At Musicol, lots of records are pressed in various colors. All records start off as vinyl pellets that arrive at the shop in large bags. We sift these pellets through a special sifter and into buckets. These buckets are then set aside and covered, to prevent any other colors from accidentally mixing in. Each color has a different process for being made. Some solid colors are very simple, such as red, white, gold, clear, and blue. Other colors require us to mix 2 or more together. We use coffee cans as a form of measurement. I have made opaque orange using 2 cans of gold, ½ can of red, and a few handfuls of white. Purple is a similar process, using two scoops of red and 1/3 scoop of blue. To make it opaque, we will add a few handfuls of white. We repeat this process as necessary to fill however many buckets we need, stirring the colors together in between. Even our black vinyl requires some mixing. We have a large box in the back that gets filled with shipments of virgin black vinyl. We sift out 8 scoops of the virgin black and mix it with 3 scoops of our recycled black grounds made from record scraps. We recycle all of our vinyl that can’t be sent out, as well as any scraps left from when they are cut. Occasionally someone will request an order using these recycled grounds, and they can turn out to be very cool looking pressings. Here are a few photos of pressings that I mixed the colors for.

Opaque Orange Swirl

Sky Blue

Recycled “Trash Vinyl”