Kato Polyclay Color Recipes | Pansy Flower Spring Color Palette

I have some Kato clay stashed away and it must be feeling very lonely and neglected (lol) as I haven’t worked with it yet. I am feeling a little more comfortable with the Premo so a side trip with Kato will be an adventure.

You are so special to share these Pansy flower color recipes with us. The purple palette is one of my favorites. Thank you so much for sharing….and “all the best to you” as well.

Joyce M

I have some Kato and I don’t like it, to be honest. Whenever I try to condition it, it crumbles into tiny pieces and ends up all over the place, sticks to the underneath of my pasta machine and basically takes way too long to get to an even vaguely useable state. And my hands can’t cope with conditioning hard clays.

Maybe I’m just not doing it right? I dunno. It would take a lot to persuade me away from Premo now though.

@Joyce M, Lisa Whitham:

You’re welcome! :)

Cindy has published some really gorgeous colour palettes and individual colour recipes — and one or two where I thought “why would you make that colour on purpose”! ;P — and since I absolutely LOVE Kato and find its colours relatively easy to work with, I thought I’d share what I’d worked out with others like me who don’t really like Premo.

The pigments used in Kato and Premo respond differently to various lighting conditions so I can’t get a single formula that’s a perfect match under all types of lighting, but I check my conversions under halogen lighting, warm fluorescent lighting and daylight and make sure the formula I’ve given is extremely close (if not identical) under all. More to come soon!

@Silverleaf & Phaedrakat:

There are a few tricks to conditioning Kato, but by far the best is one I first saw suggested at Over The Rainbow, which was the first online seller I discovered in Australia that carried Kato (great range and excellent service there, by the way, for any of my fellow Aussies who haven’t already discovered it!). The original conditioning process is described here:

polymerclay.com.au/polymer-clay-kato-polyclay-c-21_446_493.html

I use a variation of that technique because I’m too lazy to do the acrylic roller stage and don’t find it necessary.

What I do is this:

1. Cut a slice from the block that’s just a bit thicker than the thickest setting on the pasta machine.
2. Feed it through the pasta machine at the thickest setting (#1 on mine).
3. WITHOUT FOLDING THE CLAY, set the pasta machine one setting thinner (e.g. #2 on mine), and feed the clay through again.
4. Repeat the “one setting thinner, feed it through again” process WITHOUT FOLDING THE CLAY until it’s getting quite thin. For really crumbly Kato I go down to setting #7 (out of 9), but for normally-firm Kato I only go down to setting #5 (out of 9).
5. At that stage, fold once and feed through the pasta machine at that thin setting a few times.
6. After a few folded passes through that thin setting, back the machine off a couple of settings, fold and feed a few times, then back off again until you get to a medium thickness (e.g. #3 on my machine) where you can finish the conditioning process. For example, for really crumbly Kato that I’d started folding at #7, I’d back off to #5 for a bit, and then back off again to #3 to finish the conditioning; for normally-firm Kato that I’d started folding at #5, I back off once to #3 and condition there.

That really avoids the crumbles. I have some large blocks of quite old Kato that are extremely crumbley, enough to bother even me before I discovered that trick (I used to psyche myself up to condition a heap of it at a time using the “beat the stuffing out of it with a mallet” Jana-Whack method), but even it conditions nicely using the above technique with minimal time and effort.

Thank you Sue, I tried it and it helped a fair bit, although it still crumbled quite a lot it was much better. After about a million times through the machine it’s still breaking when I fold it though. I’m giving up!

Guess I just don’t have enough patience! ;)

A few drops of Sculpey Clay Softener – or even a few drops of baby oil – have helped me when I’ve tried to condition that crumbly Kato.

@Peggy Barnes:

That’s actually horrifying news for THIS Kato lover! LOL

If they can make it easier to condition without it being ANY softer in the conditioned state that would be OK for me. I’m probably in the minority (as usual!), but the current (old) Kato conditioned consistency is perfect for me, and I don’t mind in the slightest the time it takes to condition since I discovered the above approach for avoiding crumbles. I really, really, really don’t want to work with clay that’s noticeably software than current Kato. If the new Kato starts approaching Premo in softness, for example… well, I might give up polymer clay and go play with something else — after buying up all the old Kato I can get my hands on! ;D — because I find Premo’s softness extremely annoying.

I guess I should wait and see what the new formula is like before freaking out though… ;)

Anyway, you’re welcome for the recipes. Another palette’s coming up soon!

