Modified Rainbow Skinner Blend Tutorial – No Measuring Required

The Lietz Teardrop Method – A Super Simple Way To Do Multiple Color Gradients:

A rainbow skinner blend is where you have multiple colors that transition smoothly from one to the next in your finished gradient sheet of polymer clay. To do this technique successfully, you must have at least have some knowledge of geometry and an understanding of angles.

Now if you are like most polymer clayers, I’m guessing your eyes glossed over a bit when you saw your first written tutorial on how to create a rainbow skinner blend. Measuring templates. Cutting them out. Drawing A>a diagonals so that they intersect in the right place with the B>b diagonals to get the right offset. Continuing on to connect the dots for C>c and D>d diagonals, depending on how many colors you are being blended. Oh my!

You wouldn’t believe how many comments I’ve read from frustrated beginners saying something to the effect of, “Huh…!??!”

Of course you eventually get it. But I’ve always felt there must be a better way.

And now there is! It’s called the Teardrop Method for making color gradients. I just introduced the concept a few days ago, and so far the comments have been very positive. In fact, some are even saying it should be called the Lietz Blend.

Here are links to the first two articles if you have not read them yet:

• Tear Drop Method | The Quickest Skinner Blend You’ll Ever Make
• Skinner Blend – Modified Teardrop Method Faster and Just As Good

This Lietz Teardrop Method is great for speeding up the process of making 2 color blends. But it’s especially great for creating rainbow blends involving multiple colors. Super fast; MUCH simpler to understand; And it does not require you to remember any geometry from high school :-)

With my teardrop technique the need for templates has been completely eliminated. In fact, there is no need to measure at all. You simply grab hunks of clay in the colors you want, roll them into teardrop, push them together and blend with your pasta machine!

If you want to control the amount of a color, say in the case of blending a weak color with a strong color, simply grab a bigger hunk of the weak color and a smaller hunk of the strong color. It’s as simple as that!

Now I’m not sure whether this new technique will revolutionize the way you do your blends or not, but it sure has for me.

Instead of taking ten or more minutes to do a multi-colored rainbow skinner blend, you can do one in just a minute or two. So that leaves more time to get to the fun stuff like making new polymer clay beads and canes!

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Links to some of my original Lietz Teardrop Blend articles and Free Videos poster here at the Polymer Clay Tutor blog:

Article 1 (February 17, 2009):
Tear Drop Method | The Quickest Skinner Blend You’ll Ever Make
Get Smooth Polymer Clay Color Gradients 10 Times Faster. A preview video is posted at this article page.

Article 2 (February 19, 2009):
Skinner Blend – Modified Teardrop Method Faster and Just As Good
The Skinner Blend Challenge: Will I Ever Go Back To Doing Polymer Clay Color Gradients The Old Way?

Article 3 (February 21, 2009):
Modified Rainbow Skinner Blend Tutorial – No Measuring Required
The Lietz Teardrop Method – A Super Simple Way To Do Multiple Color Gradients.

Article 4 (February 24, 2009):
Lietz Teardrop Method | Polymer Clay Color Blends
Limited Access So Please Watch The Video As Soon As Possible. Thanks.

Article 5 (February 27, 2009):
Beautiful Polymer Clay Canes Begin With Beautiful Color Blends
A Couple of Options for Blending Polymer Clay Colors to Use In Your Canes and Skinner Plugs.

Article 6 (March 2, 2009):
Are Your Skinner Blends Getting Too Wide For Your Pasta Machine?
The Rolling Technique In My Teardrop Method Will Help You to Solve This Problem.

Article 7 (March 5, 2009):
Vertical Pass of the Teardrop Blend Through Your Pasta Machine
Monica Stockton Asked A Great Question About Whether This Will Affect The Color Blend.

Article 8 (October 10, 2013):
Are Your Skinner Blends or Teardrop Blends Getting Too Wide?
Free Video #435: How to fix wide color blends… and then keep them at a manageable width!

Article 9 (November 4, 2013):
Stepped Graduated Color Blend – How Color Gradients Began
Free Video #355: This is how blended color sheets were done even before the Judith Skinner came along.

Article 10 (November 4, 2013):
How To Do A Traditional Polymer Clay Skinner Blend
Free Video #356: Combining triangles geometrically so that your colors blend into smooth gradients.

Article 11 (November 11, 2013):
Lietz Teardrop Blend – Color Gradients Made Easy
Free Video #452: Making smooth color blends without having to measure & cut out tedious triangle shapes.

Article 12 (December 16, 2013):
How To Make Long Skinner Blends or Teardrop Blends
Free Video #464: A viewer asks how to change her wide Skinner Blend sheet into a long narrow strip.

Article 13 (January 16, 2014):
Square Polymer Clay Rainbow Cane Skinner Blend Plug
Free Video #475: You will use this type of cane a lot in more complex caning projects.

Article 14 (February 20, 2014):
Teardrop Blend (Easy Skinner Blend) No Pasta Machine
Free Video #487: It takes a bit longer if you only have an acrylic roller, but the end result is the same.

Article 15 (April 7, 2014):
Making Small Test Blends With Your Polymer Clay Colors
Free Video #500: Really getting to know your polymer colors so that you can see how some shades can bully the other ones.

Article 16 (May 5, 2014):
Rainbow Teardrop Blend (Multicolored Skinner Blend)
Free Rainbow Teardrop BlendVideo #518: For those of you who need a bit more help going from a simple two color blend to a multi-color rainbow blend.

Article 17 (May 22, 2014):
Teardrop Blend Shift – Colorway Gradient Variations
Free Video #522: A simple trick for changing the look of your Teardrop or Skinner Blends without having to start all over again from scratch.