Coloring Epoxy

Hey everyone- Thanks for your suggestions on polishing a bear
claw- I’m curious what people use to color their epoxy when doing
inlay. I use ground up charcoal and it seems to work well, but
I’ve been advised to go to adding a oil based model
paint–please I’m not interested in buying comercial colored
products.

Thanks-
Calvin

<-- end of posting -->

A handy black for small jobs is to collect soot from your torch
flame or a candle on a sheet of metal.

Dick Caverly

Calvin I use artist’s pastels, the expensive kind, they’re chalk
and it works well…Dave

Calvin said,

I’m curious what people use to color their epoxy when doing
inlay. <<

I grind a quantity of the stone/s that are being set & mix that
with the epoxy.

I use a coarse diamond disc in the flexshaft & grind (dry) into
the container or onto the material I’m going to mix the epoxy
in/on. Mix the powder & epoxy at the same time.

Dave

Calvin,

Go to your local boat supply store, and buy some of the tinting
colors for tinting plastic resins used in repairing boats. Very
inexpensive and totally concentrated. You can get a excellent
sellection of all the basic colors and add and mix to desired
shade or color. Loccally paid about $4.00 per tube and they had
eight colors. That was several years ago. I still haven,t dented
it and use it all the time for repairs, inlay and intarsia.Very
little material will go a long way. Premix colors that you desire
in advance and store them in small glass bottles. Then in some
cases all you need to do is basic modifications ( like various
shades of Turquoise.) Hope this helps. Best wishes cj

Gemstone Brockerage Associates Ltd. Telephone (518) 438-5487
P.O. Box 8930 Albany, New
York 12208
INTERNET ADDRESS
Http://www.sweet-sites.com/gba
Http://www.polygon.net/~3576
Email adresses
@j.lanese

Is this light fast?
Marilyn Smith

 Hey everyone- Thanks for your suggestions on polishing a bear
claw- I'm curious what people use to color their epoxy when
doing inlay.  I use ground up charcoal and it seems to work
well, but I've been advised to go to adding a oil based model
paint--please I'm not interested in buying comercial colored
products.

You can also use “artists pigment” (powdered colors which are
used with water or oils to make paint.) These come in a variety
of colors, and can be found at most printer’s or art supply
suppliers.

I’ve used chalks. I don’t know how well color will hold up if
exposed to a lot of sunlight. I was expermenting . . . the
colors have not faded in three years. I mix the powdered colors
into 330 epoxy, and apply with a stylus or toothpick.

I’m curious what people use to color their epoxy when doing
inlay. I use ground up charcoal and it seems to work well, but
I’ve been advised to go to adding a oil based model
paint–please I’m not interested in buying comercial colored
products.

I use a small assortment (a dozen colors) of soft artist chalk
crayons to color the epoxy I use for inlay. I use a hobby knife to
scrape a bit of powdered chalk into the epoxy. I have been able to
match any color stone I have encountered,

except for those requiring a white base, with a combination of
the colors in the assortment. I use a touch of Linde A polish
when a pure white or white base is needed (the white chalk is not
opaque enough).

You stated you were not interested in buying comercial, so if
the colored chalk crayons are to commercial for your liking, you
could use ground up minerals for the same purpose. The streak
color is the color which the powder of a mineral

will be.

Hope this helps some

Gary

Hi all,

I have been following the thread on coloring epoxy, and am a bit
confused as to exactly what the epoxy is being used for. There
seems to be a number of different uses. Could someone please
elaborate on them?

Thanks in advance.

Sharon Ziemek

I would assume they’re light fast as any company making
expensive pastels wouldn’t be in business long if they’re colors
faded! Most art product companies would probably have information
on the archival properties of their colors. Besides I’m only
using this coloring technique to fill minor gaps between metal
and stone…Dave

http://www.opendoor.com/stephensdesign/crystalguy.html
Crystalguy Art Jewelry, Magical Art Jewelry for the Enlightened Mind

I use a vertical diamond wheel usually used in stain glass,
called a Glass Star, to fit the stone to the cells. Works
beautifully on curved edges down to 1/4" radius. This tool
collects the dust in the water tray, and when I am through with a
given stone, I pour the water and grinding dust into a jar, and
let it settle. Then I open the jar and let the water evaporate,
finally scraping the fines into film canisters. Have canisters
for malachite, black onyx, lapis, sodalite, coral, etc. When I
glue, I get a small amount of fines from the appropriate canister
and mix with the expoy.

