[Danny McGuire]

Hello,

I’m currently putting together a large project for about 25-30 of us to do resin art for the first time. I already have the epoxy clear resin but I’m looking to make some dyes. I noticed you can do a number of different things to dye your resin using pigments, paints, etc. But the most convenient looks like the liquid dyes where you add in drops to mix in with the epoxy resin.

My question is, how can you make the liquid dyes? I was hoping to get a bunch of different pigments and then mix them with either, propylene glycol or isopropyl alcohol and have them in little squirt bottles for us to use. But I can’t find any information on what the “Liquid” part is of the dyes.

Do you happen to know what I can do?

Thank you so much!!!

[Danny McGuire]

Do you know if Vegetable Glycern work?

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Danny,

I have never made my own dyes/pigments for resin. I have used a variety of powders and liquids, but have not tried making them myself. These are the items we sell that are meant for coloring resin:

https://shop.resinobsession.com/collections/colorants

The advantage to using colors designed specifically for resin is that you can be assured of consistent, quality results every time.

Here are some articles that should also give you some ideas on what you can do to color resin:

https://www.resinobsession.com/resin-art/resin-painting-additives
https://www.resinobsession.com/resin-resin-resin/experimenting-with-resin-colors

If you want to try mixing your own, I wouldn’t expect vegetable glycerin or propylene glycol to work. They are oily, which will not mix well with resin. Alcohol does mix well with resin, but I don’t know how it will react with adding other colorants to it.

[Rijacki Ledum]

For resin, if I were to make my own colourants, I would use only dry ingredients, powder or other dry stuff. Adding more liquid to resin can be a tricky business. Even with liquid dyes made specifically for resin you have to be cautious about the amount you add. resin is a lot more forgiving of dry ingredients added. Be sure to take into account that epoxy resin uses a chemically induced heat to cure. That heat can alter some colourants. Also, resin itself is a liquid so dry pigment that releases in liquid will generally release in resin alone.

[MermaidMama]

Can you add pearl ex powders, or powdered micas to swirl through resins while casting?

[Katherine Swift]

Yes, that works very well! You can see examples in these articles: https://www.resinobsession.com/tag/pearl-ex

[Cara Russell]

I have tried to make my own dyes using isopropyl alcohol. The resin accepts the colors well, but leave the final project very cloudy and opaque.

Cara

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