Magma Yellow vs. Lavalite Yellow

[JC Harris]

Just tried re-doing an old lamp with magma wax and their 'yellow' dye. Two issues:

1. The yellow is like -flourescent-. It really looks like one of those hi-liter markers. So when it gets flowing there's almost a green tinge... too much dye? Too little?

Anyone else noticed this? If so, what's the solution? Add a little red?

2. Also, more generally, Magma colours tend to be really -transparent-. The original Lavalites were more 'opaque'... usually it's not an issue but with the yellow there's just not enough contrast between the yellow and the clear water. Is there a way to make the colour more 'opaque'? (ie. more like the original Lavalite yellow?)

TIA,

---JC

[johnny lava]

I've added yellow Magma dye to yellow Lava Lite wax to make it look more "gold". I have not experienced yellow dye having a neon-like effect. The fluorescent green Magma dye actually looks like a clear, yellow neon. Maybe there was a goof. If you were to add a little red, you will probably get more of an orange, pinkish wax, so use caution. Good luck!

[VOXul]

It sounds super saturated with yellow, not sure how much was used but a little goes a long way. I would tinker with the color like you and Johnny suggest, adding teeny bit of red. As for the opacity, it should lose transparency after running it for a while. All of my kits started with a clear phase and progressed to an opaque wax after a while (this should also play a big factor with your final color output from the wax). Carol was told by MT that if the wax gets too hot while running it can go back to a transparent state as well.

[JC Harris]

Yeah... after a few days now it -has- turned more opaque (like lavalamp). However, what's weird is that the blobs have these thin blue-green edges... like a 'corona' which are driving me nuts. I just want plain YELLOW.

Is this from adding too much dye? If so, can one 'de-saturate'? Or do ya simply have to start over?

[VOXul]

Interesting with the blue-green, wonder if the color temperature of the lightbulb is causing it. Only way I can think of to desaturate would be to add more dye-free wax, thin the concentration out.

[Carol]

Oh pleasaasseeee, did I oversaturate and goof up a lamp!!!  I accidently added red dye to a blue lamp that I wanted to make "bluer" and got a dark purple, almost black, lolololol!!!  This is how I fixed it, but eventually screwed it up trying to get a coil out and shredded the wax doing too much of a "stir" with a metal coat hanger....don't ask.......anyway, I did what Vox suggested and melted down the over-colored wax and added half of new clear wax.  I had a tad bit of wax left, too little to make a whole lamp with, so that came in handy. 

 

Also, I'm not totally out of the thinking that it could be a bad batch of dye.  I have been having such problems with MT's blue dye!!!  It starts out a beautiful shade of blue, then turns a weird plum color.  It's not in the sun, and the color doesn't fade into the liquid, it just simply goes away.  I have to keep adding "speck" amounts of new blue dye to refresh it, until the point where I can't add anymore because it will be too dark. 

 

I was going to call Magma, but they will only offer to send me another blue dye pack and now I am out of goo so that is useless to me.  Vox has used dye from a site that offers up dyes for people who make candles.  It is oil based and liquid.  I think the liquid is probably easier to use anyway.  It's called Peak something or other.  Vox???  Site addy?  He has had good luck with it so far.

 

Watch overheating the goo kits.  Too much heat will turn your goo transparent again, but the bigger problem with too much heat is that the goo gets too soft and liquidy and starts to stick to the inside of the globe causing either a fog like haze on the entire inside of the globe or streaks from the wax starting to stick.  When I first started to run my kits I was under the impression that I couldn't mess them up!!!  Well, after I redid my favs 3 to 4 to 5 times, I finally gave up my pride and decided to give MT Goo a call and found out that their goo can be touchy as well as LL's.  If you keep your temp consistant , you shouldn't have any problems.  As far as fixing the yellow, it may have to be a redo unfortunately.....

[Chris]

I noticed that with one of my Magma Tower kitted lamps that on the first run, my green was almost completely see through, then was more translucent, then was opaque but you could see the dye still swirling around in it. After about 5 runs it became completely solid and opaque. I'm quite happy with it. I think there's just a break in period.

[Carol]

There is definitely a break-in period and Magma Tower will tell you that.  Some kitter's like to wait to dye until the wax turns entirely opaque.  This imo gives you a real feel of the final color.  I'm now wondering if this is why my blue lamp keeps turning into a "plumish" color??!!  Hummm, ya know with kitting you can do a whole lot of lamps and still find out better ways or different ways of doing things.  It is definitely a learning experience!!!  I color right away because when I have a kit in my mind, I actually "see it" in my head and get all excited at what color it will be!!  This causes me to hurry up and color before the wax gets a chance to opaque up.  Usually a few runs depending on how long you run them.  I usually run my kits about 9 hours every day!!  I have tried dying while melting and before pouring, but that is even harder to determine what color it will look like when opaque and flowing.  Here is another way that I do it to achieve better color saturation and this is also how I do my blends.  Keith gave me this idea and it works great!!  So you see you get a bit of advice from all OG members and then pull it all together. 

 

Get a few tablespoons of MT goo and melt in a small cup in the microwave.  The clearer the cup the better because you are going to want to see through it.  Add a toothpick speck of the color you want and a toothpick speck of the other color if you are blending.  For my neon green I did a speck of green dye and a speck of yellow.  Then stir.  If you like the color, put this wax dye blend in the freezer until frozen.  While lamp is hot and flowing, add a few of these dye chunks and let blend 100% until you get the saturation to where you like it.  I did my sherbet, my bubblegum pink and my neon green this way.  These were all done with blends of 2 separate dyes. 

[JC Harris]

Well, my homeboys tried to warn me,

But that dye I bought made me so... er... orange-y.

It's actually one of the coolest colours I've ever seen. But unfortunately, it's totally wrong for the location. (sigh)

[VOXul]

JC Harris said:

Well, my homeboys tried to warn me,

But that dye I bought made me so... er... orange-y.

It's actually one of the coolest colours I've ever seen. But unfortunately, it's totally wrong for the location. (sigh)

[JC Harris]

I now believe it's the colour of the glass that caused the problem. It has a faint bluish reflection. I assume they didn't use totally 'clear' glass because the original lamp used blue liquid. So I learned something.

I definitely want to find a cheaper source for goo. My issue with Magma is that they don't seem to ship things without being 'reminded'. Also, they charge a -fortune- for shipping which, as a small business guy, annoys me... It seems EVERYONE nowadays charge $1 for the -widget- and then marks up the shipping 500%... it's like airlines charging for peanuts.

[Carol]

Gotta say Magma is not without it's issues!!!  There is a member of OG who actually does his own "huge" lamps and sells them.  I cannot for the life of me think of this members name right now, but he pops on from time to time and makes the most beautiful lamps.  He uses nothing but MT Goo and has great success with it.  Might be a good idea to speak with him if you are considering going that "large" scale with your kitting......I'll poke around and see what I can come up with....

[johnny lava]

I actually have 6 tubs of yellow dye that I have not used yet, all acquired from some goo kits I've ordered over the past few years.

Three of them are really full, but have an undesired amount of multi-colored particles sitting at the bottom. I have tested them and they are in fact small grains of other colored dyes that have contaminated the yellow. I wasn't too happy about finding this out, but oh well.

So I further inspected the remaining three yellow dyes that don't have any particles and they seem clean and very much a golden yellow.....except one of the dyes is glowing a brilliant, bright orange under a blacklight! (which I am happy about)

I fear there is still a chance your yellow dye may be contaminated, although it is true that some lava lamp globes can have an effect on the light color. I have 20 52oz. globes and 2 of them have a blue/green color in the glass.

I hope you figure things out!