1-A: Elegance
2-A: Grace
3-A: Sophistication
4-A: Class
There is something so elegant and classy about this delicate Columbine flower! The photo inspired me to give this palette, and the colors in it, names that reflected that elegance.
The soft smoky purple, the gray petal tips and the rich vintage greens, remind me of a glamorous ‘Old Hollywood’ evening gown worn by a sophisticated actress in the 1940’s.
This little beauty was growing between a crack between our sidewalk and the raised garden bed. It is another hybrid flower, created by the bees in our garden… like the Double Pink Columbine from the Vol-081 Columbine Bud A Series Palette. But this one turned a soft purple and gray with no where near as many petals. Makes me wonder how many different colors of Columbines I will end up with if we stay here a few more years!
Any way… I do hope you enjoy this lovely photo that Doug snapped, and the palette it inspired for this Vol-086-A Series color palette, chosen for the month of July 2015. May you feel the elegance too, as you mix up these beautiful colors! 
The following Vol-086 A-series Elegance Palette will be added to the Polymer Clay Members Library at the beginning of July 2015:
- Elegance (Recipe 086-1A)
- Grace (Recipe 086-2A)
- Sophistication (Recipe 086-3A)
- Class (Recipe 086-4A)
[wp_ad_camp_1] … Elegance is the soft smoky purple of an Old Hollywood Gown and the color found near the base of these delicate petals. Grace is the soft gray with a hint of purple, found on the outer edges of this Columbine flower. Sophistication is dusky yellow green, found in the stamens of this lovely blossom. And Class is a dark classic green found rimming the edges of the stamens and grounding the palette giving it class and sophistication.
I’m just beginning to experiment with mixing colors, so the recipe cards come in really handy. Keep up the fantastic work! ~June-W
Cindy, thanks to you I have become so much more aware of my color blending sheets. I never paid much attention to color until I got involved with polymer clay and mixed all of the color receipes you made available to us. I learned so much from this and I urge everyone to take some time and mix up some of these receipes Cindy has given us. You will end up with a lot less mud! ~DixieAnn-S
I love these colors, how you put so much effort into them, making them so accurate. Sometimes I don’t have all the required colors so I am able to substitute and come pretty close. This really saves alot of time, and no weird heap poo colored clay at the end which you aren’t able to do nothing much with. ~Shirley-L
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Order Page for Color Recipe and Video Back Issue Packages
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Cindy,
I love your colours and palettes; I have a document on my computer where I save all of the recipes that I find for polymer clay, and yours play a prominent part! :)
My question is, *how much clay* do you mix at a time when you are testing new recipes? I have watched your videos on mixing colours, such as the one on using a square cutter so that you can easily make quarters, eighths, 16ths, etc; and the one on taking several colours and adding one colour to them all to make a palette out of seemingly diverse colours. I have also noticed your comments from time to time (such as the Ladybug palette) about how you had to have a few attempts before you got the colour right. I realize that you have a lot of experience at getting the recipes right a lot quicker than most of us, your Groupies, are able to do, but I’m hoping that you might be able to give us some pointers about:
* maybe start with “this much” of the colour that you think will be the main ingredient
* how to tell when the colour just isn’t going to make it, so start again rather than continuing to add to this batch
* do you judge the colour match raw or only after baking a swatch?
I hope that this makes sense. Sometimes what I am trying to say is crystal clear to me and mud to others! :)
Hi Doreen, I am so glad that you are enjoying the color recipes! As far as the color mixing process goes for me, I mix colors mostly by instinct. Usually when I look at a color I can pretty much tell what colors of clay that it will take to match the color. Most of the time my sample chips use up little more than a teaspoon of clay. I use a little 1/4 square cutter and start with the colors and amounts I think it will take to nail it. Then I keep adding until the color is right.
Some of the browns are very complex and it is harder to see the base colors. Sometimes I will take a stab at it and then start tweaking. If the mix just isn’t getting there no matter what I add to it, by the time it is a tablespoon or so large, I will bail and start again, with a different base.
