Best water dye to match Mathmos purple?

[Andrew Murphy]

Greetings, oozers. I have a Mathmos Jet in violet/orange. Over time the water has faded to clear, and I'd like to refresh it.

Can anyone recommend a good dye that has a strong, deep violet/purple colour as seen in https://www.mathmos.com/images/D/mathmos_astro_lava_lamp_violet_ora... (or, if that link dies, https://www.mathmos.com/mathmos-astro-lava-lamp-the-original-1227-0... or check the original Astro in violet/orange at https://www.mathmos.com/ ). Most of the dyes I've seen recommended are lighter, and tend to pink/red rather than purple.

Any suggestions, anyone? Ideally available in the UK, but I'll order from anywhere.

Thanks!

[Carol]

this is what I use:

 

http://www.gartnerstudios.com/shop/dufftm-purple-airbrush-color.html

[Andrew Murphy]

Thanks for that. Are you happy with the colour?

(Although I see they don't ship internationally, so it could be tricky getting hold of it).

[Dr. WHAT?!]

I've had success with inkjet printer ink. You can buy refill bottles on ebay.

[Carol]

If you can access my pics, there are some of my purple liquid/white lava up front that I took recently.  I also have a vid up, but some can't view because of the copyright with the songs I use.  I don't know how to fix that on my vid settings.  I do like the purple that it throws.  It looks more blueish in the pics and vid, but it is a very nice shade of purple.  As far as it being close to the purple that Mathmos or LL uses, it is close to LL's, but I wouldn't know about Mathmos because unfortunately I don't own any mathmos lamps, especially not one that has purple liquid. 

 

Dr. What has WAY more experience with kitting and restoring then I.  I've learned many a tricks from him, so you may want to take his advice and try the printer ink. I would maybe try to dissolve some in a clear glass of water first and see if you are happy with it before you add it to the actual lamp.  If you were using distilled water and doing a goo kit I would say just experiment and if you don't like the color you can dump it and try something else.  I have done that with McCormick dyes.  I have a feeling you are using the original fluid and hence might wanna dissolve your choice of dye in some regular water first to get an idea of color saturation and familiarize yourself with the potency of the ink.

 

P.S.  If you go with the airbrush dye that I use, they also sell it at many different online sites.  Amazon also has it and I think they may ship internationally.  I think you have a good chance of getting it through either them or ebay.  It is pretty much all over the place because it goes with a popular cake decorating gun.

[Andrew Murphy]

Thanks again!

Dr What, I don't seem to able to find pure purple ink anywhere. I can get hold of the normal CMYK, or red and blue packs, but I'm far too hamfisted to mix the colour myself. I'll keep looking.

Carol, Your purple is almost exactly what I'm aiming for. The Mathmos orange lava is very bright, and would show up well. I'll definitely keep an eye out for the Duff dye, but Amazon don't carry a full range of Gartner products, so I'll have to trawl the internets for a shop that delivers to the UK. It was all much simpler back when you lot were a colony.

Also, thanks for the advice regarding the experimenting. I will be using the original 'water', but I have plenty of distilled water on hand to test it with.

[Dr. WHAT?!]

Well they wouldn't make a purple ink for inkjet printer but you can use cyan and magenta (blue and red). Just do what carol mentioned about premixing in just regular tap water first to get the desired color then do the lava globe.

[Carol]

I had to premix red and blue McCormicks to get one of my purples, but it didn't hold well, so I bought the Duff.  Wasn't cheap either.  Flippen like 5 bucks and you only need like 1 drop.  I have it in a bright room and so when I think it is fading a tad I add another drop and darken it, lol!!!

[Andrew Murphy]

Sounds like I'll keep the ink-mixture solution as a last resort then. I'll continue looking for the Duff dye.

Thanks to you both!