Thermochromic pigment tests

I painted a few swatches using the thermochromic pigment with a transparent acrylic medium. It doesn’t change from simple body heat, at least not for quite some time (I wore it around the house next to my body for a while).

In this video, I’ve just blown on it, and while it disappears quickly (insert jokes about me being full of hot air), it also reappears quickly, starting before I can even put it down to take the video. Then you’ll see that you have to rub it pretty vigorously to create enough heat for the change:

But then I plugged in the heater I intend to use and tried that. The change was a little slower than expected–I think I need a layer of fabric that heats up quickly. Any thoughts on what absorbs heat well? Something dark and…? I’m undecided on whether natural fibers or something manmade would work better! Might have to do a few experiments with that.

But on top of that, the reverting back doesn’t happen nearly as fast, even once I remove it from the heat source. Maybe I’ll just have to stand near an air conditioning vent? I unplugged the heater near the beginning of this video: