tubes.
Just my two cents worth...YMMV
 
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