Firstly I would like to thank Sue for so generously supplying her recipes. Even though I don’t use Kato, since the subject of crumbling clay came up and I recently had a problem with the clay crumbling, I thought I would post what happened in case anyone has any advice for me. I use Cernit which is the only brand easily available from my local hobby shop. My house is not particularly warm so this past weekend I decided to warm the clay before conditioning by putting it on top of a piece of paper of the radiator. The result appears to be that the clay slightly “cured” and so became impossible to use and just kept crumbling whenever I tried to roll it together. Needless to say I didn’t do this again!
The other strange thing that happened was after having kneeded some clay into a rather soft ball using my hands, the clay began to show signs of crumbling and cracking after I folded it and put it through the pasta machine. In fact the more times I put the clay through the pasta machine the more crackled along the edges and crumbly on the fold it became. I even tried adding a small quantity of baby oil. I was wondering if this could be happening because the metal rollers of my pasta machine are just too cold!! Has anyone else had this problem or is it just me?

Thanks for the great interaction here guys… excellent info!

I have debated back and forth whether or not to introduce Kato Clay here at the blog and in my tutorials, since I know that there are definitely benefits to using such a firm clay. ie. better definition in caning, less fingerprints, etc. But up until now have had a few concerns about how the beginner would feel about conditioning it and decided to hold off on it for now. Who knows, if they change the formula a bit and make it more readily available, I may change my mind about that.

Premo is an excellent clay that is easy to find and easy to condition. I am very pleased with it. Most of what I have taught you, will work with either brand and for those that prefer Kato you are welcome to substitute it for the Premo.

I am very grateful to Sue Fisher for offering to convert some of the recipes and am pleased that you Kato fans are able to benefit for her generosity. Thanks again Sue!

@Susan B

I haven’t heard of clay becoming MORE cracked with more passes through the pasta machine, but it sounds very frustrating. I’m sorry I don’t have any suggestions.

But for warming up cold clay, what I usually do in winter here is tuck a packet or two down my clothing for a while, or hold them in armpits if I’m in a bit more of a hurry. It works well, even if it looks really weird!

I have not tried this yet because I have not had a crumbling problem yet. But if you can find Quick Mix and use a little in the clay as you condition it that may help. (Quick Mix was used in Fimo when it first came where I was at that time(N.C.) it was to soften the clay ) It was a hard to condition clay. It used to have numbers on the back of the clay pkg. that used to tell you when the clay was made,(year) they changed that too. It came in handy so you knew how old your clay was and how hard it was going to be to condition. @ Susan B. don’t throw that baked clay away that was cooked by the radiator- use it for an inclusion in your other clay. As long as you do not have to cut slices from it cuz it probably smear when you cut thru it. May be Faux Pebbles or something. Hope this helped.

I prefer Premo clay to any other, but I do have a supply of Kato which I seldom use because of conditioning issues. I used the rubber mallet method, but was too tired to work with it by the time I conditioned enough clay. The next day, the clay needed to be reconditioned. I finally decided to try an old food processor with Kato & can say that it does the job. I run it thru the food processor til it’s warm but still in small bits. I dump out the bits & roll them out into a pancake. I run the pancake thru the pasta machine until it’s smooth & pliable which doesn’t take all that long. I’ve found that Kato conditioned that way stays conditioned for a much longer time. I still prefer to work with Premo, but now will try Kato for more complicated canes.

Sue, I’d be afraid it would ruin the blades. I just tried grating some cured Premo using a microplane grater & it grated easily. I put some Kato in the oven a few minutes ago & will give it an ice water bath & then try grating it with the microplane. Did you use a microplane or a rasp?

Face the fear! KATO is an amazing polymer clay! Give it a try, your fears are unfounded.

Sue, I just read your last comment & you’re right in that it does generate a lot of static elec. I did bake a pretty small sample to try – about a gtr inch thick, but I didn’t bake that long or at that high a temp. If you just want it as an inclusion, why not use Premo, or bake it at a lower temp for less time? I want to try some faux jade & may want to include some baked clay then.

@ Susan type in Fimo Quick Mix and search the internet for it, if your store does not carry it.Do you have a Jerry’s Artarama where you live, they carry it. They do here in Tennessee. I think you already know to use a grater for your cooked clay for an inclusion. I seen a new grater @ Walmart for $6.50 it was hand held with a knob on the top that fits comfortably in your hand . You would just have to see it to know what I mean. I one time seen a foodprocesser at a second hand store and bought that for my clay to chop it up when it was to hard to do by hand. Your welcome for the suggestions, just want to help.

