Thursday, September 1, 2022

Pantone Fall 2022 Core Classics

Pantone has added five more colors to their fall/winter palette which they call their "Core Classics".  They are types of neutrals and can be combined with any of the main fall/winter colors.

Pantone Core Classic Colors:
Loden Frost, Autumn Blonde
Arctic Wolf, Polar Night, Chiseled Stone 

Artic Wolf, Polar Night and Chiseled Stone are just your basic colors, white, black and grey, respectively.  Artic Wolf is actually more of an off white.  I have to say that is one of my main dislikes with Kato clay is that their white is not really pure white but more of an off white and wondering if anyone else has noticed this?  Just hold the block of clay next to a white from any other brand of clay and you will see what I mean.  And not only is it not that white to begin with, it is notorious for discoloring even more after baking!  Donna Kato had publicly shared how she bakes her transluscent pieces in a pan of baking soda (completely cover the item) to prevent darkening or discoloring.  I do the same for my whites as well.

I actually bake this way with a lot of my clay beads and larger items for another reason -- to prevent them from actually cracking!  I use to get a lot of pieces with surface cracks until I started baking my pieces this way.  Just a quick note:  I know many have confused baking soda with cornstarch.  I do NOT recommend cornstarch to be used this way.  After baking, the baking soda will wash right off where cornstarch will not and actually get embedded into the clay.  Cornstarch works best only as a mold release when water isn't suitable.

Anyhow, I felt it was futile to mix up more shades of white, black and grey but will share recipes for Loden Frost and Autumn Blonde.  Loden Frost is a very soft and muted shade of green.  For Autumn Blonde, the color "Linen" is a close match which could be used instead.  This color was in the Pantone Spring 2013 palette and you will find the clay recipe here.

Here are the two color recipes using Kato clay:

Loden Frost
2 parts Cilantro #7-3 *
1 part Ecru Base # 2-7 *

Autumn Blonde  (Linen)
14 parts Kato Beige
1 part Ecru Mix # 2-8 *
1 part White Mix # 1-2 *

*Note: These base color mixes are found in my Clay Color System tutorial