Pantone Color of the Year - Ultra Violet

I have noticed over the many years I have been mixing up the Pantone seasonal colors, that purple has not been very prominent and especially for the spring time.  In fact the last time a shade of purple was included with the spring colors was 2014 and even then, that shade, (Radiant Orchid), was leaning more towards a magenta than actual violet or purple.

Well not only is a purple in this Pantone Spring palette, it has also been declared as the color of the year!  I imagine all the purple lovers are dancing with joy over this.  I am okay with it but not overjoyed as it is a color that I cannot wear.  But by combining it with other colors like Lime Punch, Arcadia or Spring Crocus, I might actually be able to pull it off!

So I created some pieces using the Mokume Gane technique using just three of the Pantone Spring 2018 colors, Ultra Violet, Spring Crocus and Almost Mauve.  The three colors worked well together and created enough light and dark balance to make the pattern pop.

Scarf Necklace

Snap buttons for interchangeable jewelry

Whenever I play with this technique, each side of the compressed clay sheet is in two different colors -- I like to texture both sides to see which one I prefer.

In this combo, I like both sides and the two scarf necklaces below show the different results.

Just a few notes about these clay recipes.  If you have my Clay Color System, then you already have the Spring Crocus recipe.  The Ultra Violet is pretty much pure Kato Violet with a bit of pearl added.  And the Almost Mauve is white with a slight mauve tint which is obtained by adding a tiny amount of the Ultra Violet mix.  So here are the recipes for these three colors using Kato clay:

Ultra Violet

4 parts Kato Violet

1 part Kato Pearl

Spring Crocus

Same as the clay recipe

Fruit Punch # 11-2 *

Almost Mauve

8 parts White Mix 1-2 *

1/8 part Ultra Violet (above recipe)

* Note:  These clay color recipes are created using Kato Polyclay.  Any of the base color "mixes" used are from my Clay Color System.