The color factory: From craft projects to exotic dancers

Tag : Pigment Fabric


Jones Tones at Pueblo Airport Industrial Park manufactures craftpaint as well as being a supplier of crafting products, includingglitter glue, foil paper and iron-on decals.

The company started doing business 20 years ago in California afterowner Susan Jones says she got mad at a paint creator who washelping her create new paints in his garage.

When Jones found a distributor for the man and asked him to workfaster to create more paint, he "called her stupid," she said, andtold her she didn't understand what it took to make paint. She saidshe went home that day determined to prove him wrong.

"I'll show him," Jones said she grumbled to herself, "Tomorrowmorning, I'll have a paint company." However, it took her anotheryear of testing before she finally created Jones Tones paints. Thecompany moved to Pueblo 12 years ago, losing almost half of itssales in the move, Jones said.

She said it was a struggle to get sales going again and let thepublic know the company was here.

One way the company is trying to stay in the public eye is byoffering classes on how to use Jones Tones products. The classeswill be taught by artist Crystal Carkhuff, who has tested newproducts for Jones Tones fthe past eight years, and will includebasic fabric painting, candle painting and how to embellishpreprinted clothing designs.

Carkhuff calls Jones Tones "Pueblo's best kept secret."

THE COMPANY'S best-selling product is foil paper, which Jones Tonesbuys from another distributor. The foil has many uses, according toCarkhuff, though the most common is to make fishing lures.

The company's puff paint, which expands when it is heated, hasfound its way onto both large and small stages, Carkhuff said.

The most unique buyers of the paint are exotic dancers who use itto decorate their bodies, Carkhuff said, although she doesn'trecommend using the paints directly on the skin.

Various Hollywood studios purchase the paint in 50-gallon drums formonster costumes and movie sets. Competitors at the Olympic Gamesand performers with Cirque du Soleil also use the paint to createcostumes, Carkhuff said.

Jones Tones sells smaller bottles of paint and other craftingproducts for artists and crafters. Its products are sold at thecompany as well as Hobby Lobby and Creative Expressions by Jess onU.S. 50 West, according to Carkhuff.

Celebrations of Australia in Melbourne is the largest distributorof the company's craft paints, which has brought in enough moneyfor the company to allow Carkhuff to host the art classes.

SINCE JONES TONES opened, chemist Jose Espinoza has been employedto create the company's unique paints, according to Carkhuff.

She said the paints are a mix of water, polymer base and colorpigment and do not create an overpowering smell.

The paint Espinoza creates in his fully-equipped laboratory insidethe factory can be made and shipped quickly. A 50-gallon drum canbe on its way to the customer in as little as one day, Espinozasaid.

The Christmas season is the busiest time of the year for JonesTones because people are buying a lot of crafting products to makegifts, especially when money is tight, Jones said.

During Christmastime, the factory operates two assembly lines withas many as 20 employees who bottle and ship the paints. Currently,the company is in its slow season and only has three employeesoperating one line.

PUEBLO IS very different from Jones' starting point of Palm Desert,Calif., she said. Pueblo has a much slower pace than Jones is usedto, she said, almost like the city is caught in a time warp. InSouthern California, she said, everyone moves and gets things done.

"Here, it's like the cowboy boots are stuck in cement," Jones said.

For Jones, the most difficult thing about being in Pueblo isfinding people who are willing to work, she said. And when she isable to find people, she said most just want to show up from 8 a.m.to 5 p.m. They don't want to become part of the team.