Better emeralds: EZ Water plastic and Jacquard Alcohol Ink

Today I got out of work early enough to get to Blick art supply in Fullerton.

My goal was to find powdered dye. Blick has artist quality pigments.


At first I found this Viridian green powder.

This is pure Chromium Oxide, very toxic. They even sell pure Cadmium red powder!

This was expensive, and I'm too scared to use it. I think I'll return it...


I also found yet another brand of salt-free fabric dye.

Kind of a silly name! I didn't get to use this one today, either.


At the end of my shopping trip at Blick's, I found alcohol inks.

Also made by Jacquard.

I had heard a lot about alcohol inks for other art projects.

I didn't think they could be used to dye this plastic, because it specifically said to use powdered fabric dye.


It only needed one drop to color a batch (about 3 tablespoons of plastic pellets)

The alcohol ink did catch fire, briefly, if I hit it directly with the flame.

I learned to heat the bottom of this stainless steel measuring cup.


I poured the plastic in layers, which the instructions said not to do, because it will leave a line.

You can see the layers in some of these:  (Click image to enlarge)

The colors were so nice, I am going to return the powdered pigment and get some more of the alcohol ink colors!

However, I am having an issue with the tiny bubbles.

I don't mind the bubbles inside the "rock," because they add sparkle.

The bubbles on the sides touching the mold, kind of give a fuzzy appearance.

One thing I could try is flaming the surface of the finished "rocks..."