Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Glacier Gray

The color Glacier Gray is as Pantone describes, "an unobtrusive gray that contrasts and enhances, bouncing off other shades without taking away from them as it slips into the background to allow other colors to take center stage."  While this color is meant to be considered more neutral, it is considered as more dominant in the Men's palette.

Pantone says it combines well with Marsala and Aquamarine.  I started with combining it with the Marsala and added a thin sheet of Charcoal (recipe #1-9 in my Clay Color System).

I ran out of time to make anything with these but will show you later how they turn out when we do.  I also decided to combine the Glacier Gray with the Pantone color, Custard.  I added a thin sheet of the same Charcoal (recipe #1-9) to this mixture as well and really like the effect.  Here are a few items made with this combination:  A scarf bail and beads for a scarf necklace, some buttons and earring beads.

Scarf jewelry bail and beads

buttons

earring beads

So if you have my "Clay Color System" tutorial, you already have the recipe for this color:

Glacier Gray

Same color as "Silver Cloud" # 1-16 *

* This clay color is found in my

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download

in our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail from

our online store.  

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Custard and New Extruder Dies

The Pantone Spring color Custard is soft shade of yellow that is, as Pantone describes, "sweet and sunny".  Pantone says this color pairs well with Classic Blue.  I have found that it compliments most of the colors in the spring palette.  We made some heart canes using our new extruder dies from Lucy Clay Tools.  We made a sort of Klimt or retro cane for the heart using the Custard combined with the Strawberry Ice, Tangerine and thinner slices of Marsala.  We then did the outside frame for the heart in Custard and some in Tangerine.  Below are some buttons we made from the cane slices.

You can see a demo for the heart shape extruder dies on a YouTube video here.  It isn't in english, but is easy to follow from the demo.  Since our new Extruder (CZextruder) and dies arrived we have been wanting to play with some of the unique patterns.  There are some interesting shapes worth experimenting with and these also fit other clay extruders such as the Makins or Walnut Hallow.

One thing that didn't impress us at first was how the dies were packaged.  We thought they were pretty cool coming in a CD case and all, however every die had to be removed from the metal frame.  This is done by "twisting" each die around until it literally breaks away (see pic 1).  So now we had these metal burrs on each side of the die (see pic 2) to deal with.  One person on the web said to just file them off.  After attempting one piece I decided it was a job for my claymate hubby to do!  He managed to work on the first set and then said he would finish the others later.  We decided there must be a better way so I asked Diane of Van Island Jewels, to see if she had any suggestions and she shared with us what she did.  I thought it was nuts when she first told me but we decided it was worth a try.  Well lo and behold!  Her tip worked like a charm and was so easy, we could hardly believe it!

In pictures 3 & 4 you will see what tool we used.  That's right!  Nail clippers!  We looked around the house and found a pair that we decided was worth sacrificing for the task.  The burrs were easily removed by grabbing it between the nail clippers as shown in picture 3.  Clamping down hard with the clippers, twist the burr off and nip the piece off in almost one movement.  You can see the before (#2) and after (#4) pictures below. 

This was such a great tip, we wanted to share it with you.  If you would like to buy some of these really cool dies or other Lucy Clay tools, they are for sale in Diane's Etsy shop, Van Island Jewels, here.

So here is the clay recipe for the color Custard using Kato clay:

Custard

2 parts Kato Yellow

1/2 part Ecru # 2-7 *

4 x White Mix # 1-2 *

* These clay base colors are found in my

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download in

our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail from

our online store.

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Tangerine

Pantone describes this Tangerine color as "a juicy orange shade that is energizing, yet not jarring to the eye.  This Tangerine is striking enough to stand on its own yet can also add vitality to a printed pattern."

Pantone suggests pairing this color with Toasted Almond or Strawberry Ice.  Once I mix up the clay recipes for the season's colors, I like to experiment with different combinations.  I first like to challenge myself by using only colors from the palette.  Afterwards I will bring in other colors to add more contrast and mix it up a bit.

I played around with a combination of the Tangerine and Strawberry Ice using the patterned clay technique by Julie Picarello.  I added some of the color Marsala and plain pearl clay to give it some contrast.  These are some slices from the patterned clay stack and then two buttons using the Tangerine as a background.  The buttons shown haven't been baked yet but we were working on other projects today and ran out of time.

