Vid #016: 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.
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!
Of all the books I’ve bought and read on pc, NONE of them gave this helpful hint! Woohoo..way to go Cindy!!!
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
Just wanted to say that I love Blue… it is a great color for beads and for nature. Besides flowers you can use blue for “food” beads (ie: blueberries, use with transparent clay to make jello beads with inclusions, use with white clay to make blue cheese, etc…)
I just wanted to let you know I have now been able to access the videos and recipe cards I signed up for. Thanks for your help with that.
Also, I see on some of your recipes that you had used Kato clay. I purchased some recently from an on-line retailer and it was so dried out and crumbly I had to work with it over a garbage can. I wonder if you have had this experience with Kato clay. It bakes beautiful and produces a nice product, but I don’t know if I have the patience to go through the conditioning necessary when it crumbles so badly.
Anyway, I wondered if you have had that experience with Kato clay.
I’m enjoying your web site and watching your videos. I’m excited about trying your ideas and mixing your recipes. Color mixing is not something I’m especially good at so it’s really helpful to me to have access to color recipes.
Best regards,
Deborah
So glad you are enjoying the member videos and recipes, Deborah.
In regards to Kato Clay, I personally have not run into the problem you described, but I’ve heard that others have. The upside to a hard crumbly clay is that once you do get it conditioned, it works great for canes.
To make the conditioning easier, you may consider using an old food processor. You can type “food processor” into the search box at the top of the page to discover other articles and videos specifically about polymer clay food processor techniques.
Hope that helps. If you still need help don’t hesitate to ask!
Cindy, Do you plan on doing any more recipes for kato clay? Thanks, Debbi
Hi Debbi,
My plan is to do more with Kato Clay. But I just have not gotten around to placing an order.
SIDE NOTE: When you are commenting on other posts here at the blog, feel free to mention that you would like more information and recipes for the Kato Clay Brand of polymer clay. That way, others will hopefully pipe up and say something as well.
I treat these comments kind of like votes. If enough people ask for something… then I put more energy into publishing videos/recipes/articles about that topic.
So if there is interest from others about Kato Clay, let me know….
Hi Cindy.
I’m using Kato clay because I have to cure items a number of times and it doesn’t color-shift and holds shape well.
But crumbly! And hard! I didn’t realize the food processor would help and I’ll try it. Is it possible to use mix-quick by fimo in it? I’ve used the liquid Kato to soften, but it’s sticky.
I’d like to stick with one brand of clay, so anything on Kato clay would help. (PS the supplier tells me the makers are working on crumbling/hardness problem, by the way.)
Hi LL Jones – I haven’t had problems with color shifts with Premo but then again I’m not trying to match the clay to glass beads, like you might be. I can also bake the Premo as many times as I want and have found it holds its shape pretty good, so I haven’t found the need to switch brands yet.
I haven’t really worked with Kato, so I am not positive whether the Fimo Mix Quick will work with it or not. I have mixed it into Fimo, Premo and Sculpey and it works great, so I suspect it will work with Kato too. But I would definitely test it first.
I’m glad to hear they are working on the crumbling problem because that sort of thing can be very frustrating for a beginner. They often think they have done something wrong and give up trying.
I do hope to start working with Kato soon, so I can be more helpful to those of you who love working with it. Thanks for commenting!
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 paint do you recommend to color/paint on cured clay?
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!
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!!
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!
I have bought some premo sculpey clay and am trying to get it to hold together so I can roll it but all it will do is crumble and not stay together. Is there anything I can do to stop this or is there such a thing that it old clay and never will stay together. I am very frustrated.
One other question is Fimo *Effect* is it to be used only for effect or can you use and bake it like all the other clays and is it as strong. As you can see I am new at this and have bought your videos and you make it look so easy right out of the package.
Please I do need some help
Thanks Barb
Hi Barb,
For the first question, type “Soften Polymer Clay” into the search box to get some good info about that.
And then do a separate search for Fimo Effect… the search box is at the top of every page here at the blog. I have discussed it in other articles. And often these topics are mentioned in the comments section following the articles as well.
If you don’t get adequate answers after doing a search, simply post a follow up question in the comments section of any article here at the blog. Someone will respond.
Talk soon,
Cindy