The Lust for Duochromes

Links checked 12/12/13

I've been silent for a while, in part due to the blues and the rest because I am simply bored with polish and pigments but in the midst of it, I continued to try and crack the color code. Well I'm done cracking and you can enjoy the fruits of my labor.

I had spent a lot of time trying to make a new duochrome from the original Travel to polishes I made (shown below) by sampling them with store bought polish. The process frustrated me to tears- literally, because after a week all I'd done is make variations of the same duochrome over and over. Generally the Travel to pigments from TKB Trading can be viewed as a having a 3-color-shift and while the store bought polish made them more vibrant, it also seemed to limit the range of the duochrome effect which I didn't appreciate.

I had also tried using Hilite Red pigment with the Travel to polishes and it too seemed to limit the color range so I didn't bother trying other colors of Hilites. The results weren't bad so I probably will in the future but it wasn't what I was going for.

I went back to the original Travel to colors (of polish) and made two charts. The first was a color mix with a ratio of 1:1 meaning one drop of a color mixed with one drop of another. For example, one drop of Venus with one drop of Pluto.

The second was with a ratio of 3:1 meaning three drops of one color mixed with 1 drop of a second. For example, 3 drops of Jupiter with one drop of Neptune. Drops of Jupiter? Isn't that a song by Train?

For the record, it doesn't matter that I used my black-based Travel to polishes for these charts; the Travel to pigments used in clear polish have the same color shifting (but darker). The reason for only going up to a ratio of 3:1 is because more than that and the 1^st color becomes dominant; in other words 4:1 of Mars and Mars is the only color shift you see.

Neither picture above is great quality but I wanted you to be able to see what I based my assessment of color on. Proceeding in that fashion I was able to see how the color shifting changes as you add greater amounts or, as my husband phrased it, "See the trend." I also found it was entirely possible to create a new duochrome from the original Travel to's if I had enough patience to sort through the information.

I've listed all the pigment combinations that resulted in a color shift that was different from each other and from the original Travel to's, shown in blue. I imagine the ratios would work for dry color recipes as well.  

Allow me to explain my chart to those of you that may be confused- and yes, I realize it is a bit confusing. For example, we'll take these entries on the list:

Name + Name, Ratio	1st Color	2nd Color	3rd Color
Mercury + Pluto 3:1	Pink	Red	Orange
Mars + Venus 1:1	Pink	Orange	Lt. Orange

The first column, Name + Name, Ratio, shows Mercury + Pluto 3:1.

Mercury and Pluto are the pigments combined in this one, 3 drops of Mercury to 1 drop of Pluto which results in a 3-color duochrome. The first planet listed is always the "3", the second planet is the "1" in the 3:1 ratios.

This duochrome starts out as pink and goes to red and then to orange. They are listed as first, second and third color (and separated that way in columns) to make them easier to compare to other combinations.

A ratio of 1:1 means one drop of a color mixed with one drop of another. For example, one drop of Mars with one drop of Venus.

I said "drops" because that’s how I did the testing, with liquid drops of my polish but it doesn't have to be drops, they just have to be equal parts. You could also use the syringes TKB sells if you're working with polish rather than dry pigment- for example 3 ml of Mercury to 1ml of Pluto.  Or, with the dry pigments, using TKB's mini spoon set, it could be 3 smidgen of Mercury to 1 smidgen of Pluto.

Name + Name, Ratio	1st color	2nd color	3rd color
Mars + Pluto 3:1 Or Mars + Neptune 3:1	Pink	Red	n/a
Mercury + Pluto 3:1	Pink	Red	Orange
Mercury + Neptune 3:1	Pink	Peach	Red Orange
Venus +Mars 3:1	Pink	Peach	Lt. Yellow Green
Mercury + Venus 1:1	Dk. Pink	Orange	Yellow Orange
Mercury + Venus 3:1	Dk. Pink	Red	Orange
Mars	Red	Orange	Yellow Orange
Mercury + Pluto 1:1	Pink Orange	Red	Orange
Mercury + Earth 3:1	Pale Orange	Orange	Yellow
Venus + Jupiter 3:1	Peach	Orange	Green Yellow
Jupiter + Mercury 1:1	Orange	Orange Green	Blue Green
Mercury	Dk. Orange	Yellow Orange	Yellow Green
Mercury + Neptune 1:1	Brownish	Orange	n/a
Venus + Earth 3:1	Silver Brown	Silver Yellow	Pale Yellow
Jupiter + Mars 1:1	Dirty Yellow	Greenish	Green
Mercury + Earth 1:1	Yellow Orange	Orange	Dk. Orange
Jupiter + Mercury 3:1	Olive Green Orange	Olive Green	Green Blue
Mars + Earth 1:1	Yellow Green	Lt. Orange	Dk. Orange
Earth +  Mars 3:1 Or Earth +  Mercury 3:1	Lime Green	Yellow Green	Orange
Jupiter	Pale Green	Blue Green	Blue
Pluto	Silver Green	Purple	Pink
Jupiter + Venus 1:1	Silver Green	Green Blue	Blue Green
Jupiter + Neptune 3:1	Lt. Green	Aqua	Med. Blue
Earth +  Pluto 1:1	Lt. Green	Pink	Dk. Pink
Earth +  Pluto 3:1	Lt. Green	Yellow Green	Red
Earth +  Jupiter 3:1	Bright Green	Pale Green	Pale Orange Pink
Earth	Green	Orange Green	Red Orange
Earth +  Neptune 3:1	Med. Green	Green Blue	Red Purple
Jupiter + Neptune 1:1	Lt. Green Aqua	Aqua	n/a
Neptune + Mercury 3:1	Green Blue	Lt. Blue	Lt. Purple
Neptune + Earth 3:1	Green Blue	Lt. Green Blue	Purple Pink
Neptune + Pluto 3:1	Green Blue	Blue Purple	Lt. Purple
Neptune	Dk. Aqua	Blue	Purple
Jupiter + Earth 1:1	Blue Green	Green	Lt. Purple Gray
Neptune + Venus 3:1	Blue Green	Med. Blue	Blue Purple
Mars + Neptune 1:1	Blue	Lt. Purple	Pink
Venus + Neptune 1:1	Med. Blue	Dk. Blue	Gray
Venus + Neptune 3:1	Purple Blue	Silver Green	n/a
Venus	Lt. Purple	Red Green	Olive Green
Mars + Pluto 1:1	Silver Purple	Pink	Reddish Pink

Related Entries:

TKBTrading's "Travel To..." & "Sparks!" pigments

Swatches: TKB's Travel to…Pigments

Duochrome: what does it really mean?

Swatches: Updated Travel tos & Mixes