Opal Like Pigment From Old CD

Hello, in this instructable I shall show you a simple way to remove the aluminium coat film off a CD.

Once crushed, this can be added to a clear resin, in order to obtain a beautifull multicolor opalescent material.

Unhappily, despite many attemps with several cameras, I could not render that beauty with photos. ..Inner colors don't appear on photos ! It's a bit frustrating, because it's really beautifull...

Well, let's go!

To achieve this, you need:

Some old CD that you burned at home and that you kept for no reason at all..

Less than 50cl of alcool, best is alcool 99% (used in some wood varnish techniques) or alcool 95% that you simply can buy in pharmacy

An empty candy box

Latex gloves

an old credit card or a wasted CD as a soft scraper.

Eventualy some clear epoxy resin and some molds as extra stuff to use these pigments, some black colouring pigments.

Industrial burned CD with serigraphy as these AOL free CD will not work..

I succeded only with home burned ones with or without serigraphy.

Most of the time, serigraphy is negligible on results as the ones above on the picture.

Pour some alcool into the candy box, find on which side is the aluminium on your CD and place this side down before to close the box carefully..

Then let it soak 24h...

First of all, wear your gloves.

Alcool has softened the glue between plastic and aluminium.

Once your CD is out of the box, you don't have so much time to scape it with your old credit card.

The alcool that has soften the glue will evaporate very quickly.

In case it become harder to scrape, put it back in the box for one minute and try again.

Here I dit it in a plate, but one can do it on a paper towel. The advantage is less static electricity and an easyer way to collect and manipulate theses particles..

Once all the aluminium is removed from the plastic, simply crush it between your fingers to break the bigger parts.

Your pigments are ready.

For example, some brands or models have a seriraphy printed before the aluminium coat.

It's impossible to separate them.

See the effect of alcool ungluing aluminium. (I wish to find a way to keep it like this !)

The result is a mixed of black and goldish multicolor pigment.

No resin mixing result experience to show.

You can order some readymade molds, These are availlable on the internet.for cheap.

If you use these molds, don't mix too much of your pigments in the resin, because the best effect are achieved by a second coat of black coloured resin behind ! That's the trick !

This contrast reveals the colours.(that don't show up on photos, I'm sorry)..

On this picture, the two on the right are with a lot of pigments but without this double black coat.

The two on the top are out of a mold.

The three down side are from a free pouring resin.without mold

The two on the left are doubled with a black coat behind.

If your creativity has been stimulated by this instructable, I'm happy ! Enjoy.