Gold Polymer Clay as a Base for Mixing Custom Colors
Vid #20: How To Make a Bunch Of Mismatched Clay Colors Look Great Together:
Gold polymer clay is a great base color to use for mixing up custom colors that look great beside each other. It's similar to mixing paint where the varying shades in a particular collection, all "work" nicely together because they all share a common base color.
So with polymer clay, if you have a bunch of different colors that don't quite go together (or even if they clash) you can mix portions of the mismatched colors with your gold base clay. What you'll end up with is a beautiful range of shades that all look like they were meant to be together. Don't forget to write down your mix details in a recipe format for future reference.
This mixing technique will work with any neutral colored polymer clay such as white, black, grey, beige, pearl, silver, and of course gold.
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The full version of the "Making Colors Work Together" preview video shown above, is included in my Polymer Clay Bead Making Fundamentals Course [SEE Video #16 of 39]. Getting a group of somewhat mismatched colors to flow together is quite easy when you add a little of the same color to each. In this video you can see how I mix gold into a group of bright colors to get a shimmery batch of fall shades.
Filed Under: 08: Color Theory by Comment. 
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Comments on Gold Polymer Clay as a Base for Mixing Custom Colors
2:49 pm
You can get a similar effect by mixing any color to each of the polymer clay colors you happen to be working with. Pearl and silver work very similar to gold, so give them a try too.
Remember that any three primary colors will give you a brown, so adding a red to a green may become muddy depending on the amounts added.
Cindy Lietz's last blog post..Polymer Clay Lentil Beads – Making Them Can Be Very Addictive!
3:29 pm
Of all the books I've bought and read on pc, NONE of them gave this helpful hint! Woohoo..way to go Cindy!!!
5:22 pm
Thanks Pepper! Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best ideas!
Cindy Lietz's last blog post..A Polymer Clay How To Tip for Making Beads Using White Fimo Clay
8:41 pm
Hi Cindy, I am working with cured sculpey and am trying to use pens/markers to add detail. I am using Painty pens and they bleed and I'm not happy with them. What type of pens do you recommend to color/paint on cured clay?
6:31 pm
Thanks for your question Paula!
I have used gel pens before but it can be tricky to get them to write on the clay. Metallic pens work, as well as permanent pens like Sharpie.
Hope that helps!
12:47 am
This tip is fantastic! I purchased a couple of Fimo multiple color packs that were on clearance sale. I found there were colors in the package that I normally wouldn't use straight out of the package, such as a bright magenta and a bright green. However, when I mixed those colors 4:1 with copper, I got a lovely deep rose color as well as an olive green color that went perfectly with the rose color! I had to keep experimenting, so I ended up with several nice colors that go well together. Thank you!!
7:23 pm
That is fantastic Karen! I am so glad you liked the idea. Copper is such a nice rich color, I bet your colors turned out great! Thanks for the comment!