1-A: Elderberry Wine
2-A: Vintage Peach
3-A: Blue Dusk
4–A: Columbine Bud
When Doug gave me this photo for the Vol-081 A-series color recipe palette, I had a hard time figuring out the flower. I kept thinking that it looks like a Columbine… but then got hung up on it’s petals and leaves. They seemed to be too fuzzy… like you see on house plants such as an African Violet.
So I called Doug up on my cell (his office is downstairs on the other side of the house, so we often call each other on the phone to communicate), and I asked him, “What plant is this photo from? It looks like a columbine but is fuzzy like a tropical houseplant.” He said he had photos of the some of the open flowers from the same photo shoot, if I wanted to take a look at them.
Well sure enough it was a Columbine! I had never seen a macro photo of one, so those tiny hairs were never visible to me… especially before getting my new glasses at the end of December.
One thing that is cool about this particular Columbine, is that it was Bee-Made… that’s my way of saying that the bees created this hybrid by cross-pollinating the Dark Blue Columbines (which I had planted in our garden myself), with the White Columbines that mysteriously arrived on their own one year. This created some stunning pink Columbines.
Another cool thing is that this hybrid Columbine developed with multi-petals. The White Columbine flowers actually had single petals, which means that around the head, there is only a single row of petals. Most wild columbines tend to be of the Single variety. My Dark Blue (almost black really) Columbine, on the other hand, was a Double, with two rows of petals.
Well… this new Bee-Made hybrid had a Gazzillion rows of petals (too many to count).
Any who… when this little beauty is closed, it has lovely Elderberry Wine colored edges, that bleed into a Vintage Peach color with a base of Yellow Green. Just the perfect combination for a new Spring 2015 Color Palette… don’t ya think?
I do hope you enjoy this Vol-081-A Series color palette chosen for the Valentines month of February 2015. 
The following Vol-081 A-series Falling Color Palette will be added to the Polymer Clay Members Library at the beginning of February 2015:
- Elderberry Wine (Recipe 081-1A)
- Vintage Peach (Recipe 081-2A)
- Blue Dusk (Recipe 081-3A)
- Columbine Bud (Recipe 081-4A)
[wp_ad_camp_1] … Elderberry Wine is the gorgeous purple berry color found on the petal edges and the little pointy tendrils of this Columbine Hybrid created by the bees in my garden. Vintage Peach is the dusty peach color that the purple fades to, as it mixes and blends with the green of the unopened bud. Dusk Blue is the almost old fashioned teal blue of the background of this photo. And Columbine Bud is the yellow green color of the petals before they mature and fade to a pale almost white when the blossom opens fully.
Nature is so inspiring!! Color is everywhere – Cindy you teach us how to “LOOK”. Thanks for all your hard work!!!!!!! ~Patt-W
I love it when you interject so that we can actually see what you are telling us about. The color palette is so artistictly wonderful but the lesson that goes with it just seems to bring it all together. Cindy and Doug you have such a way of wetting our appetite! ~DixieAnn-S
What beautiful photos. I appreciate your color recipes for so much more than just mixing new clay colors… I struggle with color in every aspect it can be used!!!!!! From painting my walls to designing new pieces of jewelry and everything in between!!! I just wanted to say Thank You for these color recipes (I call them COLOR RESCUES). Currently I am working on a jewelry piece, as part of a design challenge, and your color recipe gave me the fourth color I was struggling to add for some dimension!!!! Thanks AGAIN for all the great information you and your family provide all of us for such an AWESOME PRICE!!!! Anyone on the fence about signing up for the membership ~ This site is about ALOT MORE than polymer clay and they don’t really know what they are missing!! ~Kelli-N
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What a beautiful color palette! And I truly enjoyed your story about it “beeing” bee made. We have been studying bees in school and they are truly fascinating! So will you call this flower the Lietz hybrid Columbine?
Thanks Maria! I’m not sure if the bees would like me taking credit for their work! LOL It is pretty fascinating though!
Beautiful Color Palette Cindy. You constantly expose us to natures colors that are so breath takingly beautiful and build that desire in us to want to create something from it! This is definitely one of those palettes. As I look forward to 2015 I am so grateful I can spend another year being able to collect these jewels of nature and build upon them with your exciting tutorials that are not only easy to accomplish but so inexpensive to purchase. Thank you.
Just put my first batch of faux Jasper cabochons in the oven.