So here is the clay recipe for the Pantone color Tangerine using Kato clay:

Tangerine

10 parts Kato Yellow

1/2 part Kato Orange

1/2 part Kato Magenta

1 part Kato Pearl

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Strawberry Ice

I really love this shade of pink as well as the name.  Pantone describes it as "a cool and refreshing delicacy ... a confection color that evokes a feeling of being 'in the pink', emitting a flattering and healthy glow.

Pantone suggests pairing this delicious color with Toasted Almond or Tangerine.  Tangerine is the color recipe I will share with you tomorrow so we will see how that combination turns out.  This pink is a bit on the coral side and looks scrumptious on it's own.  When I was doing a google search on this color, I came across this stone which I pinned to my pinterest board.  I couldn't help but think of experimenting with my Fabulous Faux Turquoise technique and using the Strawberry Ice as the base color.  Here are the results from my efforts:

These earring beads are double-sided (see my earlier post here) with the one side in the Strawberry ice and the opposite sides shown below in the green turquoise and the Pantone Fall color, Aurora red.

So here is the recipe for the Pantone color Strawberry Ice using Kato clay:

Strawberry Ice

1 part Kato Magenta

1 part Kato Yellow

1 part White Mix # 1-2 *

* This clay base color is found in my

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download

in our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail from

our online store.

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Toasted Almond

With all these cool shades this spring, Pantone has added the color, Toasted Almond to "bring it into balance".  Described by Pantone as a sun-tanned neutral and natural organic shade.  To tell you the truth, I find this color rather uninspiring and didn't have any time to experiment with it yet and will have something later.

Pantone says this color pairs well with the spring color Lavender Herb.  This is actually one of the Pantone Spring colors for mens' fashion.  Four of the colors are the same as in the women's palette.  I will talk more about the men's fashion colors in a later post.

In the meantime, here is the recipe for Toasted Almond using Kato clay:

Toasted Almond

3 parts Ecru #2-7 *

2 parts Brown

4 parts White Mix # 1-2 *

* These clay base colors are found in my

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download

in our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail from

our online store.

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Lucite Green

I am back on track again and ready to share with you the next Pantone Spring color, Lucite Green.  Pantone describes this color as "fresh and clarifying, cool and refreshing, with a minty glow."  While I never have been fond of mint green, I have to admit I really like this one and it seems to fit in quite well with this new spring palette.

Pantone suggests pairing it up with Classic Blue or Scuba Blue so I have done a little experimenting with a mokume gane technique using all three colors.  I really love the results with this combination.

For some reason I found this button difficult to photograph to show off the almost glass-like sheen and pearlescent shimmer.  Some of you might recognize the pattern which is from one of Helen Breil's texture sheets, Conga Line.

I had to create some veneer sheets using Julie Picarello's technique in this color combo as well and really loved the results.

These focal beads were made in the same way as in the post I shared with you yesterday.  I wanted to see what would happen to the textured background when I pressed it into the cabochon mold and I was so amazed to discover it was still intact!  The photo below shows how it came out of the mold before inserting into the clay bezel and then baking.

So here is the recipe for Lucite green using Kato clay:

Lucite Green

1 part Sea Green Base Mix #7-2 *

2 parts Kato Green

8 parts White Mix # 1-2 *

* This clay base color is found in my

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download

in our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail from

our online store.

I hope you are having fun with these clay recipes so far and if you have any experiments with them you would like to share, please do.  You can e-mail them to us or post them on our facebook page.

More tomorrow...

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Classic Blue

I decided to go out of order and skip over to the Pantone color, Classic Blue, for this post.  Classic Blue is similar to a royal blue and, according to Pantone, will serve as an anchor to the Spring/Summer 2015 palette.

Pantone suggests pairing this Blue with Marsala.  We created some patterned sheets of clay using Julie Picarello's technique in the color combination of Classic Blue, Marsala and Aquamarine.  The clay sheets were then formed into focal beads which I will share how they were made at the end of this post.

Here is the clay recipe for Classic Blue using Kato clay:

Classic Blue

8 parts Kato Blue

1/2 part Kato Black

1 part White Mix #1-2 *

* This clay base color is found in my:

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download

in our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail

from our Online Store.

Now I will share with you how I created the above focal beads.  To create the veneer, using the technique from Julie Picarello's book, we used one stack of clay with a thin layer of Marsala and a thicker layer of Aquamarine and the other stack consisting of a thin layer of Classic Blue and a thicker layer of Aquamarine.

