More on mixing colors

Every three weeks or so, I get the urge to mix more colors and make more of the small clay tiles that I use. Sometimes I have a few specific colors in mind, but other times I pull the clay out and just start to mix things that seem interesting. These are the ones from my latest effort. The copper color in the bottom right corner is what I referred to in my previous post. It turned out pretty good. In my search for a good metallic bright orange, I seem to have made the color of carrots. Again. I think it's the 3-4th time. That's OK. Trial and error is part of the process.

I feel like I'm starting to pay more attention to color. There's a pinner on Pinterest that pins a lot of color pallets from a site called Design Seeds. I seem to repin almost everything she posts, and am not surprised that the blue-purple-green pallets are what I find really attractive. I thought I might refer to these pallets a little more often to come up with color combinations for the jewelry that I make. It seems like learning about color is like almost anything else in that the more you do it, the easier it becomes. 

I think we all have a sense of what we like and what we don't care for (and what we couldn't remotely imagine using. Ever). I intend to build on that and see what happens. I've got a couple of new bracelets that I'm going to take pictures of and will get those posted here that I used the pallets and really like the results.

R & D

The professionals (like in this really good book I got from the library) suggest that doing some work seeing how your colors blend together is worth the time and effort. I like to use Premo. It has a couple of kinds of red, yellow and blue, so I wanted to see how they blended together at known ratios. I worked more or less in fourths. I sheeted some of each of the three primaries, plus a second shade of blue, and cut them into 1/2" squares. Then I blended ratios starting with one square to three squares, two to two, and so on. 

The results were interesting! With the orange at the bottom, I was surprised at how little red it takes to make orange. The blend on the right in the last row is something like 5/4 yellow and 1/16 red. 

It's hard to follow on the picture (I have notes, though, honest!) but the blue-green and blue-purples are using two different blues, and they gave different results. The end of the second row are the cobalt-yellow samples, and the third row is ultramarine blue-yellow. The cobalt made much more pleasing greens, I thought. Same kind of thing for the purples. The top row and the first five of the second row are similar ratios using the two different blues. 

You can see how the possibilities, while not endless, are many and I just scratched the surface of making a record of color combinations. I could also tint them with white and/or black. I use metallic accent clay, too, which changes the color, so that's another set of possibilities.

Now if I can get my act together, and I really should because this can serve as a reference kit, I'll sheet each of these, cut out a circle , etch a number on it that corresponds to my notes, and poke a hole so I can string them on a piece of yarn and keep them nice. 

I mixed colors later to make more small clay tiles and used what I had learned to make a serviceable copper color. Time well spent. 

Some button pictures

I've been fooling around with buttons of late, and here's one process where I took some photos along the way.

I made some blends from blues and greens.

I then cut out two sizes of squares, rearranged the pieces, and ran it through the pasta machine to squish it all together.

I then cut out little rectangles. I'd cut even smaller pieces next time, as these will get flattened more in the final pass through the pasta machine. 

I put pieces on in random order, with tweezers. This took a while, but I like the random, yet orderly effect.

These are pre-baked. 

These are finished. I was still finding the best way to poke holes, and have a better method now. That's good, as the holes on these are a little ragged. 

Checking in

Has it been since November?! I've got lots of stuff to say, and jewelry designs to share. I'll start to post more regularly soon. In the meantime, here are a few links to my pieces on Etsy:

Texture Tile Bracelet
https://www.etsy.com/listing/104128535/stamped-polymer-clay-bracelet-orange-and

Mixed Media Bracelet
https://www.etsy.com/listing/103665909/mixed-media-stamped-polymer-clay

Polymer Clay Buttons
https://www.etsy.com/listing/103792317/polymer-clay-buttons-shimmery-blue-green?ref=v1_other_1

Mixed Media Necklace
https://www.etsy.com/listing/100966773/stamped-polymer-clay-mixed-media