Loved the Columbine Bud Palette. We had a double hybrid self- seed in one of the cracks between the paving slabs Too heavy for me to lift but my step-son managed to prise up the slab and saved it. Now it has it’s own plant pot and is thriving. It is golden yellow and all shades of pink (think the bees were busy cross pollenating again.)
My younger sister is helping to organise a street festival in her little town in North Wales. She is holding a drum workshop and there are to be all types of entertainment from fire-eaters to jugglers and all manner of things in between. To be held the second week in April.
I have a booth in the small craft section ( there is only room for ten tables). My brother will bring his jazz band and there are five or six other bands taking part As it is the first time for the little town everyone is getting involved.
The school children are busy making bunting, flags etc. So I will be super busy when I come back from my vacation. I am going to BALI in a few days time. My daughter has paid for a beautiful villa and we will be celebrating two birthdays there. My younger sister and my younger daughter were both born in January so are Aquarians, it looks like there will be plenty of party time. Better see if I can sand and polish my “stones” now, up to Cindy’s standard.
Thanks Cindy, I will be using a few of your faux techniques for my “Spring Collection”…cheers xx……..
Elaine,
Your sister’s street festival sounds like great fun! There’s nothing like participating with family and friends in creating and sharing – food, art [your work], music, entertainment. How splendid. When I was a kid and lived in the city we had “block parties.” Haven’t thought about them in years. I wish Wales were not too far for me to come for the weekend!
Yes, this palette is lovely, as are Doug’s pictures. (Isn’t he a great photographer – and videographer!)
I often read and appreciate your contributions; thank you so much for your thoughtful and inspiring words. In fact, your mention of the Jasper is now nudging me toward my workspace to finally get started on my own!
Fran
Hi Cindy,
Love these colors. Just in time for my newest project.
And yes i am still lurking in the background and checking in every once in awhile. Life, it seems, still has a few curves to throw in my direction. But in time we weather all things and begin moving forward once again. I just need to figure out when I get to go forward for awhile….LOL.
Hope all is well in your world.
Hugs Karonkay
Hi Karonkay, I’ve been hoping you were still around. I got so excited when I saw your very beautiful flowers and saw you are in Spokane. I would love to visit your studio sometime to see your flowers and share some of my humble tries.
Hope you are well,
Peg
Peg , you are so sweet. You are welcome to pop in anytime. A new clay buddy ,lol. Happy day. How fun that would be. I w ould love to see what you do as well. We will have to get together sometime soon.
Karon, I have been thinking of you a lot lately. Hope you are getting stronger and healthier with each day. (Maybe you could have Dave build a wall right behind you every time you take a step forward, so that it will be impossible to take any steps back? Of course he’ll need to keep moving the wall forward as you progress, but I think he’d be up for that) :)
Have fun together with Peg. I think you guys will be fast friends!
Cindy,
This is another great palette! Thank you. And, as I mentioned above to Elaine, Doug’s photos are
WONDERFUL.
I have a question about purple. I notice that this Premo color turns pretty dark when it is baked. Too bad, ’cause I love this particular color. Is there any way to counteract the darkening? Do mixed colors that contain the purple also get darker?
I have heard that perhaps mixing a little white with it might help. What do you think about that?
Fran
Hi Fran,
Thinking about your dark purple problem how about mixing a pearl white into the mix and doing a test sample of say 1 part pearl to six purple. Haven’t used this colour yet as still got purple in other brands to use up. Another idea is swap the pearl for silver. I have used silver in the past to lighten strong dark colours and it worked for me but cannot find my old notebook as never got round to putting my tests on computer!! Anyone else got the ratio for this? Thanks for your kind comments about my ramblings …….cheers..xx……..
Elaine,
Thanks for the suggestions. I am new to clay, and had no idea where to begin. I poked around on the internet, and found someone else who suggested Pearl & Silver, same as you, but at the ratio of 1:8.
Then I did some testing: Pearl, Silver, White, White Translucent, Translucent, and Ecru. I did them all at 1:6 and 1:8.
I think they need to be sanded to be sure, because baking seems to dull the finish and it is therefore hard to compare to the shiny unbaked clay.
But here’s what I think: Closest in color are the Pearl and believe it or not, the Ecru, both at 1:6, though the difference between that and 1:8 was subtle. The pearl adds a definite shine or glitter which I might not want in all cases. the white made it too light, which might suggest that a much smaller amount of white might also work.
This was great fun!
Fran