Color Wheel Buttons

I have been experimenting with various forms of the mica shift technique which is also referred to as "ghost imaging".  When you impress or stamp polymer clay that contains a large amount of metallic (or pearl) particles, it leaves that image behind.  After baking, the piece is then sanded smooth to bring out the image even more.

Here are the new "Color Wheel" buttons we have created using a mica shift based on a stacked clay technique by Dan Cormier and Tracy Holmes called "Holes and Lines".  Their special peeler works beautifully and is fun to use. Now with their new wider  peeler, we are able to make even larger (2 inch) buttons which are a popular item at the quilt and yarn shops that sell our work.

We make the buttons in several sizes (1-3/8", 1-5/8" and 2") in a round concave shape as well as a smaller "football" shape.

Kato clay has several metallic colors that can be used for this technique which are the pearl, gold, silver and copper.  I have been experimenting with some new recipes to create a range of brighter mica shift colors. As some of these brighter colors are difficult to mix up with using only Kato clay, I've had to combine it with other products (other clay / inks, etc.) in order to get the shades I wanted as in the buttons shown here:

And zipper charms in some of the matching colors as well: