Color Changing Pearls

[bassinfool]

I ordered an irresponsible amount of pearl powders from a car painting shop and couldn't wait to play with them when I got home from work last night.  This is a color pattern I ripped off from a crankbait pattern I paint a lot.  It looks just ok in the swimbait to my eyes, I'll have to tweak it a little bit (think maybe it needs to be more green than brown) but I absolutely love it in the drop shot baits.  What do you all think?

[alwrenn]

I ordered an irresponsible amount of pearl powders from a car painting shop

That's right, own up to the problem....LOL.  They look AWESOME!

[ctom]

If you want to take full advantage of the color shifting products you'll likely have to use it against or in black. It does poorly stand alone in clear or any other color unless its a very dark color. You're on the right track with the smoke line in the bait but it needs to be black and then you'll really see an eye popper.

I've been using this stuff for several years and got over the frustration of thin results using the pigments in clear and or light colored plastics a long time ago. I'll dig thru my pics and show what I am referring to.







By far and away the easiest of the color shifts to use are the white, fine-particle, ones that go from blues to purples. The two smaller baits are using what's called Delta and one shows some of the purple while the one in the bottom picture shows the blue big time and both of these baits are tiny with minimal cores of black to make things work. The 2 1/2 Fry in the top picture has green to gold to red to purple complex color shift in it and is one of my favorite. You can see the purple working in the bottom bait while the others are primarily green.

I use this same color shift pigments in clear acrylic airbrush paint as a top coat to go over either a thin black or a very deep blue or purple or green across the very tops of crankbaits. I give the whole crankbait a coat of the clear. Watching those crankbaits on a retrieve is mind boggling when you see the different colors coming out in the wobbling action. Its interesting to see how different waters affect the color shifting in both the cranks and in soft plastics. I'll also use the pigment in clear powder paint to top coat dark colors of jig heads. 

[alwrenn]

CTOM,   does it have to be black or will any darker color like a green or a blue work?  Also, what about a smoke color?  Thanks.

[ctom]

I have maybe 20 different packages of different color shifts and almost all of them need black or a super deep blue or purple or green, but other than black it has to be deep dark in the color before a color shift will start to compare to black. I've tried it in and against smoke with minimal success..

If a person wants to see some real wild color shift, use a soft artist brush and dry paint the pigment over a black back, then seal with a clear plastic dip. I'll try to find a picture .



These were dry brushed and awaiting a finish clear dip. If you look at the bait on the right you can see the red/orange wanting to come out on back. One can airbrush the color shift over a black back on soft plastics and then top coat with clear plastic when the paint has been heat set and eyes applied.

[Shaunm81]

Hmmmmm I've been really thinking about picking some of this color shift pearl up but how much is needed in 4 oz batches? And where do you guys get your color shift? Looks really good I love those green tails with that color shift.

[ctom]

I get a lot of mine here.  https://didspade.com/fine-particle

The Delta is the easiest to learn with and would be my suggestion to get to start out. The 5 gram sample goes a long, long ways.

If you are mixing the Delta with black I'd start with maybe a very scant 1/4 tsp. Going over black with clear will take much less so in 4 ounces of clear maybe 1/8 tsp. With the clear, as soon as you have finished clear coating or injecting over a core with the color shift add some stabilizer to the cup and stir it in well. This will put a buffer in there if/when you re-melt it. Re-melt in shorter 15 second bursts of power after a 30 second initial heat and stir at each stop as soon as liquid plastic is noticed.

[bassinfool]

Hmmmmm I've been really thinking about picking some of this color shift pearl up but how much is needed in 4 oz batches? And where do you guys get your color shift? Looks really good I love those green tails with that color shift.

I got all of these from custompaintingpearls.com and have only played with a couple so far.  I know several people get theirs from dipyourcar.com and you can find sellers on eBay and Amazon as well.
 You can see in the picture of the swimbait how the clear shows both blue and purple hues.  It is really hard to capture the color change effect with a static picture.  You can see it in the back as well, it shifts from gold to green but it's more subtle.  I have used color shift before and like Tom has mentioned, it works best when contrasted against a darker base color, but doesn't necessarily require black.  I have used black melon, black grape, darker blues, brown amber colorants in combination with color shifts with good results.

Tom, there is no colorshift powder in the chartreuse line on those.  It's just a couple of drops of chartreuse and lime colorant with some green hi lite powder mixed in.  I wish colorshift showed up better in static pictures because it is a really neat effect to see the bait change in the light.  That belly color goes from shades of blue to purple and green and the back goes from gold to green; it's some really neat stuff and a little bit goes a long long long way.  I don't think I used more than 1/16 teaspoon in 4 oz of plastic for any of these colors.

[efishnc]

I ordered an irresponsible amount of pearl powders from a car painting shop and couldn't wait to play with them when I got home from work last night.

The description of an 'irresponsible amount' is absolutely hilarious!... (and many of us are guilty of the very same thing in numerous other categories).

[efishnc]

The 2 1/2 Fry in the top picture has green to gold to red to purple complex color shift in it and is one of my favorite.

I agree, that is a good looking blend, and I think it would be particularly nice in the mayfly and scud molds since in nature they have a similar tint.

[bassinfool]

The description of an 'irresponsible amount' is absolutely hilarious!... (and many of us are guilty of the very same thing in numerous other categories).

Honesty and self acceptance are the best policy in my book haha

[ctom]

I wish colorshift showed up better in static pictures because it is a really neat effect to see the bait change in the light. 

Digital cameras have filters that really suck when it comes to grabbing pictures of what we do, especially any of the color shift and regular hi lite colors.

Used in clear belly colors the color shifts can create some super nice natural looking minnows, way more so than regular pearls or hi lites.

[bassinfool]

I am looking forward to getting a very natural swimbait poured.  Probably go with the same or very similar belly that is on this bait, a gold/green lateral line and then some black pearl mixed with some chameleon pearl on the back.

[Shaunm81]

Okay thanks for the help.  I will pick up some and give it a try it definitely looks really nice.

[Cami]

Hi, I've got some shifting powder pigments, but they are clear powders, so if I brush them over a dark soft bait the best result is obtained. I've already tried to put some clear shifting powder in clear plastisol, the result is an intersting translucent soft bait, quite similar to natural minnows.
I'm wondering if one of you Guys has already tried to put black color (also black pigment) in a plastisol batch with a clear shifting powder pigment, what about result?
From Nail Art I've got also some dark shifting flakes (no powder, no glitter), if I spread them with a sponge over a dark soft bait the result is pretty good, but is it possible to use them in mass with plastisol? I've already seen videos where it is possible to put dark shifting powder pigment inside plastisol, but it's really hard t find them here in Italy.
I usually create soft bait with mica powder pigments inside plastisol, but even if I've already used over baits metallic powder pigments, I've never tried in mass: is there anyone that has tried?
Finally (for me), I tried over black soft baits the fluo powder pigments ... it seems that black absorb them ... bad result. And what about to put the fluo powder pigments inside clear plastisol?
Thank you in advance to who would like to share their experience.
Bye.

Cami