A Rho-do inspired polymer clay color palette for making some pretty Spring jewelry:
Today I was inspired to create a new spring color palette by a photo my husband Doug took of the Rhododendrons and Ferns in our garden.
The cool thing about a photo is that all the colors within it naturally go together. It is something about the lighting and the way the camera picks up the colors. Don’t ask me how it works, I’m not that technical. But instinctively I can see it with my eyes. It’s probably one of the reasons I am drawn to color and art.
For a lot of people, color is this weird mysterious, difficult thing to master and color mixing is something very hard for them. If you are one of those people, don’t despair! With continued exposure to color recipes, new palettes, color theory and ideas, you too will begin to develop an eye for color mixing polymer clay.
Based on the photo above I mixed up a batch of polymer clay colors that are fresh, interesting and flow together quite nicely. Adding a little sparkle and transparency to the flowers and ferns, captures the look of the water on the leaves. For the twig color, I got that from the dark shadow behind the flowers and kept that color opaque and matte to contrast the petals and foliage.
Feel free to use this color palette however you choose in your polymer clay beads. If you do use it, send me some pictures. The more variety you can see with a single color palette the more you’ll understand its potential. I’ll make up some canes and beads with this palette and post them sometime if you like.
Spring 2008 Polymer Clay Color Palette
Rhododendrons and Ferns
 The color recipes that were previously posted in this space [Fern Leaf, Rhododendron, Twig and Parchment] have been re-formated onto convenient downloadable index cards like the sample pictured to the left.
The actual size of each recipe card is 4″ x 6″. Two recipe cards are published every single week. The A-Series cards are included with the weekly video membership option at my Polymer Clay Tutor Library (Very Affordable Pricing :) And the B-Series (Bonus Recipes) are available for FREE to everyone who subscribes to my Polymer Clay Tutor Guest List (Weekly Email Newsletter). |
Take a good look at the above rhododendron flower photo again. What other colors do you see? Are there new colors you could add to this palette?
Cindy Lietz’s last blog post..Memorial Jewelry from Polymer Clay Flower Petal Beads
Hi Cindy,
First, let me say that you and your husband must have a gorgeous garden from all of the beautiful flower pictures you show us. What a blessing to have such a place right in your own yard!
Let me give this recipe thing a try…
I was wondering if adding just a touch of yellow to the present rhododendron color recipe that you already made, would be good for yet another color recipe, to put in for the center stamen part of the flower? Just a thought!
Thanks for listening :)
Cindy Erickson
Yes Cindy, now you’re getting it! You would get a bit of a coral color by mixing Fuchsia and Yellow.
If you want the palette to flow together you would want to make sure you are using the Cad. Yellow like in the other recipes. Also Yellow is a weak color so depending on the color you wanted to get you may have to add more Yellow than you may have thought!
Cindy’s last post..Faux Amber Jewellery – Polymer Clay Books – Victoria Hughes
Thank you, Cindy. I think the coral color would look really pretty and add more dimension in this flower:)
I hope that we will get to see some of your canes that you have modeled from your garden flowers! I bet they are gorgeous! Do you have a site where you show what you have made, and do you sell any of your pieces ever? I would love to see :)
Thanks again, Cindy Erickson
I don’t have a site yet where I show everything I made. I plan to set up a Flickr account, but haven’t got to that yet. Until then, I will be trickling out pictures of my different canes and beads into blog posts, so you will get to see them eventually.
I have sold mostly direct and through craft fairs but also plan to get a store up on Etsy. As you can see by the posts I write, the courses I have made and are in the process of making, I am very busy and can not get as much done as I like. In time I’ll get to it… in time.
Cindy’s last post..Bead Making Conspiracy – Polymer Clay Tutor’s Evil Plan Exposed
Cindy,
I already don’t know how in the world you do all that you do!!! I googled your name before I thought to ask if you sold anything online, so that I could see some of your work, and WOW!!! You ARE a busy AND creative lady!!! You truly are a Super Hero…I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!!! I will just patiently wait to see any and everything that you post on your blog…it is all so worth the wait :) :) :) Just be sure to take good care of yourself so that you don’t run yourself ragged!!! We need you here in our polymer clay world to keep saving the day!!!
:) Cindy
PS…or should I say, “to keep saving the clay!”
I am trying to print out all of your recipe cards and I can’t seem to find where the bonus cards are for printing. Please help.
Hi Elle – Every week I provide a couple of links to the bonus recipes cards in my email newsletter. I checked to make sure your email was included on the Guest List… and it is. Are you not receiving the weekly emails Elle? If not definitely let me know so that we can look into that for you.
The rhododendrons colors are very nice! I can see the beads right in front of me :) Thanks for nice flower photos. :) / byZarah.com
You’re very welcome Zarah! When you make those beads, do send pictures!
Hi, just a quick question. I know Cindy gets her colors from nature and makes a pallet accordingly. Can you skinner blend two of the colours in the pallet? has anyone tried this? I ask this, cause I have just bought Sarah Shrivers kalidescope caning dvd, and it took me AGES to work out colours that would blend well like red, yellow to go to orange, then ecru and white. I don’t want to end up with mud! and i don’t want to always use ecru. I know that you can’t blend all three primary’s together, can anyone help me on this?
@Sandra: Color mixing can have its challenges but it sounds like you are on the right track. As far as using the colors from the recipes palettes in Skinner Blends or Teardrop Blends, the answer is yes and no. Since a lot of my recipes are created using colors that go together, many of the palettes will blend nicely without creating mud colors. However, some palettes contain more than two primary colors, so those recipes would create some muds in the blends. (Muds are not always bad though.)
The great thing about the Teardrop Blend is that you can make super tiny sample blends to test the colors and see how they work together. And it is super easy. Just make tiny little teardrops in whatever colors you want and then blend them how I taught you in the Teardrop Blend Shift Tutorial. (Linked by my name.) You can always shift the colors as well, like I do in the video with whatever color you choose and it doesn’t have to be Ecru.
If you would like to learn more about color mixing, use the search box at the top of the page. There are tons of articles and tutorials on the the subject. Have fun and if you need any more help, just ask!
thanks Cindy