I?m in the process of conceptualizing and building an art piece that
involves liquid components: somewhat similar to lava lamps. There are
already products that contain the liquid materials that I require to
take this into the next phase. To get a better sense of this you can
look at a website called:
http://store.yahoo.com/opg/liquidmotion.html, where there are lava
lamp-like products that utilize the materials in question.

The question I want to pose is: What are the specific materials
involved in the ?color tower?, or the ?color spectrum?, for example. 
I know a little about what is involved; I suspect that paraffin is the
clear liquid and the colored liquid is possibly water with food
coloring, though I?m not certain, obviously.
Ideally, I want to know the exact proportions, makeup, and ratios of
each element in relation to the other elements. That said, the actual
measurements of liquid involved in a specific piece are not crucial;
only the ratios involved in making the characteristic separation of
two or more liquids occur. I?m also not concerned about the container
for the liquids involved, as I?ve already figured that out. I think
the liquid in these pieces is set into motion manually. Again I?m not
specifically concerned with this aspect of the product, but with the
liquid materials involved.

To illustrate further: (This is not precisely what I?m trying to
achieve, but) you can get a sense of what I?m trying to do by going to
http://www.oozinggoo.com/howto.html
There is a recipe for creating a lava lamp, which is along the lines
of what I want to do but with different materials, such as the
aforementioned ones in the ?color tower?.

Once this information is obtained, I would like to be given a
resource, or preferably multiple resources, for purchasing the
required materials.  If said materials are something easily accessible
from somewhere like a hardware store, this is not an important issue,
however, if it turns out that the materials are special, it would be
nice to be able to buy relatively small quantities of the stuff; I
don?t want to have to buy 50 gallon drums of it.

I should also point out that I?ve done experiments with similar
materials, specifically water (colored) and liquid paraffin. I ran
into problems with the water sticking to the sides of the (plastic)
container. Another problem was that the paraffin got cloudy-it trapped
tiny air bubbles. I?m giving you this information in case you find a
resource that gets very specific and this knowledge might come in
handy.

Thanks and good luck. I look forward to hearing what you find.

I'm not going to get you an answer, just point you in the right
directions. This sounds fun!  Most of these items are fairly cheap. 
Experiment and see what works best.


The 3 color solution is a bit tricky and I think I would have to experiment a bit.

Various salt solutions(think table salt, or for colored try copper
sulfate) will make isopropanol immiscible with water.

Mineral oil and isopropanol are available at your local pharmacy.

For the colors, wow, um you could use copper sulfate(garden or water
garden supply) to get a light blue water solution(addition of ammonia
to this will make it dark blue).  I think that would be immiscible
with the isopropanol.  And I'm not sure, but maybe just red food color
would partition mainly into the isopropanol phase.  If not, maybe some
RIT clothes dye?  You can get at your local drug store or grocery
store.

Mineral oil is the clear solution. 

Just my guesses. Ratios are whatever you choose... Wear gloves when
working with powdered dyes and be careful,,, a little goes a long way.

bob.