I stock, and have used, Quck Mix and it certainly helps when your Kato gets crumbly.
Kato is wonderful – for me it is such a superior clay. What you see is what you get: the colours don’t change, the gleam of the clay raw is the gleam you get on the clay when finished, it is strong, it doesn’t move when making canes. And with one or two basic colours you can mix so many.
Incidentally, when you are grating your cooked Kato, have you tried putting it in warm water first? Warming any cooked clay makes it more pliable.
Incidentally at the Sandra McCaw workshop last month there was discussion about how the texture of Fimo Classic was harder in the US than it was in the UK – suggesting that the formulation might be different. It was suggested, too, that that might be the case with Kato too, but the other way round i.e Kato is firmer in UK than in US.

Certainly wacking Kato with a rubber hammer works – preferably on a stone floor (Donna Kato had her mallet with her when she was in the UK last year). My experience is that ‘bashing’ it is actually very therapeutic as well as effective.

And there was also an anecdote at the UK workshop about someone who drove their car over Kato clay to condition it!

Just thought I’d pop in and say hi. Great conversation going on here… keep it up!

I have plans for a pansy cane coming up in April so stay tuned for that!

Here in the UK fimo is the main brand that shops sell, it can be hard to get anything else. I used it happily for years but recently (having been reading this blog) I decided to try premo and also kato just so I would know what all the major brands are like.

I made a couple of canes (a spliced flower and a geometric tile cane based on jelly roll cane) using the same colours (as close as I could) from fimo soft, fimo classic, premo and kato clay. I then cut a slice as the cane was made and then one after it had rested (next day).

I couldn’t believe the results. The Kato cane slices look suberb and held their shape much better. The slices hardly deformed at all. The colours were much better in the kato, the cane kept it’s definition better, the white is whiter. It is a pain to condition and it isn’t as easy to work with but for caning I am now sold on Kato.

The thing that shocked me most, having given up fimo classic some years ago cause it was too difficult to condition, was how soft fimo classic was. I found it hard to tell the difference between the fimo soft and the fimo classic. I was expecting the fimo classic to be like the kato but no it was easy to conidtion and the cane distorted a lot in slicing, just like the fimo soft.

I will see if I can photogrpah them adequately to show you how I found the clays, but perhaps better still try out some different ones for yourself – you may be surprised.

@Rose: The Microplane grater looks amazing – I’ve never heard of one before, so I looked it up. It looks like a cool kitchen tool (and perfect for grating really hard polymer!)

@Penny & Cara: I’ve never tried Kato (but I’m going to remedy that today, by placing an order.) But I have used Fimo Classic, and it is much firmer than Fimo Soft (and Premo) here in the US. So, it sounds like “proof” of what the Staetler guy told you, Penny. That IS interesting! I wonder if the ‘reverse-Kato’ thing is true also. (In your comment you said it was suggested Kato is SOFTER in the US.) If that’s the case, I’ll think I will be happy with Kato — for caning. I like what you said about the “white” whites, too. But for everything else — Premo. I have so much (w/Phthalate) clay, that I’ll be using it for quite some time. Anyway, I like how you did your experiments, Cara, very thorough!

@Cindy L.: The pansy cane sounds like fun!

@Cara:

Great stuff Cara, thanks for that! It definitely appeals to the scientist in me. :)

@Cara: I’m always saying I have the head of a scientist and the heart of an artist.

Science degree here too, except I had never finished despite two attempts, due to illness. Zoology and genetics the first time, psychology the second.

@Cara:

Thanks for testing those different brands and for posting your results!

Kato white is actually whiter, i.e. it’s not JUST a result of it being firmer. When I’ve been converting Cindy’s Premo colour recipes to Kato, I’ve found that recipes with a very large proportion of Premo white need a small amount of brown in the Kato version to get a proper match.

Also, I used to think that particular Kato colours were firmer than others… when I started using Kato, the white always seemed to be quite malleable, and the black at the opposite end of the spectrum. But I’ve since bought extremely well-behaved black and ultra-crumbly white, and at the moment the second-crumbliest Kato I have is translucent which I would have expected theoretically to be the smoothest!

Sometimes I buy Kato from Fire Mountain Gems the US (who should turn over quite a lot, as well as being relatively close to the manufacturer), and sometimes I buy Kato from Over the Rainbow in Melbourne (Australia is a small market, and not exactly close by). I haven’t found any consistent patterns in Kato softness/crumbliness between the two. But I’ve seen speculation that Kato is likely more affected by storage conditions, e.g. during transit between manufacturer and retail outlet, than some other brands which might explain the variation a bit.

