Tag: polymer clay color inspirations

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Color Consciousness…

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For the past several months Carol Simmons has been posting a series of well thought out and detailed articles on her blog in response to the  discontinuation of two essential  primaries -Cobalt Blue and Zinc Yellow –  in Premo by Polyform Products. For those of us that mix our own colors and teach about color using polymer clay….Denim blue and Sunshine yellow are NOT  acceptable substitutes.

Carol has annotated Maggie Maggio’s color triangle color chart on her site to help illustrate the loss of Zinc yellow and Cobalt Blue.

Note: For the time being the remaining stock of those two colors is available from Polymer Clay Express.

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Exploring the Rainbow…

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If you’ve read our book – Polymer Clay Color Inspirations and were intrigued by the color collage process as a way to determine a set of custom mixed primaries to use in your work, then you might be interested in this two day workshop November 5th and 6th, 2011 = “Exploring the Rainbow” at Woman Creative in Buford, Georgia (near Atlanta). A more complete workshop description may be found here along with the supply list. Registration details are here.

I will be having a trunk show at the gallery Friday evening November 4th. There is a fabulous retrospective exhibit of polymer spanning twenty five years with work from ninety six artists.

Hope to see you there! or here...

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Not so Colorful Changes…

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Life is always full of surprises and challenges…Earlier this fall I received the news that Polyform Products was planning on making changes to their Premo! polymer clay color line. While I imagined that it might be possible that a few of the colors that I currently use might be discontinued- perhaps the fluorescent yellow wasn’t a huge seller?- I wasn’t prepared for the extremely upsetting news  that they are  planning to stop making two very essential primary colors = Cobalt Blue and Zinc Yellow!

“The following colors are discontinued: Red Pearl, Green Pearl, Cobalt Blue, Sea Green, Copper, Zinc Yellow, Frost, Fluorescent Green, Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Red and Glow-In-The-Dark – We’ll have recipes for most on our website.”

It will be interesting to see their recipes for mixing zinc yellow and cobalt blue.

  • You can follow the discussion about this announcement on Polyform’s Facebook page here.
  • Carol Simmons has posted “before and after” pictures here
  • Cindy Leitz has started a virtual online petition here
  • Crafty Goat has posted some of her reactions on her blog
  • Amy Crawley has posted here on Moon Room Musings
  • Crafts by Chris has joined into the discussion
  • more here at Tonja’s Treasures
  • there is an ongoing discussion on Polymer Clay Central here
  • here is the contact email for Polyform Products- info@polyformproducts.com

I’m off to take a long warm bubble bath in honor of my personal promise to myself NOT to write blog posts, respond to email and/or answer the phone when…

In the meantime, please enjoy this picture of  Carol Simmon’s pendants- you might have guessed it! =  colors mixed with Zinc Yellow and Cobalt blue .

Continue reading “Not so Colorful Changes…” →

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Colorful Pivot Beads…

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I have many fond memories of the beginning years of the National Polymer Clay Guild. We would gather around dining room tables to hold our board meetings- which very often wouldn’t start on time because many of us had eagerly brought show and tell items to share. Sometimes these were new tools, but most often the were pieces of work made by ourselves and others. We were thrilled to see Lynn Swards early photo transfer pieces, Pat Berlin’s rolled rug beads and Kathleen Amt’s complex cane collage beads.

I would venture that none us imagined that twenty years later we would be able to view and share pictures of the work of others via Flickr, blogs and web sites!

In chapter three of our book- Polymer Clay Color Inspirations– Maggie Maggio designed the lovely pivot bead necklace as the chapter’s project. I was the lucky recipient of her purple version of the Pivot Bead necklace.

Recently, I spotted these two adaptations of the project on the web. Above is a glass and pivot bead bracelet by Svenja and below is a set of necklaces made by Janette Waters.

Pivot beads Inspired by Maggie Maggio
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Colorful Rhubarb Red…

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I’ve been reading about the new red celery with fascination – (not really red to me, more like the “red” of red onions) …somewhat surprised to have landed on a site that explains “value added produce” (while following the  link trail) which is  something apparently that I buy often .

I am dreaming of rhubarb as I embark on making a new series of folded petal necklaces.

Colorscape- an Around the World Guide to Color by Naomi Kuno and the Color Intelligence Institute calls this red “Starfish”

  • Tropical
  • Floral
  • Gaudy
  • Charming
  • Alluring

CO/M98/Y75/K0

I drew color inspiration from food stylist Linda Lundgren’s food arranged by color series.

To mix my variation of this color I used one part Premo Cadmium red and one part Premo Fluorescent Pink. The resulting red is vibrant and makes for an edible looking cane which I look forward to fashioning into part of my new series of necklaces.

Next time you set out to mix a vibrant color in polymer clay  consider using either a fluorescent yellow or pink to pump-up your mixes.

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Colorful Teaching…

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I love teaching– especially polymer clay workshops that allow the students  to come to a new understanding of color = how relax into approaching color with intuition; mix new colors, design palettes and learn new strategies for combining colors successfully. Above  is a picture of me teaching this past summer at  Polymer Play Days (sponsored by Helen Cox) In Nottingham, England.

It is especially wonderful to see a student take inspiration from a class to make  a wonderful personalized variation on a technique via a finished piece.Here is a necklace from Ghost Shift/Sue Corrie.

After teaching Textile Inspirations in Albequeque last month, Janet Paul sent me a picture of a delightful sampler necklace she made.

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Color Inspirations…

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Jack Brenfoerder is a Design Director at Landor Associates who specializes in color strategy, trends and forecasting. In a recent blog post he discussed creating your own color inspiration book.

“Think of using colors like spices and the final color combination as the delicious dish. Using this principle, I have created a simple way that anyone can generate color combinations and palettes that are more natural, intuitive, and emotionally based. Rather than just starting with individual colors that you like and using your own color sense to create a final color combination, how about collecting color recipes in advance to create your own color cook book?”

What I found most interesting was his description of taking three color inspirations (in the illustration he used three photographs) – two that “contrast” and one that “harmonizes” and identifying the most important bridge colors between the images and the accent (spice) colors.

Forty of his favorite color inspirations (along with a swatch notation to the color combination) are available for you to download.