Paulson vs CPC Colors (1 Viewer)

JustDogbert

Two Pair
Joined
Jul 14, 2020
Messages
464
Reaction score
994
Location
USA-NY
After buying the CPC color samples, I was wondering how their colors compared to the Paulson colors. Therefore, I went out and acquired the Paulson color samples so I could compare the chips directly to each other. What I found is that the colors don't match very well and that CPC colors are in general "darker" than the corresponding Pauslon color. After doing my comparison, I thought that someone else here may have the same question(s) that I did so I decided to save you the effort... I will be posting, in this thread, a number of photos of the CPC colors (white labels) surrounded by the nearest Paulson color (hot stamps) I could find.

BLUES
Blues.jpeg
 
Mexican Rose is a better hot pink than Hot Pink! The want is real.

Also, it always kills me seeing how weak the CPC yellow color-options are. That is literally the only thing stopping me immediately making a custom set with them.

Thanks for doing this.
 
Mexican Rose is a better hot pink than Hot Pink! The want is real.

Also, it always kills me seeing how weak the CPC yellow color-options are. That is literally the only thing stopping me immediately making a custom set with them.

Thanks for doing this.
I have the same thought. Blues lack a bit of vibrancy as well, but the yellows are the real weak spot.
 
Is there any reason CPC can't get that type of vibrancy out of their chips? Is it a clay composition issue or does the dye simply cost too much? Not sure...
 
I really only know this from painting, but some colors are harder to work with than others due to the mediums for the pigments. In certain paint mediums for instance reds have a tendency to be really thin. My assumption is that this is part of the reason that yellow is so hard for them to work with. If it was just a matter of 'these cost more' I'd for one gladly pay the dayglo or even the white premium for a bright, clear, true yellow.
 
Is there any reason CPC can't get that type of vibrancy out of their chips? Is it a clay composition issue or does the dye simply cost too much? Not sure...
The process of mixing the dye with clay and pressing it causes the color to die out. Paulson presses their chips with less pressure and uses a different clay formula which makes the colors brighter. They also have a lot more money to spend on developing new ones, which is why they have almost 90 colors and counting, whereas CPC only has 38.
 
Mexican Rose is a better hot pink than Hot Pink! The want is real.

Also, it always kills me seeing how weak the CPC yellow color-options are. That is literally the only thing stopping me immediately making a custom set with them.

Thanks for doing this.
You should check for a set like Colony Club....before you call these colors weak....

1610130032340.png
..
 
You should check for a set like Colony Club....before you call these colors weak....

View attachment 610379..

He only said the yellows were weak, and that set doesn't have any yellows. :cool

true dat...missed the yellow, my bad

No worries! That post was also back in October and I believe I recently read (from @RainmanTrail?) that DG Yellow or a different yellow has looked better/different in recent batches from CPC. Not to mention, there are sets I have seen since that post that make the yellow work really well (Bicycle Shack probably has my favorite CPC yellow).

The set you linked is stunning; looking forward to more pron from it. (Edit - Found the thread!)
 
Last edited:
You should check for a set like Colony Club....before you call these colors weak....

View attachment 610379..
I wouldn't say they are weak... if you spend some time to design chips with a nice contrast of colors you can certainly get a great looking set, but you can't deny that CPC colors/options are inferior to Paulson, particularly yellows, blues, & pinks. I suppose we should be thankful that we even have an avenue for custom clay chips in the first place, but you can't fault people for wanting some more variety and vibrancy in the color choices. I know plenty of people would jump at the chance to pay more per chip if that were the case.

It would be awesome if there were some sort of "breakthrough" in the way of china clays where we could get much brighter colors. There has already been a noticeable difference between Majestics & Royals in just a few years time. If we could ever get to the point of having Paulson-like colors in china clays, I could see spending $0.80+ per for that type of chip.
 
Yeah, I've been looking at cali color stuff where you really need a strong yellow, and some of the custom CPC sets really utilize that yellow well.
 
That post was also back in October and I believe I recently read (from @RainmanTrail?) that DG Yellow or a different yellow has looked better/different in recent batches from CPC.
I have to disagree with @RainmanTrail on that point. In the recent sets I've seen, DG yellow still looks bad. Canary looks better though, based on @Toby's awesome Emerald City customs, which has inspired me to get a set on Diasqr next time it comes around.

Color has never been my main hangup on CPCs to be honest. It's always been the fuzzy and imperfect edges that the chips had. Diasqr seems to be much better with that problem though, so I'm hoping my set will end up looking good.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account and join our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Back
Top Bottom