As far as teaching that skill… that is difficult… most people don’t see those base colors instinctively. But if you keep mixing the recipes I give you. Look at the pictures and then at the recipes… watch the color mixing videos that I do… it will start to seep into your eyeballs and brain… and it will start becoming instinct for you too. Have fun!
I agree, Cindy! Looking at a color and trying to “see” what colors make up that particular color is difficult but can be learned – with time and patience.
picked a color of paint for our living room and as my hubby started to paint it on the walls I knew it was too “red”! The “color” was a neutral, beige/brown but on the “warm” side. Meaning it has too much red in it. He couldn’t “see” the red cast at all! He though I was crazy!! It has taken me two years to get use to it since it was not what I wanted.
You have to take into consideration the light source in which the color will be viewed in as well. The morning sun is different in the afternoon. I like the paint color in the morning rather than in the evening.
I think all the color mixing I have been doing with your recipies have helped a lot! I am way behind but love the them!
But, I think to match the colors to your photos must be quite challenging. My hat is off to you on that!
You are right Catalina about the light source affecting the colors, that is why I only use the OttLite to mix colors under so I know I am getting the color I expect. At the very beginning I did not have this light and would walk around the house looking at the chips in different settings. It drove me crazy how different the colors would look in different light (especially the browns, since they are usually so complex.) Now with consistent light I know the colors will be right. Thank you for your sweet comments!
Cindy,
Thanks – this is exactly the type of information I was looking for. Sometimes I have found myself ending up with a bigger and bigger and bigger lump of clay, trying to get the colour right. :) I’m glad to hear that even you find sometimes that you need to go, okay, nice colour but not what I was looking for. Time to start again.
Yes, deciding on the base colour and what to add is tricky. I am used to acrylic artist paints, and even there I struggle sometimes. Heck, who am I kidding; “sometimes”? Try OFTEN.
I use the recipe card system, with a coding system that I developed based on Carolyn Good’s system (2 Good Clay Mates).
I plan to start creating chips of each colour recipe that you send us as they come in. To this point I have been waiting until I want to use a colour, but I am hoping that actually seeing the colour come together from the ingredient colours might help me to start understanding more accurately what colours I need to use to get to a result.
However, me being the faintly OCD type that I am {did you know that the term should actually be CDO – alphabet order, you know! :) }, I have now decided, looking at all the luscious palettes, to make a couple of changes to how I use the recipe cards. I am going to make 3 chips of each colour that I make from a recipe, mine or someone else’s. How am I going to use them?
#1 will get glued to the recipe card, as I do now.
#2 will go on a palette card (a Little Becka card, for example), so that I can pull a card at random if I am having problems deciding on what colours to use. Sometimes a group grabs my attention more than a single colour.
#3 will get my colour code written on the back of the chip, and then … just throw it in a box. Then when I am having a block, I am going to rattle the box, look in, and see if any chips that are close to each other grab my attention. If that doesn’t work, I’m going to try closing my eyes and pulling out two or three chips at random, and see if that stirs any ideas. With the code on each chip, I can find the recipes easily, and go from there.
So many possibilities, so little time. ….
That sounds like a great little system you have figured out for yourself Doreen! There are going to be some changes coming up in regards to the color recipes so do make sure you are downloading the ones you have right now, so you don’t lose access to them. The new system is going to be wonderful so stay tuned for that!
i love this palette; so romantic. The flower is so delicate and the color so dreamy seems like a dress for a fairy!
Yes I agree Cheryl! Wouldn’t that fairy dress look lovely if it were designed exactly in that columbine flower shape too? I can just picture it now! :)
Already have some ideas for a necklace!
I always anticipate your new color receipes each month and this one is no exception. The Lavenders are so lovely and the flower is so elegant and brings a wash of peace and tranquility over ones being. Thank you so much Cindy for a lovely palette This next month.