@Cara:

Sure. Here’s roughly how I go about converting Cindy’s recipes…

To start with, I use the original Premo recipes to make 28x41mm oval colour chips of each colour. I bake these flat on small tiles, and keep any leftover unbaked clay for later use.

Then I consider how close the original Premo colours were to Kato colours, to decide which of two approaches to take to making a Kato version. If the Premo ingredient colours are quite similar to Kato colours, I might start with the Premo recipe, substituting the closest Kato colour for each, and then adjusting as required (approach 1). However, more frequently I compare the cured Premo samples to my reference set of cured Kato colours, to get a starting point for the Kato conversion (approach 2).

While I CAN mix up any colour from scratch with no reference, using the reference set has a few advantages. Firstly, some colours (on both sides) shift a bit during curing, so I can compare cured sample to cured sample rather than having either one or both sides of the comparison uncured and therefore subject to change. Secondly, it gives me a nice formula to use as a starting point, which is easier than recording ALL the “bit of this, bit of that” additions that go into mixing an ad-hoc colour. And thirdly, it helps me minimise the number of adjustments necessary to get to the required colour.

My reference set of cured Kato colours consists of all of the colours from the Kato colour mixing chart that Shades of Clay have on their web site, plus all the colours I’ve mixed in a controlled manner in the past that were nice enough for me to want to reproduce later. You can find the Shades of Clay Kato colour mixing chart at the following address:

shadesofclay.com/more/Images/Colour%20Mixing%20Chart.jpg

My reference colours are kept as 28x41mm oval colour chips with their recipes written on labels on the back, and they’re strung in colour order on ball chain. They also include a set of greys ranging from almost black to almost white, which are useful when working out how much black and how much white to put into any desaturated colours that I’m trying to match.

So I use one of the two approaches outlined above to get a starting recipe, and then add whatever else seems to be necessary to get an exact match for the colour I’m trying to convert. I mostly use small or tiny cutters to minimise the amount of clay used. My aim during these recipe conversion stages is to end up with just over one sample chip’s worth of clay when I’ve mixed a particular recipe iteration up.

Once I have a “first attempt” Kato colour that I’m happy with, I bake a small sample flat on a tile. Comparing the baked sample to the leftover raw clay lets me judge any colour shifting, which helps me tune the further iterations of the recipe. For instance, if the baked colour is bluer than the raw sample, I know that when I’m mixing up my next version of the recipe, I should make sure the Premo sample I’m trying to match is correspondingly bluer than the unbaked Kato I mix up next time.

Anyway, once I have my baked Kato sample, I compare it to the original baked Premo sample in my workshop, which has halogen lighting. This is only one of the lighting conditions I check, but it’s most convenient for me so it goes first. If the baked Kato sample is noticeably different to the baked Premo sample (lighter or darker, more or less saturated, a warmer or colder colour, etc.) I’ll make appropriate adjustments for the next Kato recipe iteration, bake a sample, and repeat the comparison process.

When I have a baked Kato sample that’s very close to the baked Premo sample under halogen lighting, I check the two samples side-by-side under fluorescent lighting (“warm” fluorescents) and in daylight (direct and indirect). The pigments used in Kato and Premo respond differently to various lighting conditions. For example, with purple-blue colours, a perfect Kato match under halogen lighting will look too purple in daylight, and a perfect daylight match will look too blue under halogens. Greens, however, generally look pretty similar between the two brands both under halogens and in daylight.

So the next step is to try to adjust the recipe so that the Kato and Premo samples are as close as possible under all lighting conditions. This generally means moving very slightly away from a perfect halogen-lighting match to make the others close too, and this is actually the most time-consuming part. I can generally get a perfect match under halogen lighting on my first or at most second attempt, but it usually takes AT LEAST three further rounds of recipe tuning to get one that I’m happy with under ALL the lighting conditions I can test. Basically, I juggle the proportions, increase or decrease the saturation a bit, or add really small amounts of colours other colours, to reduce the apparent differences.

A few other thoughts off the top of my head…

I convert several colours at once, e.g. a whole palette, rather than individual recipes. With the turnaround time between curing recipe iterations and so on, this seems to make most efficient use of my time. Also, it means that I can judge the colour balance of all of the recipes in the converted palette against each other, just in case compromises are necessary due to different lighting conditions as described previously.

