Spin Art - Is Black Really Black?

Let’s see... black is black!!! Well, maybe not.

What color is black? Some people answer with a simple "black," while others respond with something like "black is the absence of all color." If you have ever run out of black paint or your black pen ran dry, you probably know how to make the color black. Mix a little blue with red and yellow and green and orange and purple and you finally make the color black. Do the people who make black pens mix different colors to make black? Using a technique called chromatography, let's find out exactly what makes up the color in that black pen.

Materials

Round filter paper (it’s like a coffee filter... only thicker!)
Scissors
Small plastic cup
Black pen (water soluble)
Pipe cleaner

Experiment
Video
Reviews

Start by using the black pen to mark a dot in the center of the filter paper. Draw a circle of dots around the dot in the middle of the paper.
Use the scissors to cut a piece of pipe cleaner about 2 inches (5 cm) long. Fill one of the plastic cups about half full with water. Carefully push the small piece of pipe cleaner into the hole in the center of the filter paper where you placed the center dot.
Place the filter paper and pipe cleaner on top of the plastic cup so the pipe cleaner is getting wet. Be careful not to get the filter paper wet yet. As the pipe cleaner gets wet, the water will slowly crawl up to the filter paper and start to get it wet, too. This may take a while, so be patient. It’s worth the wait!
What happens to the black dots when they get wet? How did the colors get on the paper? Take the paper and the pipe cleaner off the cup of water when the “design” is about half the size of the paper. If you let the paper soak up too much water, the design gets blurry and faded. Set your paper in a safe place to dry.

Try this... Experiment with other black pens found around the house. You’ll want to make sure the pens are water soluble to get them to separate into individual colors. As you experiment with different brands of pens and markers, you’ll notice that each brand leaves its own unique color pattern on the filter.

Spin Art Chromatography

This technique uses a commercial Spin Art toy or something you can make using a hand-held toy fan with rubber blades and a recycled plastic lid the approximate size of the filter paper. If you want to make your own spin art toy, just attach the plastic lid to the center of the fan blades with the edges of the lid pointing in an outward direction. Lay the filter paper on the plastic lid, allowing the edges of the lid to hold it in place. This method requires a lot of trial and error to get the filter paper spinning just right.

Draw black dots on the filter paper using the method described above or simply touch the tip of the water-soluble black pen to the spinning filter paper to draw a perfect circle in the very center of the filter paper. Using an eye-dropper or a plastic pipette, drip just a few drops of water onto the middle of the spinning filter paper. The drops of water will mix with the black ink and the centripetal action of the spinning paper causes the ink to spread out in a circular pattern. The Spin Art Chromatography method is much faster than the traditional wick method, but the color separation may not be as vivid.

Making Rainbow Flowers

Using the technique listed above, make 2 or 3 bursts of color on separate pieces of filter paper.
Let them dry completely.
Cut off the outer white edge of the filter paper so you’re left with just a burst of color.
Fold the paper into the shape of a flower (petals).
Poke a pipe cleaner through the center of the filter paper.
Bend the bottom part of the pipe cleaner into the shape of a leaf.
Voila! You’ve made a rainbow flower.

How does it work?

So, is black really just black? No! There’s literally a rainbow of color hiding in just one black dot! The burst of color that you see on the filter paper proves that black is really a combination of colors. This technique of color separation is actually called chromatography, which was originally used to separate different plant pigments. The science behind the rainbow is simply this - the ink dissolves in the water (that’s why they call it water soluble) and moves in between the fibers of the paper where it is separated into bands of color. You might see as many as six or seven different circles of color.