I finally received my other shipment of supplies for adding your own beads to. I am expecting more in the near future. I now have more Mechanical Pencils, Twist Pens and Stylus Pen Combos in a wide range of colors.
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| Mechanical Pencils -- Stylus Pen Combo -- Twist Pens |
When Pantone posts the Fashion colors for Spring/Summer or Fall/Winter, they also include a few more colors they refer to as neutrals. These are your basic colors that combine well with any of the colors for that season.
There were five for this fall, but I decided to just mix up 3 of my favorites, Candied Ginger, Toffee and Poseidon. The color Egret is basically a cream with a very slight tinge of yellow which can be achieved by adding a very small amount of the #2-8 Ecru* to White or #1-2 White Mix*. Underworld is a basic grey or silver such as the clay recipe #1-15 Pewter*.
So here are the clay recipes for three of the neutral colors:
So I thought I would have all my color recipes worked out for the remainder Pantone Fall 2026 Fashion colors before now, but I kind of ran into a snag. Have you ever made something in that perfect color to discover it had shifted and changed after it was baked? Well that is the reason I like to mix up my clay recipes and bake beforehand to test, before actually using them in my final art work. Those kind of surprises can be very upsetting after you have put a lot of time and work into that project.
So after baking my Pantone color samples, I discovered that several did not come out the same afterwards. I have always had issues with the Kato Red, Magenta and Violet darkening somewhat after baking. I remember a discussion about this on a forum a few years ago where we were discussing this issue with Donna Kato. Now I am wondering if something changed in the actual clay producing process over the years.
I had found the magenta color would darken quite a bit after baking. I was allowing this factor in when mixing up the colors Foxglove and Festival Fuchsia. The colors shifted a bit but mainly came out much lighter. You can see the difference in the photo below. The color sample on the left I made at least 12 years ago. The color sample on the right was from 2 days ago. Would you agree that the difference is quite extreme?
The only difference I can think of is that I had opened a new block noticed how fresh it was and how it was extremely soft -- and that is after having it in my stash for at least 4 years. After baking, I was completely surprised that the color did not darken at all. So I am wondering how it will affect other colors I had mixed using the magenta. I will have to test a few of my recipes out and get back to you later on my results.
So, now that I discovered this difference, I had to go back to the drawing board and remix my Foxglove and Festival Fuchsia. I am happy to say they came out perfect this time and now have the recipes to share with you.
There are 5 more Pantone Fashion colors for this fall which are referred to as the seasonal neutrals. I mixed up 3 of those neutrals and will share those recipes with you tomorrow. I hope you find these colors can provide you with a little inspiration.
Mixing up the fall Pantone fashion colors for this year wasn't on my agenda, however, as I was looking for some color inspiration, I eventually found myself looking up the new color palette and decided it was worth more exploration. Before I knew it, I found myself mixing up these new colors so I thought I may as well share the recipes with you!
I am very disappointed that Van Aken decided to quit making the Kato clay, however, I am also not surprised. While I loved the Kato clay color palate, which was based on the true artist colors, I know a lot of people found it to be a real challenge to work with due to it's "hardness". In fact, I believe even Donna Kato (the originator of such clay) herself, explained how she would even resort to driving over it with her car several times in order to make it a bit more pliable. I never did try that trick but did have to pull out my rubber mallet on several occasions to play "Whack-a-mole" with my clay. Anyhow, I am not too sure about the new clay that Van Aken is now producing. It is far from the true artist colors and seems to be more of a child's craft supply instead. According to their announcement, the owner was retiring and passing his company down to his daughter who apparently made the changes.
So, what type of clay am I working with now? Well that is a good question! At the moment it all depends on the art I am creating. For many of my items that I create in the jewel-tone colors (with mica powders) I use a black clay for my base so I use whatever high quality clay I can find at the most affordable price.
For my Pantone color recipes, I still use the Kato clay, at least for now as I still have quite a large supply on hand. I was in the process of switching to the Cernit brand, but things changed when Shades of Clay decided to discontinue selling polymer clay in her online store (she still sells some of her specialty items such as her Cabezel jewelry molds which are worth checking out). Below are the Bezels I made with a snap base for interchanging, ready to add the Cabochon later. You can find the free tutorial here.