The shapes were formed using some cabochon molds called the "Almond Bezels and More" by Penny Jo.  Wendy Orlowski created the Bezel molds to coordinate with these cabochons which we made for the above beads in the Marsala color.  I am very familiar with Wendy's CaBezel Molds and have almost her entire collection.  These Bezel molds work the same way as her other CaBezels and she has several tutorials out on how to use them which you will find here.  This was my first time working with the molds from Penny Jo and was really impressed with how easy they were to use.  The Bezel and Cabochon molds are sold separately or you can purchase them together as a set at Shades of Clay (Sorry they have been discontinued).

Step 1 - To create the cabochon, I pressed some clay into one of the mold shapes.  I could have used scrap clay but in this case I wanted the color to show through the holes in the veneer as a background so I used some of the Classic Blue.

Step 2-3 - With your rigid tissue blade slice off the excess clay using the mold as a guide.

Step 4 - The cabochon easily pops out of the mold leaving a really smooth surface.

Step 5 - Lay the veneer sheet over the cabochon shape.

Step 6 - Flip it over and press it back into the cabochon mold.  I took the veneer sheet that was hanging over the edges and folded them onto the back of the cab which is optional.

Step 7 - Repeat the same method as in steps 2-3 by slicing off the excess clay.

Step 8 - Pop the cabochon out of the mold and it is ready to insert into the clay bezel.

These were so much fun and I really love the results so can't wait to play with this set even more.

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Scuba Blue

The color Scuba Blue is, as Pantone describes, an invigorating turquoise that conveys a sense of playfulness.  This vibrant, yet cool shade, adds a splash of excitement to this new spring palette that offers a feeling of escape to some tropical island.

Pantone suggests pairing this turquoise shade of blue with Classic Blue and Lucite Green.  That was my first thought when I was mixing up the new spring colors and will share with you my results as soon as they are finished.

Scuba Blue

This color is identical to the Teal recipe found in my "Clay Color System" tutorial* but with a slight change:

Follow the recipe for Teal # 8-4 * but replace the pearl with 3 parts of the White Mix #1-2*.  The white mix will give it the lighter tone it needs and brighten it up more.

* These clay colors are found in my

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download

in our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail from

our online store.

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Color Aquamarine

According to Pantone, the color Aquamarine is to be the lead color for women for this upcoming spring season of 2015.  It is described as an "airy blue with a dreamy feel".  Cool and calming, it is a shade with a wet and watery feel.  This restful blue can also act as a stress reducer which I am sure many of us feel we could benefit from.  I'm already thinking I need to surround myself more with this color!

Pantone suggests combining this shade of blue with Glacier Gray and Marsala but I think it would also pair really well with the Classic Blue especially when working with clay techniques such as mokume gane.

Whenever I mix up the latest Pantone colors I like to bake some extra sample tiles to play around with to see different color combinations.

So here is the color recipe using Kato clay:

Aquamarine

1 part Kato Blue

1 part Silver

10 parts White Mix #1-2*

* This clay base color is found in my

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download

in our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail from

our online store.

A Toast to the New Year with the Pantone Color Marsala

Marsala is the Pantone Fashion Color of the Year for 2015.  This rich shade is described by Pantone as a naturally robust and earthy wine red.  Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone Color Institute's executive director,  describes it in a press release as:  "Much like the fortified wine that gives marsala its name, this tasteful hue embodies the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal, while it's grounding red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness."

When I did an image search on this Pantone color there were a lot of photos showing celebrities wearing this dramatic shade of red.   Add this glamorous color to your creations this year and let your star power shine.

So I have two versions of this color recipe using

Kato poly clay.

The full rich shade

and the other a "Sparkling".

Marsala

4 parts "Crimson" # 4-5 *

1 part "White Mix" # 1-2 *

Sparkling Marsala

2 parts "Crimson" # 4-5 *

1 part Kato Pearl

* These clay base colors are found in my

"Clay Color System" tutorial

available as an instant download in

our Etsy Shop

or manually sent in an e-mail from

our online store.

Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion Colors

We are right in the middle of winter and already longing for spring so I have pulled out the Pantone Spring 2015 Fashion colors to mix up some new clay recipes.  I can't think of anything better to start the year than sharing some new clay colors with you.

This year's spring color choices are cooler and softer with subtle warm tones taking a cue from nature.  They follow a minimalistic "En Plein Air" theme.  (French for:  "In the Open Air")

With our year end coming up we have been busy with paper work and have been away from playing with clay for a week now.  I haven't noticed any withdrawl symptoms yet but am starting to get an itch (or is that a twitch?) to dive into it!