Saturday, October 28, 2006

Chemistry is Fun

Today we experimented with fixing the color of the countertops, and it seems we had some luck. We figured we had nothing to lose, because we couldn't use them the color they were. Too brick red. So, one of the stains I saw for sale on the internet involved mixing their pigment with acetone. So Rich bought some purple stain intended for wood dyeing, and we mixed that with acetone and painted it on. That had some effect - it at least colored the slurry mix that we had filled the little voids with, and it kind of darkened and mottled the whole thing just a bit. Then after an hour or so, we mixed some other colorant we had - some raspberry colored paint pigment and some charcoal grey antiquing stuff left over from doing our floors - with vinegar, and put that on. That was pretty cool. It was almost dark when we rinsed it off and dried it, but it appears to have pulled some of the red out, lightening and darkening at the same time. So tomorrow we are going to play with it some more, and then I'll post a picture. We have an extra hour this weekend!
So far today there have been 15 earthquakes in the world. Two in Washington, two in Alaska. Interesting.

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