What a lovely description, Dixie Ann.
I agree with Doreen! Your description was lovely Dixie Ann!
Cindy,
I guess I screwed up,
I didn’t realize that the recipes for the B colors was only shown in the email for a week. I have been w newsletter subscriber since 8/1/2014. I had been archiveing the emails since then and figured when I figured out how I was going to store the color recipes, I would go to the emails and download them and add them to the color storage system. Spent all evening accessing the paid ones for the back issues I purchased and then started on the B recipes I thought were in my email, Is there any way I could get you to email me the cards since 8/1/2014.
Thanks
Beth
Hi Beth… for the complimentary B-recipes in the weekly newsletters… currently you must download those to your computer when our emails arrive in your inbox each Friday. The download links do expire after a couple of weeks, so you need to be diligent about grabbing them while they are available.
Several other members had just recently been asking about purchasing sets of older B-recipes in bulk. Doug was helping them with their orders over at this comment thread.
Can’t believe July is just around the corner. As usual, I wait, impatiently for the First Friday!! Always love to see a new tutorial and scrumptious color palette~ This one is so feminine and anything remotely PURPLE is my cup of tea!!!
The Colombine has lovely hues
Pollinated by the bees
So elegant and graceful
Swaying in the breeze.
We can replicate these colors
With Cindy by our side
Just follow her wonderful recipes
She’s such a clever guide.
Doug’s camera work is so sublime
Perfect with every shot
Meticulously detailed
He really hits the spot.
These beautiful flowers can now live on
Their petals will not decline
For ever, captured, never to fade
Caught in a moment of time.
So we thank you Doug and Cindy
You both work so very hard
To create these little works of Art
That nature has inspired.
You could both dress-up
as “Ginger & Fred”
Doug in tails and Top Hat
Cindy in floaty ballgown
Well what do you think of that?
Put on some romantic music
Dance in your own back yard
Tripping the “Light Fantastic”
(But you might scare the neighbourhood cat)
Don’t ‘spect that would be too hard.
Most charming, delightful and inspiring poem Elaine! Thank you for your wonderful words!
Hi, Cindy and Doug, I was looking for the email with the Vol 86-A color recipes. Mine only had the Vol 86-B1. Are we going to have to wait till Oct for Vol 86-A? Just don’t want to miss any.
Hi Catalina, there are going to be some changes as to how the color recipes will be going out with the new site. See Doug’s comment from the other day, in this thread. We are completely revamping the recipes too… new printable format with pictures and new cards…. updated recipes… all around a prettier and more usable format. But it will be separate from the tutorials… separate pricing too. There will no longer be an A-series and a B-series after Vol-086… but we will probably still give out some free recipes in the Friday newsletter.
The Video Transcript PDF’s will be replacing the A-series recipes that came with the tutorials before.
Doug and I have put a lot of thought into how best to make all of these new changes moving forward, putting as many people’s best interest in mind as possible. There will be some that won’t like the change, there always is, but we feel that so many of you will love it so much better, that it will far out way the negative ones. You should make sure to download and copy all of your A recipes now, because when the new site launches, they will no longer be there. We hope you love the changes coming your way!
Like Catalina, I also was looking for the 086-A Elegance Palette. When will we see that one come?
Hi Christine… That Elegance Palette will be available at a later date as part of our new color recipe series. Still working out all the details on how this will all play out. So… at this point, you just have to wait-and-see.
I wanted to share a cool new app for color mixing and polymer clay. It was developed by Nancy Ulrich and info was posted to one of my Facebook groups. I thought I would share with everyone here. It is another cool addition to the color mixing tools that have become available.
I have no connection to this app. I just thought it was cool and thought maybe you would like to give it a look Cindy.
Hi Beth, I just found out about that myself. Did download it but it froze after trying it out for a few minutes and I have not been able to open it since. When they fix the issues with it, I can give it a proper look.