Anything "Duochrome" or "Chameleon" can also be found using the tag "Color Shifting"

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Monday, April 4, 2011

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 1st 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

7 comments:

  1. Wow that is some incredible work you've done there! I would love to try it, but I can't quite understand your chart. I guess I'll mess around with my own pigments and try to figure it out too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know it's a little confusing to look at. Tell me what you don't understand about it and I will try and clarify.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I checked out your bigger chart, and I think I get it now! I'm really excited to go try with my pigments now. I have a question though, do you add the Travel To pigments to black polish direct, or do you also add in a bit of clear polish? Roughly how much should I add to the black polish?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I copied this from my records (I have lists and charts everywhere).

    Starting with Venus, I used 1/4 Mica base, 30 (liquid) drops of a store bought black polish and 1/2 clear polish. I then added 6 smidgen of Venus, making it a 3-coat polish. I duplicated the process with the remaining 6 Travel to's and all of them stayed suspended. After the fact, I intentionally overloaded them all in varying amounts with pigment. The two I'd added the least extra, Jupiter and Venus, have stayed suspended to this day and apply fairly well. The other five settled and have an overly-white cast as expected.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If you don't have franken base, substitute clear polish. Seems to me almost everything has some degree of settling. Personally, I'd rather overload it and make the polish more opaque and as soon as you overload it, you lose suspension anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This (and all the other duochrome posts and tests) are WONDERFUL. Thanks so much for all the work that went into this :)

    ReplyDelete

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