Lee, couple of basic things off the top of my head that you may already know:
In general (unless the mftr or one of the mavens here recommends otherwise) I use the following to remember mixing materials: O (oil) for oxides, water for (ultra) marines). If in doubt as to what to mix with, try glycerin, that may not be optimal but works with almost everything.
I always use a minimixer to get the colors blended before I add them to the batter so that they do not speckle in the batch. But pour some of the mixing liquid in first and get it all dampened well before you start up the minimixer or you will end up with multicolored grout in your tiles if you use your kitchen counters to work like I do
If you use indigo and want a bright blue, add it to your lye water. Putting it in at trace will make it fade/gray out.
When using an SB to mix different colors for swirls, go from the lightest to the darkest, that will prevent having to clean it b/w colors or making the light ones change too much from introducing a darker one (usually not so much of an issue the other way around.) I literally line my little color cups in light-dark order so I don't forget to do this, or I will.
Here's a link to a nice easy 2 color swirl from David Fisher/Candle and Soap. I think this was the first time I swirled and was really excited that it came out so nicely. I used a slow tracing mix/non-accelerating FO and poured at v. light trace, I ended up not even using any tools to swirl, just alternated colors and let them swirl themselves. I still use this one if I want a nice relaxing swirl which I know will look nice without doing anything fancy. One annoying thing - you have to go to the "next page arrow" below the pinterest bar to move to the next screen, I kept automatically hitting on the arrow under the pictures and having to close out ads.
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/tipstricks/ss/whiteblueswirl.htm
In general (unless the mftr or one of the mavens here recommends otherwise) I use the following to remember mixing materials: O (oil) for oxides, water for (ultra) marines). If in doubt as to what to mix with, try glycerin, that may not be optimal but works with almost everything.
I always use a minimixer to get the colors blended before I add them to the batter so that they do not speckle in the batch. But pour some of the mixing liquid in first and get it all dampened well before you start up the minimixer or you will end up with multicolored grout in your tiles if you use your kitchen counters to work like I do
If you use indigo and want a bright blue, add it to your lye water. Putting it in at trace will make it fade/gray out.
When using an SB to mix different colors for swirls, go from the lightest to the darkest, that will prevent having to clean it b/w colors or making the light ones change too much from introducing a darker one (usually not so much of an issue the other way around.) I literally line my little color cups in light-dark order so I don't forget to do this, or I will.
Here's a link to a nice easy 2 color swirl from David Fisher/Candle and Soap. I think this was the first time I swirled and was really excited that it came out so nicely. I used a slow tracing mix/non-accelerating FO and poured at v. light trace, I ended up not even using any tools to swirl, just alternated colors and let them swirl themselves. I still use this one if I want a nice relaxing swirl which I know will look nice without doing anything fancy. One annoying thing - you have to go to the "next page arrow" below the pinterest bar to move to the next screen, I kept automatically hitting on the arrow under the pictures and having to close out ads.
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/tipstricks/ss/whiteblueswirl.htm
