Working with color

I finally have control over my clay!!

color recipe  index cards

Well OK, maybe not completely but I’ve at least tamed the color beast!

There has been a lot of talk lately on one of the polymer clay forums about getting our studios organized.  I recently spent over a week  purging my space. There’s nothing like the beginning of the new school year for inspiring so many people to get organized and sorted.

 I was a doll maker before coming to polymer clay full time and even though i know that I will one day get back to using up some of my fabric stash for doll-making, I needed to let go of some things.  Luckily I have a great friend that was willing to take a lot of my stash off my hands( the rest of it went to Good Will).
I now had empty shelves in my workspace so I couldn’t wait to get in  there and play.
But then all of this talk about getting organized had me wanting to get my clay stash in order as well  and I was suddenly reminded   that i indeed had a way to do that.

It was last February when i received a great tutorial from Carolyn Good of 2goodclaymates for doing just that.
I was thrilled when i first read through it but like many other things in my studio, it got buried and I just forgot about it.
I am happy (and proud) to say that this past week end i worked my way through most of the 61 page tutorial. I have almost all of the recipes made up and now I’m a changed woman!  No longer will i just rely on my few favourite colors. There will be a plan! (and a recipe!)

With this tutorial when you mix up a color, you use a round cutter to make a sample for your index cards.(i immediately placed the color in the appropriate spot on my  card so I wouldn’t lose it.  When 2 cards were filled i baked the samples right ON the card.  When cool enough to handle I glued those suckers in place!)

I went one step further and  made myself a larger square sample as well. I wrote the color mix number on the square and placed it on a tile. When my tile got full i baked it. Now when i am trying to come up with a color scheme i can pour them out onto my table and see which colors prefer to play with each other that day!

I still need to do my Custom Color Wheel Charts but for now I’m sooo thrilled with what I have accomplished so far! Baby steps.
It really is a great tutorial. 

To find out all of the details go about Carolyn’s Clay Color System go here.