Cured Kato is naturally shiny on top, while cured Premo is naturally satin-ish on top. Comparing these two finishes directly can be misleading (the shiny one will look darker even if it’s really the same colour), so sometimes I compare the undersides of the cured samples (they’ll both be shiny where they’ve been pressed firmly against the tiles they were baked on), sometimes I scuff the Kato up a bit or rub it to give it a satin-ish finish like the Premo, and very occasionally I’ll sand and buff both and then compare them in their “finished” state.

Kato white is noticeably whiter than Premo white. When converting pale Premo recipes that contain a large proportion of Premo white, you need to add a small amount of extra Kato brown, yellow, or similar to get a proper match.

Kato black is MUCH stronger than Premo black. For example, take Cindy’s colour “Rain” consisting of 2 parts Premo white to 1 part Premo black. The Kato equivalent is approximately 8 parts Kato white to 1 part Kato black (if you’re being picky you’d need a tiny bit of brown or yellow too).

Kato black also increases in apparent strength when it’s cured. If the recipe has a lot of black, the cured version will be darker than the uncured. And if it only requires a small amount of black, err on the side of using less than you think you need.

Kato pearl, silver and gold seem to have relatively more mica than their Premo equivalents, so you can add more “ordinary” clay and still get nice mica effects. Which is just as well because you generally need to if you’re tring to match strong saturated metallic or pearlescent Premo colours made with either the coloured Premo pearl clays or dark Premo colours like Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue without resorting to Kato concentrates.

That’ll do for now. If you have any questions, just ask! :)

@Sue F: Wow! I’ve said “thank you”, every time you’ve made a palette. And I’ve meant it. However, I never realized just how much work you’ve been putting into these. Amazing! That’s truly awesome what you’re doing, I’ll bet all of the Kato users are even more appreciative of your palette-conversion efforts now! As a potential Kato user (waiting for it to get here,) I thank you again!

@Penny:

I don’t think it’s JUST the age of the clay. The oldest Kato I have large amounts of on hand was bought two years ago, and the colours/batches that were well-behaved to start with still are, although they’re probably a bit firmer than they were when they were brand new. They haven’t gone crumbly though, despite the fact that the very crumbliest Kato I have is also two years old (it’s Pearl, and it was crumbly when it was new). The very oldest Kato I have was bought more than three years ago, and it’s not crumbly at all (although it’s only one colour, Brown, and therefore not an adequate sample). And the newest Kato I have on hand was bought four and a half months ago, and some of it is harder and more prone to crumbling than most of the two-year-old Kato.

So I don’t know! LOL
But even the crumbliest stuff conditions up nicely — eventually! — to a lovely pliable but firm texture, so it doesn’t really matter to me in practice even though it would be interesting to have the mystery solved.

And thanks for passing on the info you received from Van Aken. I don’t like the sound of “slightly softer for conditioning purposes” at all, but I’ll give it a go when I next need to order clay.

@Cara, Phaedrakat: You’re welcome. It’s not really all THAT much work… although it would be nice if Kato and Premo responded the same way to different lighting conditions! LOL

@Cindy: Thanks! :) I thought the info might be useful generally, as much of it would apply regardless of what brands you were converting between, or even when trying to match some other kind of colour exactly.

One further tip that slipped my mind when I was writing the long post above…

For very light, very dark or very desaturated colours where it can be hard to judge how closely you’ve matched the base colour, AND where you are able to prepare unbaked clay according to the original recipe as well as working on the conversion, a good approach is to make up a version of the original recipe WITHOUT the white or black (i.e. the original recipe’s base colour), then match that base colour in your target clay, then add the white and/or black back in on both sides after you’re happy with how the base colour matches. You might need to make minor adjustments, for instance for the whites being different between brands, but it’s a lot easier than trying to match the very dark, very light or very desaturated version up front.

@Sue F: I love the tip about removing the black/white and matching base color. I can see how that would be a huge help. I hadn’t thought about that part of it either — comparing the really light/dark colors would be so hard without your tip!

This is a fantastic thread, my head hurts from trying to digest all the information presented here. Thank you all so much for being sharers.

Do all conditioning in a food processor, just pick them up at the local recycling place. Try to have two of the same so can just change baskets, and all have metal blades.

By far, the fastest and easiest way to get small amounts conditioned is the Black and Decker coffee grinder. Lots of power for Kato and already dried bits, and a handy dandy plastic cap lets you empty and check frequently. Just have to remember to clean the small plastic cap with alcohol, not too much residue sticks to the blades or the metal compartment.

I have 3 (all free) which I separate for transparent/white, reds, and rest, just like with the pasta machines.

Very thanks for this info