But if you are super careful and get a good fit, I dont think it
matters! But I do it anyway ('cause I don’t always get a great
fit!!!)

hale
Hale Sweeny
@Hale_Sweeny
Administrator, Lapidary Digest Mail List
Durham, NC

Gary-

When I said I wasn’t interested in comercial products, I was
refering to buying from a company a pre-made concoction at some
outragious price, when I could get it from art supplies,
hardware supplies, etc… at a much less expensive cost.

I always do the background black, I notice that most of what I’m
hearing back is that people color the epoxy to fit the stone.
What are some ideas on this, black background or colored to suit
the stone? When would you change preferences(mosiac for
example?) Thanks all Calvin

Sharon: the most general use and necessity for coloring epoxy is
for inlaying stones into metal. I havent done alot of it but you
never get your stone perfectly fit into a metal recess and this
leaves minor gaps (except for John Burgess, who by the way IS
perfect and my brain surgery is healing nicely :slight_smile:

If you just epoxy the stone in you would have this clear edge
around the stone and it looks awful. I’ve inlaid lapis into
several rings and use artist’s pastels (the expensive kind that
use good quality coloring) and have matched the lapis perfectly.
The stone is epoxied into the recess, then ground down on a
lapidary wheel level with the metal and then polished off with
lapidary means. Frequently in native american work you’ll see
stones inlaid in stones using a variety of epoxy colors, mostly
black or matched to the stone…Dave

http://www.opendoor.com/stephensdesign/crystalguy.html Crystalguy
Art Jewelry, Magical Art Jewelry for the Enlightened Mind

Sharon,

I believe most of this discussion is reguarding the use of
colored expoy as a cement and filler in the placement of inlay
into jewelery as well as its use in various lapidary projects,
like Intarsia etc.

As a possible example, Take a gents ring, and do a flat flush
black onyx inlay into it. There is the potential of some minor
gaps ( inspite of careful cutting) that would be better served
if filled with a black epoxy rather than clear epoxy thus
rendering the gap almost invisable, or certainly less noticable.

There are many other examples that I could offer but I think
this is a simple example.

Best wishes
cj
Gemstone Brockerage Associates Ltd. Telephone (518) 438-5487
P.O. Box 8930 Albany, New
York 12208
INTERNET ADDRESS
Http://www.sweet-sites.com/gba
Http://www.polygon.net/~3576
Email adresses
@j.lanese

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Gorblimey gov, 'oo yer kiddin? If I got a few cents for every
muckup

I made I’d push Bill Gates off the top of the richlist! The
motto is: In glue and dust we place our trust. If that don’t work
then putty must. And I can’t resist this bit; did you realise
Dave, that the ancient ultramarine paint always used ground
lapis lazuli? You re-inventing

the wheel or something? But cheers anyway,

        /\
       / /    John Burgess, 
      / /
     / //\    @John_Burgess2
    / / \ \
   / (___) \
  (_________)

Can anyone tell me how to color epoxy black so I can attach Gilson
opal to backing that was broken. Thanks in advance

Billybob
Made By Hand

Bill
Leesburg, Florida

Hi Billybob, try using black aquarell pencil. Shave off sufficient of
the pigment and simply mix it in with the epoxy resin glue. Aquarell
pencils are watercolour pigments in pencil form. I’ve often used them
to match colours for fiddly repairs to material like chipped turquoise
and lapis. Kind regards,
Rex in Oz

Bill,

Epoxy may be colored with resin pigments. They are available in a
variety of colors. You might be able to find some at your local hobby
or craft store. Even a good hardware store might have some. I don’t
have an on-line source, since I just usually buy pigments as I need
them from a local rough dealer.

There is also a slightly more old fashioned way, which is to mix a
small amount of Lamp Black into your Epoxy. Lamp Black should be
available at any art supply store.

Mike
Trigon Holding Co.
www.trigonholding.com